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Volume CXVIII, No. XXIII |
December 8, 2005 |
Question what SFCT really brings to campus
One can really sympathize with the College Democrats. Their last e-mail, the one advertising speakers Mike Hatch and Matt Entenza, ended with "we won't bombard your inboxes with countless e-mails about the same event."
Upon reading it, immediately my anti-SFCT flames were stoked, and as soon as I got the umpteenth e-mail notifying me of the same event of a speaker of questionable integrity, I was ready for an all-out opinion page battle.
Thanks to the wise voices of so many of my more-crazy-liberal-than-me friends, I remembered that SFCT is a group with an important role: They encourage diversity in political conversation on our campuses.
Of course, many on that side of the debate would have you believe that they are also saving you from the liberal bias of this university.
For anyone subscribing to that belief, I'd like to direct you to the SJS Co-Funding Board Web site and observe how much money SFCT was given this semester in comparison to other groups.
That is not to say that they don't deserve a hefty sum; indeed, other groups in other semesters have gotten some hefty funds, and the SFCT is bringing a high-profile speaker to campus.
High funds surely may be necessary.
The problem, I fear, is that this speaker will continue a political trend of corrosive discourse on important issues, and I believe that we, as students from whom this club is using money, ought to demand they uphold their mission in bringing speakers to campus.
Anything less than encouraging diversity in debate should not be tolerated.
It's already been at least suggested that the conservative voice is not financially oppressed on this campus.
It must be, then, that the "truth" that this group is so valiantly fighting for must be conservative ideas that are being squelched in the classroom.
Last year, SFCT's high-profile speaker, David Horowitz, made that exact point — that our professors are guilty of brainwashing students into being liberal.
The funny thing is that, if that is the case, and if SFCT is fighting so hard to bring new ideas to campus, then the speakers such as Horowitz ought to tell us something we've never heard before.
He didn't.
Thus, in spite of inflammatory e-mails and, as far as I see it, questionable ethics in their promotion of political discourse, I encourage as many people as possible to attend their event.
Listen to an argument you might disagree with and get uncomfortable — it's good for you.
Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, see if your money is being well-spent.
Is this group really bringing someone to campus who helps the cause of this club that your own (or your parents') dollars are helping fund?
If not, express outrage and demand improvements in discourse.
After all, as Rob Corddry of "The Daily Show" put it, "It's your money, that you earned!"
