In the middle of the twentieth century the United States faced one of its greatest challenges.  America twenty years earlier had thought it had made the “world safe for democracy” and had failed.  In December of 1941 facing entry into World War sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers all were asked “Are you doing all you can?”  Leading the way was a father figure, president for an unprecedented time, Franklin D. Roosevelt.  Roosevelt told America “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely.”  How could they though, he said, without “education?”  Education, Roosevelt preached, was our “safeguard.”  Roosevelt may have seemed an unlikely candidate when he was elected in 1932.  He was paralyzed from the waist down stricken by the Polio epidemic that waged war a hundred years ago in America.  Today another epidemic needs fighting, it is vaping.  Small devices called pens deliver nicotine and THC to children in sometimes deadly doses, and as we are now learning, are linked to lung illness and disease.  So again, it is time to ask sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers “Are you doing all you can?”  Are you doing all you can to stop this epidemic?  And, again, education is our safeguard.  Tonight, when you sit down and talk with your children together at the table or on the phone, talk to them about the dangers of vaping.  Be open to a conversation, answer their questions, and be willing to offer help.  We cannot succeed in fighting this epidemic unless our children are “prepared to choose wisely” and that can only be done with education, and I’ll tack on one more component to Roosevelt’s message – love.  — Christine C. McDonald, Dean of Academics