MARC CHOQUETTE
Assistant Perspectives Editor
I’m sure the first thing you thought about upon your return to school was the 2006-07 Distinguished Lecture Series brought to you by the Seaver College Board of Visitors, the Seaver Parents Association, and other “special friends” of the college.
That’s right, folks. That shameless plug was essentially done to bring to your attention that John Kerry will be coming to Malibu to speak at Smothers Theatre.
The immediate reaction when coming across the posting on the not-so-rad new Web portal cleverly-named WaveNet, the immediate reaction that comes to mind would be why he would ever be coming to Pepperdine and what he will be talking about. Your guess is as good as mine.
Mind you, I have personally heard from a few sources that the purpose of the talk will be to announce his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election. However, this half-seriousness rumor seems highly unlikely, in that not only is it more than two years before the conventions and even longer until the election, but Kerry announcing his candidacy at Pepperdine would seem, at the least, a bit out of place.
How could a school that is one of the United States’ leading centers of conservative politics allow such a thing? I mean campus conservatives hoping to challenge this choice for distinguished lecturer would have to get George W. Bush himself to top this, and that may be unlikely considering the possibility that after Bush is out of the White House, doing a speech tour would probably not be above clearing brush at the ranch on the list of “stuff to do when retired.”
I hope that the correct answer as to that pesky question of “why” would be that it was done to provide some more political balance on a campus not usually interested in what the other side has to say.
All of this political stirring on campus brings me back to my first-ever semester of the Pepperdine experience, way back in 2004 when Bush and Kerry “bushwhacked” and “swift-boated” it out.
Tensions were high as the two debated on television in the Sandbar, and whenever one strolled dorm road, support was strong for both sides. By both sides I mean roughly 87 percent for one side and the remaining 13 percent for the other side. However, once vandals did their damage, the tally usually bumped up to 90 percent ballpark for side A.
This 3 percent jump can probably be accounted for what occurred in my suite, where “Bush Ruffians”, we’ll call them, eliminated the opposition’s posters, in favor of ones that ranged from “VIVA BUSH!” to “FARMERS FOR BUSH” and a silhouette of a tractor and, perhaps the best, the altered computer desktop background I ran across one afternoon in the Sandbar of George W. himself sitting on the right hand of God, a crudely photoshopped image borrowed from an AP press photographer snapping Bush at a meeting and an artist’s idea of a humanized form of God on canvas. Needless to say, the question of whether Bush and God were really pals was settled right then and there.
Let us steer this ship back to the subject of Kerry. The two outcomes are pictured in my mind as we speak. Outcome A says he’s doomed to receive a hostile welcome outside the theatre complete with protesters and signs; even some heckling inside the theatre cannot be ruled out. The conservative stalwarts could have a field day. Outcome B says our student body is above such behavior and knows when to act civil and in a respectful manner.
Hopefully Outcome B is not as optimistic a scenario as I fear. What kind of day that will be rests on our shoulders and I hope we can put whatever political differences we have aside and at least hear the man out and think about what he has to say.
Is this not democracy after all? Make informed decisions that you agree with or do not agree with and move on from there. Keep in mind that a decision you agree with can often differ with a decision that you have been told to agree with or have not really thought much about to begin with.
Lastly, this will be a very positive thing for the school. Something tells me that people are ready for new ideas and this is a good place to start. For many of the decisions made now and in the next few years will impact you and me for years to come.
8-28-2006