Richard Dreyfuss on Civic Engagement

I have to admit I'm a big Richard Dreyfuss fan. You know, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws, Mr. Holland's Opus, The Goodbye Girl, American Graffiti... So, when I heard he was coming to speak at my alma mater, Millersville University, I HAD to go! Then I found out what he was going to speak about: civic engagement. Hmmm, I had no idea what that meant, but hey, I want to see Richard Dreyfuss. So I looked it up on wikipedia and decided to go.

He spoke last Thursday night (4/24/08) and our local paper did a nice write-up. I was so far back in the audience I didn't even notice his bandaged head and hand; hope he's okay. I felt a little sheepish sitting there in the audience with my camera, Close Encounters Special Edition DVD and sharpie hoping for a picture and autograph when the focus was to be on civic engagement and the Walker Center and CCERP (Civic and Community Engagements and Research Project.

I was totally blown away by his talk and felt inspired to run out and scream in school hallways to TEACH CIVICS and TEACH IT WELL! You see, I HATED any type of history or civics classes in high school and did not do well in them at all. Looking back, I think the teachers I had just weren't excited about it either. But, man, if Mr. Dreyfuss had been my teacher, I may have gotten into politics (NOT). Anyway, I just wanted to share his initiatives with you and hope I can inspire my daughter to pay more attention to this stuff when she's learning it. Hopefully, I'll learn it too! You
can find a bunch of information about all of this by just doing a Google Search.

No, I didn't get to meet him :-( But using my pathetic little camera I took a poor video of him, but what he says in the clip is great. Turn up your volume and you may be able to hear it too.