WHEN I WAS JUST A LITTLE GIRL, I ASKED MY MOTHER, "WHAT WILL I BE?"
"A political pundit," she said.
This is the actual truth.
I mention this early indication of fast-talking prowess because one John Kerry (and one Bon Jovi) will be invading my college campus tomorrow for the purpose of rallying swing state ire and such. Oh, don't worry, my ire has already been mobilized. In the service of said rally, a huge system of scaffolding, bleachers, flood lights, port-a-johns, and Secret Service/CIA agents are swaming outside of the very building from which I write. Tomorrow, I will have to show I.D. in order to enter the library.
Classes have not officially been cancelled because the university is afraid of endorsing the rally, even though the resultant chaos will certainly be great enough to warrant a wholesale shut-down of any official business tomorrow. Instead, the university has left the onus of deciding whether or not to cancel class to individual professors, which makes it difficult for any academic worth his/her salt to remain objective. (But it is worth a note: I understand that a professor would do great disservice to her students if she openly told them which side of a political issue she came down on. If professors use their authority to tell their students how to think, they're really fucking up their given task, which in the humanities, consists of teaching students how, not what, to think. But, in extreme cases such as ours, I still appreciate a professor who will call something elephant shit when it looks, smells, and talks like elephant shit.) I can't help but think that the pressing safety concerns of a visit from El Presidente would immediately call for a cancellation, but maybe I'm being unfair here. After all, who's afraid of the liberals?
I'm sure Condoleeza Rice is not afraid. She's lecturing here the day after Kerry, but it'll be much more difficult to get some facetime with Condi. According to the university's press release, "Attendance at the talk, part of the International Relations Program's lecture series, is by invitation only to students, faculty and staff in the International Relations Program and other related programs in the Tepper and Heinz schools. However, admission to a live simulcast of the talk in the Alumni Concert Hall in the College of Fine Arts is open to members of the university community by reservation only, on a first-come, first-served basis. Reservations must be made at the University Center Information Desk. Seating is limited, so be sure to make your reservations as soon as possible. Reservations are limited to one per valid Carnegie Mellon ID.
Once you've made your reservation, you must also present your Carnegie Mellon ID at a registration table outside the Alumni Concert Hall in order to be admitted to the simulcast. Only those with reservations can be admitted. All those attending should plan to be seated by 10:10 a.m., as the doors will close at that time." Well. It's too bad I don't have any really close friends in the Heinz school.
Here's something that I believe to be true: college students are registering to vote in record numbers. Most polls don't include us, because most polls go on "likely voters" rather than "registered voters," and as of late, we haven't been very fucking likely, have we? Maybe not, but something is different about this election. For many voters in my age range, we will be casting our first presidential vote EVER in a few weeks. We missed the opportunity to vote in the last election by a few days or weeks. Given the eggregious fuck-ups of the current administration, I don't think we're going to be taking the democratic process for granted any time soon.
I'm in no place to make this promise, but I'll make it anyway: America, WE WILL ROCK YOU. You won't even know what so much 18-25 voter turnout looks like. Pittsburgh is a key city in a key state this time around; I've head buzz that Pgh will decide the election. Maybe that's not true, but we are important. When I'm walking around town, I see so many more Kerry lawn signs and bumper stickers than Bush propaganda. True, I live in collegelandia (and in a fairly liberal Jewish neighborhood), but there is something to this. How many people openly supported Gore back in the day? Damn, I see more vintage Dukakis '88 stickers than Gore stickers from four years ago.
I'm getting pretty alarmist about this election. I have a very concrete feeling that if business continues as it has in the last four years, I will die. I don't mean this in any abstract way: I may be drafted, I may die from an unsafe illegal abortion. On the other hand, I don't need to think about whether or not Iraqis are going to die. They already are, and according to a tally published in the New York Times, 208 died this week alone. When people in my classes say that they're "just really divided about who to vote for," I want to scream. What, exactly, about these circumstances is unclear? What part of psychotically dangerous foreign and domestic policy don't you understand?
