Students at Goucher love to complain. That's one of the downsides of going to a school that gives you a broad global perspective on things-- everything starts to look like it sucks
I was on my way to class one day last year when a girl stopped me outside of Pearlstone and demanded, "What do YOU think about the genocide in Darfur?!"
What do I think? I'm pretty sure I'm against it -- I usually stand up for the tough, principled position and oppose genocide, critics be damned -- so I signed a petition indicating my displeasure with the wholesale slaughter of 400,000 Sudanese civilians.
Take that, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and the armed Janjaweed militia! We've got a petition.
What I'm getting at here is that while complaining may feel like progress, its somewhat akin to breaking a mirror because you don't like your own reflection. It may make us feel better about the problem, but it does little to solve it.
I am reminded of this Tibetan story about a student who thought he saw a spider dangling in front of him while he sat in meditation. Each day the spider returned, growing larger and larger, until the student went to his teacher to tell him about the dilemma. He said he planned to conceal a knife in his lap during meditation, so when the spider appeared he could kill it. The teacher advised him against this -- instead he suggested that the student bring a piece of chalk to meditation, and when the spider appeared, mark an X on its belly.
The next time the spider appeared, the student resisted the urge to attack it, and instead did just what the master suggested. He went back to the teacher, who told him to lift up his shirt and look at his own belly. And there was the X.
The problems we see in our society that drive us to complaint -- apathy, ignorance, closed minds, selfishness -- they begin in all of us. Before we can address these problems in the real world, it seems prudent to acknowledge them in ourselves, and bring them to light.
Complaining so that we might feel better about problems is part of the same self-interest and laziness that causes the very problems we complain about. Fixing them is what's hard.
I am an idealist, and I believe that the right ideas can save the world. I don't think I'm alone. But the trick is to do the work necessary to get those ideas into the discourse.
My editor wants me to discuss what I'm going "to do" with the opinion section this year, but I don't have the answer. That depends on you. If you have something you want the school to start talking about, send it to us and we'll publish it. That's really where the opinion page is going.
Last year, the editors pushed the opinion page towards an international focus, and I don't know if I agree with that choice. The opinion page in the New York Times gives me a better perspective on international events than we can produce in The Q -- that's why they're paid professionals -- but no one can talk about what is happening at Goucher like the students who go to the school. We should focus on what we do best.
If you really want to raise some eyebrows on campus and get people talking about global events, write an editorial for this page explaining how it affects our lives at Goucher. (Example: It may have been prudent for any number of the Darfur-related action groups on campus to urge students to vote for Sen. Cardin in the last election cycle, who, as our Representative in Maryland's 3rd congressional district in the 109th Congress, was a co-sponsor of H.R. 3127, the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act of 2006.)
I'm looking to elevate the discourse this year on campus with the opinion page, and I'm willing to take the risks necessary to do it.
I'm not afraid to publish minority opinions, even if they're controversial. I'd rather publish informed passion than focus on balance for the sake of having balance. I'd rather seek the truth than concentrate on being politically correct. I'd rather have an honest argument than boring editorials.
If you're interesting in writing, come to our meetings or drop me an e-mail at max@temkin.com or quin@goucher.edu.
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