*This is a special series written by various Neihardt Scholars over the next few weeks.

I know what you are thinking. Dr. E is a hopeless romantic, foolishly naïve. True, one of my favorite movies is “Up,” and without fail, I will “Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth” with Pharrell. I still ride my bike like a kid, with the “The Fools Who Dream” melody from “La La Land” sometimes breaking into audible song. But bear with me. This is not about me, nor delusional idealism. With this column, I am introducing a forum for WSC’s Neihardt Scholars to articulate thoughts shaped by studying complex problems of health and dignity. Deep stuff. Impossible to comprehend in a lifetime, much less a five-week seminar. But you know me. I’m kind of a dreamer. And I have met these young scholars.

It is January. 2018. A new year dawns with possibilities. The cynic squints into the future, seeing short, dark, bone-chilling cold days, numbed by never-ending bad news, and despairing of undignified tweets, boasts of nuclear “buttons,” and DACA dreamers fearing immigration authorities. Dreamers are not blind. We see it too.

Conventional wisdom reminds us to remember the past or be doomed to repeat our failures. This January 2018 marks a number of auspicious anniversaries, as if the stars have aligned, daring us to dream again. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. A remarkable life cut tragically short 50 years ago; his legacy of dignity still dares us to dream. Fifty years ago, Tommie Smith and John Carlos took a knee by raising gloved fists on the world stage of the 1968 Olympics, sacrificing their medals, risking their reputations and the safety of their families. Their dignified protest exposed the indignity of racism and dared us to dream of better.

A 2017 “Lancet” series titled “America: Equity and Equality in Health” concluded that while there have been “appreciable improvements in addressing socially determined disparities, deep and notable gaps remain…with respect to health.” Discrimination, marginalization and structural racism are global violations of human dignity, and the health consequences are well documented.

This semester, the President’s Council on Diversity is sponsoring events under the theme “The Art of Civil Discourse” to encourage respectful and dignified dialogue. This summer, Wayne State College and Humanities Nebraska will welcome a weeklong Chautauqua, to live and breathe World War I history woven through stories and personalities addressing how the war affected the home front, impacting race, gender, ethnicity and class. The most devastating pandemic influenza in history occurred in 1918 and may have mercifully cut the war short.

The stars are indeed aligning. Neihardt Scholars will read “The Meaning of Names,” a featured 2018 Chautauqua book by Nebraska author Karen Shoemaker. The novel recounts the discrimination against German-Americans during the war, forcing us to acknowledge how easy it is to throw someone we don’t know or even a former friend under the bus, when a person is suddenly defined by ignorance, bias and fear.

This column is for the dreamers willing to struggle with social inequities that violate human dignity and threaten health. It is dedicated to the Neihardt Scholar authors willing to dream of something better and to pursue their dreams.

So “here’s to the ones who dream, foolish as they may seem.”