Stay tuned.
"A political pundit," she said.
This is the actual truth.
I mention this early indication of fast-talking prowess because one John Kerry (and one Bon Jovi) will be invading my college campus tomorrow for the purpose of rallying swing state ire and such. Oh, don't worry, my ire has already been mobilized. In the service of said rally, a huge system of scaffolding, bleachers, flood lights, port-a-johns, and Secret Service/CIA agents are swaming outside of the very building from which I write. Tomorrow, I will have to show I.D. in order to enter the library.
Classes have not officially been cancelled because the university is afraid of endorsing the rally, even though the resultant chaos will certainly be great enough to warrant a wholesale shut-down of any official business tomorrow. Instead, the university has left the onus of deciding whether or not to cancel class to individual professors, which makes it difficult for any academic worth his/her salt to remain objective. (But it is worth a note: I understand that a professor would do great disservice to her students if she openly told them which side of a political issue she came down on. If professors use their authority to tell their students how to think, they're really fucking up their given task, which in the humanities, consists of teaching students how, not what, to think. But, in extreme cases such as ours, I still appreciate a professor who will call something elephant shit when it looks, smells, and talks like elephant shit.) I can't help but think that the pressing safety concerns of a visit from El Presidente would immediately call for a cancellation, but maybe I'm being unfair here. After all, who's afraid of the liberals?
I'm sure Condoleeza Rice is not afraid. She's lecturing here the day after Kerry, but it'll be much more difficult to get some facetime with Condi. According to the university's press release, "Attendance at the talk, part of the International Relations Program's lecture series, is by invitation only to students, faculty and staff in the International Relations Program and other related programs in the Tepper and Heinz schools. However, admission to a live simulcast of the talk in the Alumni Concert Hall in the College of Fine Arts is open to members of the university community by reservation only, on a first-come, first-served basis. Reservations must be made at the University Center Information Desk. Seating is limited, so be sure to make your reservations as soon as possible. Reservations are limited to one per valid Carnegie Mellon ID.
Once you've made your reservation, you must also present your Carnegie Mellon ID at a registration table outside the Alumni Concert Hall in order to be admitted to the simulcast. Only those with reservations can be admitted. All those attending should plan to be seated by 10:10 a.m., as the doors will close at that time." Well. It's too bad I don't have any really close friends in the Heinz school.
Here's something that I believe to be true: college students are registering to vote in record numbers. Most polls don't include us, because most polls go on "likely voters" rather than "registered voters," and as of late, we haven't been very fucking likely, have we? Maybe not, but something is different about this election. For many voters in my age range, we will be casting our first presidential vote EVER in a few weeks. We missed the opportunity to vote in the last election by a few days or weeks. Given the eggregious fuck-ups of the current administration, I don't think we're going to be taking the democratic process for granted any time soon.
I'm in no place to make this promise, but I'll make it anyway: America, WE WILL ROCK YOU. You won't even know what so much 18-25 voter turnout looks like. Pittsburgh is a key city in a key state this time around; I've head buzz that Pgh will decide the election. Maybe that's not true, but we are important. When I'm walking around town, I see so many more Kerry lawn signs and bumper stickers than Bush propaganda. True, I live in collegelandia (and in a fairly liberal Jewish neighborhood), but there is something to this. How many people openly supported Gore back in the day? Damn, I see more vintage Dukakis '88 stickers than Gore stickers from four years ago.
I'm getting pretty alarmist about this election. I have a very concrete feeling that if business continues as it has in the last four years, I will die. I don't mean this in any abstract way: I may be drafted, I may die from an unsafe illegal abortion. On the other hand, I don't need to think about whether or not Iraqis are going to die. They already are, and according to a tally published in the New York Times, 208 died this week alone. When people in my classes say that they're "just really divided about who to vote for," I want to scream. What, exactly, about these circumstances is unclear? What part of psychotically dangerous foreign and domestic policy don't you understand?
Stay tuned.
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