This week is not so much a column on an issue as it is a plea to our campus to become more involved and to start conversations campus-wide.
I have had the pleasure of helping put on several political events on our campus. I, along with Pete Martin and Avrielle Suleiman, helped assemble a viewing party for the first presidential debate this past election season. Jeff Delbridge and I also presented the third party debate this fall.
In addition to these efforts, Suleiman, Jamie Clift and Vanessa Lieurance and I aided in lobbying the Richmond Senate on behalf of students. Along with Emily Wilkins, Pete Martin and Delbridge, I helped run both the Political Science Club and Young Americans for Liberty
I, along with many others, have also petitioned Longwood to change their speech codes on campus to be in line with the First Amendment. In each of these situations, everyone involved in planning and arrangement has been met with as- tounding indifference from the student body, a kind of lethargy that we did not expect.
It is easily understood that everyone on campus is busy, classes take up much of our time and it is fortunate for the political science majors that we are able to pursue political matters, but it is strange to me that there is such little interest, even when we were in the midst of an election.
Even, however, when programs, clubs and entire events are presented to the student body, we still find ourselves lacking in participation and interest. There are rare occasions when those few who do participate find themselves enthralled by the issues and fall in love with them, only to never participate or become involved after that passing moment.
Certainly I may be guilty of assuming that just because I do not see participation in the organiza- tions that I attend that there is none, and that may be the case, but when students do not know what the Sandy Hook tragedy was, who the Republican presidential nominee was in the 2012 election or that there are even third parties in America, it seems that there is a shortcoming.
Almost every week the Political Science Club runs a column about an important issue and takes a non-mainstream stance, a stance that many would find controversial. I write most of these columns, and I am a Libertarian, not a popular political stance on campus, yet there is never a rebuttal, hardly even a conversation.
Last semester, our column advocated the legal- ization of drugs and prostitution, condemned the U.S. educational system and the War on Drugs and attacked Net Neutrality, yet despite these stances, no one offered a refutation. I must, therefore, appeal to the student body to
argue back with us, to engage us in public discourse and create a real conversation on our campus. Everyone has opinions, and we want to hear them. We have this space as an open forum for discussion, and we need to use it.
Our political spectrum is narrow enough as it is. We call the Democrats socialists and the Re- publicans fascists, and we never explore anything beyond the two main parties. So here is an open invitation: Come out to Hull on Wed., April 3. Together with the Young Americans for Liberty and Virginia 21, the Political Science Club is hosting a forum.
We will cover the political spectrum from socialism to Republicanism to anarchism. We want the students to come and ask us questions and explore new ideas. We implore everyone to come out, get involved, start dialogues and broaden their horizons. With a little effort, we can cure ourselves of this apathetic attitude that our generation has adopted.
*** This editorial is an opinion stated by the writer and does not represent the views of The Rotunda or Longwood University.
