The first week of school is upon us at last. Away go the sunglasses and the beach chair and out come the reading spectacles and the desk chair. Andover (and America) is waking up from a leisurely, lazy summer, getting ready to go back to work. However, the political machines are waking up too. Turn on the TV, and during commercial breaks for football games, you’ll see a mind-numbing number of ads from the American Enterprise Institute and MoveOn.org. That’s right folks, it’s election season. Anyone who knows Andover knows that we love our politics. Liberal or conservative, we love to debate and we sure as heck love to bash the other side. Politics are “happening” in the dining halls of Commons, the Mailroom at GW, even the “silent” Garver Room. You just can’t escape it. I’ll bet that one of our wonderful incoming freshmen (or Juniors in PA speak) probably even has their own blog. Andover’s activists-in-training will probably have spent their summers volunteering for that anti-war candidate or even, in some cases, that anti-immigration candidate. Continuing on this train of thought, however, the next question is how many of these self-proclaimed politicos actually know what they’re talking about? Unfortunately, the number is relatively few, whether you call yourself liberal or conservative. Most Andover students talk the talk, but surprisingly few can walk the walk. Why is that? Look to the 2004 Presidential Election for the answer. The “Rock the Vote” campaign tried to bring out young voters to support John Kerry’s candidacy. Their goal was 55% participation among the age demographic of 18-24. Many laughed out loud, arguing that this was an attempt to purposely lower expectations so that when the percentage would be in the high 90’s, people would say that the campaign was an astounding success. Yet when the results came back on Election Night 2004, the number was a measly 47%, with the demographic making up 9% of all people who had voted. In short, the answer is apathy. That might sound strange, since Andover students still talk about politics. But the sad thing is, when I ask students around me whether they think Washington can actually do something right, or if meaningful political change is possible, the answer always seems to be no. And when you actually start listening to those debates between students around campus, you begin to realize something else: many of them don’t actually know what they’re talking about, instead repeating the latest lines by Michael Moore or Al Franken or Rush Limbaugh. It seems like the divisive partisanship on Capitol Hill has made its way to Andover Hill. Andover students have a tradition of becoming leaders, whether in politics or business, or even math or science. The point is, how can we be good leaders if we don’t know what we’re talking about? How exactly are we going to talk about fixing New Orleans if people continue to believe Kanye West’s quote and use it for their own political agendas? (For those of you who don’t know: “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”) How can we talk about stem cell research if people continue to stick to tenuous ideologies? My point is this: Get involved in politics this fall, and know what you’re talking about. There’ll be voter registration drives and fundraiser and door-to-door campaigning, so if you want opportunities to get involved, they’ll be there. Go to Republican Club, Democrats Club, Andover Economics Society, GSA and Women’s Forum. Join Philo and Model UN. Even write for this page. Find an issue that you’re passionate about on this campus and go with it. If there isn’t a club on campus for an issue you think is important, go ahead and start it up. But please, know what you’re talking about. If you know you are uninformed, go to political clubs and learn. It’s something you can also do by yourself as well. Read The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Know both sides of the issues. Want a more exotic taste? Read The Guardian, Pravda, Haaretz, and even al-Jazeera. Take the time to understand the issues thoroughly; that way, we might actually come to a workable compromise. This advice applies to all PA students, new and returning. It even applies to PA faculty, who should be setting an example for other students, regardless of their own views. However, this advice is mostly directed at ’09, and ’10. The Upperclassmen may pick on you, but you will rule the school someday. You will be setting the example for future classes of PA students. Know your stuff and be active. I’ll see you at Republican Club.
