Derrick Ashong, Harvard graduate, musician, actor and political activist, discussed the importance of activism in bringing positive change to the country at the Distinguished Lecture Series Wednesday. In his presentation, Ashong said to change the country's political and economic situation, everyone needs to be involved in this process, not only politicians.
He said he believes young people can have a large impact on social change and encouraged students to get involved in their community.
""Our generation in particular and those following thereafter need to take a more proactive role and a leadership place in society, move beyond PlayStation."" Ashong said. ""Start exercising power pre-Ph.D., before the Nobel Prize, whether you carry a flag or not, be a leader.""
According to Ashong, if Americans continue living an ""unsustainable lifestyle,"" people will either ""run into a brick wall"" or be forced to change.
""When the poison pill comes to pass, we will all swallow it without a choice and you don't have to worry about the government mandating change, the change will happen in it on itself, it would just be more difficult to deal with,"" he said.
In order to be a leader and provide solutions to the current situation, Ashong said the public needs to engage in a different level of commitment.
""Some of that means that we have to take a little bit of the faith that we put in our leaders and start placing it in ourselves and each other and trying to find out what's really going on,"" he said.
Ashong said it is important to be educated and hold conversations with others, even if they do not share the same views.
""If we could start to teach ourselves as citizens to have better dialogue with one another … we would be in a much better position,"" he said.
UW-Madison junior and DLS committee member Ana Maria Vascan said she felt Ashong's narrative style was inspirational.
""I'm starting to realize how big the world is and how much depends on what story we tell and what story we listen to and so what I think he does a lot of this,"" she said.
