WAG - Life among Liberals
AKA: Knee Deep in Johns...
So...
This has been one of the most liberal semesters I've spent in college. Part of this is by design and part of this I just stumbled into.
Working at the Missourian for countless (if I added it up, I may become seriously depressed) hours a week, one is sure to be exposed to many views. Being more conservative (not Republican. There is a difference. It means I follow issues and philosophies and don't automatically line up behind a certain party) in a world where more people are likely to lean to the left, I know there would be lots of times when I would view things differently than others.
The death of Ronald Reagan was a telling watermark. While there were lots of people across the nation lamenting the loss of the president who helped end the Cold War, not everyone in the newsroom could understand the outpouring. "Isn't this a bit much?" or "Couldn't the coverage have been more realistic [to the life he lived]?" were questions I heard asked. When "Fahrenheit 9/11" came out shortly afterwards, there were similar questions about dedicating our coverage to it, but the debate was much more quiet. Also I never heard any jokes slamming Moore in the way Reagan was joked about
Example:
Editor during a morning budget meeting - "How many people actually remember Reagan being in the White House?"
(Only a few people, including me, raise their hands)
Another editor - "Even Reagan didn't remember being in the White House."
(Collective groan from the newsroom)
While a more leftist view is to be expected in journalism, I was surrounded by more liberal leanings in the two other classes I was taking this summer.
I enjoyed my Introduction to Literary Criticism teacher, and I think I earned a good grade in the class, she definately wasn't a Republican. The course was meant to act as a sampler of different approaches to writing. While she talked of Marxism and Post-Colonialism, you could tell these reflected attitudes she held dearly. Occasional off-topic tirades on the anti-common man bent of Republican tort reforms, bigotry in the White House, and the problem with capitalism (especially the unhuman evils of Wal-Mart [of which, with my personal experience, I had no complaints]).
On a day when the teacher was absent, though she had provided a substitute, another student in the class who identified herself as a conservative asked how I felt about earlier statements made by the instructor. I said I didn't believe all of them, but one can get used to disagreeing with another's opinion and still be able to get along. I cited my experience as a political minority in the newsroom, and said you can be respectful and understand where they are coming from even if you don't except their conclusions.
I thought my English instructor had been the most liberal teacher I'd had (and this tops certain journalism proffessors I've had)... until I started my summer criminology class.
I took this class because I needed to close out my sociology credits before graduation and because I'd enjoyed sitting in on earlier sessions of the class. I had a friend who took the course last year in the same building I had an English class. We would wait for the other, depending on who got out first, and I enjoyed what I heard when I crashed a lecture.
The key thing I forgot, other than you never know what teachers will choose to keep chugging away in the summer, is that there are two ways to teach criminology. You can look at it from an institutional standpoint, which will give the side of law enforcement and fill the lecture with true crime annecdotes (like the kind I would hear in my friend's class), OR you can look at it from a sociologist's standpoint and question the system and not always assume the police are working toward the public's favor.
My summer criminology class was taught by a sociologist.
The first day when we learned that marijuana smoking shouldn't really be criminalized and that the government was purposely trying to block information that would prove otherwise (and as a side note, that Karl Marx was one of the best sociologists ever [though in my professor's view, his book on Communism, interestingly enough, was actually the least of Karl's works]). After that, I had a good idea of how things would be.
Truth be told, in a weird way it has made the class easier. In our multiple choice quizes, questions that are editorial in nature are the easiest. When reading "research shows," one must realize a different batch of research may indicate the opposite and you need to keep in mind what direction the questioner wants you to lean.
I'm also earning a good grade in this class - even if my notes are coded (reading "My professor says..." in areas where I don't believe his fundamental beliefs are true, but I need to know the wind blows when test time comes).
The day I most felt alone in the newsroom was when I was tapped to do the local coverage for John Kerry's announcement that John Edwards would be his running mate.
MORE TO COME
