Duck Season

A few weeks ago I got myself worked up into a real fine bluster. An editorial in my school newspaper looked to denounce a state legislative initiative to reform the way student fees are collected as a denial of students' rights. The argument set me off because it is the epitome of every awful thing I see in politics today, and I just had to pen rebuttal. You can read it here.

A week removed from the whole debate I'm rereading my own words and grimacing at just how cornball I can be sometimes. I doubt I've done the cause of opt-in student fees much good. My words are too heavy handed to arouse much sympathy amongst the student groups benefiting from the (impossible to) opt-out (of) system, while people inclined to agree to reform probably didn't sit through my two paragraphs on legislative history to get to the meat of my critique. I almost regret that this letter actually did get published. Almost.

I've resolved myself to the fact that my brief public ode to J.S. Mill won't earn me the public hoorahs I had imagined, (more so than most people, I can be pretty shameless sometimes.) it has provided an opportunity to grow and learn about the ways I need to shape my political ideas to make them fit in the world. This is a concept that has caused me a great deal of grief lately, and in many ways penning these silly letters to the editor (there are more in the works) vests the page with my grief, even if for a brief while.

UPDATE More politics that really no one cares about: There's an article in this weeks MASS MEDIA about the current status of a student government resolution to endorse HB 2400. The resolution of support, endorsed by the Senate President, has been sent back to committee. I know both senators quoted in the article, and I have to say i'm surprised by both of their quotes. Jesse Solomon has always struck me as a bright kid, but I always imagined he was more of a populist than myself, while Will Roach has appearantely allowed his always pleasing demeanor to corrupt his otherwise more head-buttish approach to intellectual issues.

I've been to two Student Senate meetings in my life. Maybe I need to attend a third.