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Trevor Blank, Retriever Weekly Guest Writer, published April 25, 2004
Sure, UMBC is a politically active campus… if by that you mean the presence of cult-like LaRouchians and their plethora of benign facts about Lyndon H. ("H" for "hooligan!") LaRouche. Then there are of course the College Republicans and Libertarians. Granted, they share their ideologies in small numbers, but have no long-lasting effect other than making students late for class with their flyers and stump speeches.
If UMBC were politically active, things that actually effect students would have been dealt with by now. We still have rising tuition, and never-ending construction.
It seems as though this campus has what I like to call "pseudo-politicians": those who dress up, yap about politics with their Starbucks coffee in hand, hold up meaningless posters about things they can’t change, and wear silly shirts bearing semi-harsh but ultimately non-threatening slogans. Ok, so we do have some people that are politically active, but they’re more a nuisance than a catalyst to the political process. We’re not a politically active campus because the only thing we do is complain and never provide any actions or solutions. Booyah!
It’s about time we college students face the facts: we suck and have no power. Despite what politicians may say, what we say is meaningless. It’s unfortunate because there are organizations that try and fail to get something going, like SCAN. "Politically active" implies stuff getting done, which from a student’s standpoint is practically non-existent. Perhaps I’m wrong, but I have yet to see any real progress being made on the political side. Maybe if the fraternities and sororities would sponsor politics people would pay attention; Lord knows I get enough phone messages from those lovely plebeians.
When it comes down to it, the only true power we have is with a vote. Now get out of my way, I have to get to Spanish class.
John Lipka, Retriever Weekly Staff Writer, published April 25, 2004
For those who say UMBC does not have a political presence on campus, think again. There is a wide range of political groups which include both major political parties — Republicans and Democrats — and both major third party political parties — Libertarians and Greens.
When I first came to UMBC, I thought that UMBC was just a commuter school where not that many people had political interests. But at my first Involvement Fest, I was surprised at the number of political groups. I was particularly surprised that the Libertarians had a group on campus.
Being a Libertarian myself, I joined up and have been active in the UMBC Libertarians ever since. We have hosted many events over the past few years; the first one that I can remember being our governor candidates’ forum two years ago, where only the Libertarian nominee agreed to show up and the other parties were represented by candidates for the state legislature. Since then we have held a campus political debate every semester that included representatives from each campus political party.
I believe events such as these have been really successful in raising awareness in politics for college students. The most recent political event, and I believe it to be the largest, was Liberty Week this semester. Almost every campus political party group helped to cosponsor this event (except the campus Democrats), and even other groups such as the History Student Council, WMBC, Spin, and Students for Environmental Awareness helped. There were nearly 20 events ranging from philosophy, religion, history to gun control, the drug war, etc. This type of outreach and the good turnout proves that interest in politics has a definite political presence at UMBC.
Christopher Paul, published May 4, 2004
In rebuttal to Point/Counterpoint, John Lipka is correct that there are a wide range of political activist groups on campus, yet on the other hand, Trevor Blank is also correct that the number of active members within these groups is extremely small compared to the number of students currently enrolled at UMBC.
I have attended four different universities in three different states across the eastern seaboard which were all commuter schools and seemed to suffer from a lack of political involvement by the student body. Does this phenomenon occur on commuter campuses alone, or is it a different phenomenon we are observing?
Could it be the result of Watergate and President Richard M. Nixon? Could it possibly be that the Watergate incident substantially weakened the Executive Branch of government and created the subsequent decline ever since? Could it be that since this time, most people under 40 believe that the Federal Government can’t be trusted when it comes to anything, that programs such as the “X-Files” have continued to fuel this belief, and that most citizens believe that our politicians don’t care about what we the people have to say about governing ourselves? Henceforth, the people sink into apathy with the belief, “Politicians only listen when you’re making campaign contributions,” i.e. “Money talks and nobody walks!” The apathy appears to be an inheritance passed down through the generations to the point where those in there twenties aren’t even sure as to what generated the apathy; they just accept it and do nothing about it.
A two party system’s main strength is that one of the candidates is most likely to win with a clear majority. A three party system reduces the possibility of any one candidate receiving a clear cut majority of the vote. Unfortunately, many of us who do vote, do not necessarily vote for the candidate who best represents our ideologies, but rather which candidate will do the least damage while in office, therefore the candidate we choose is a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils.
The solution? You can’t change the world, but you can change yourself. If one person becomes active then they may influence another to become active and thereby passing it on through the community. There’s no such thing as a Army of One, but in numbers there is strength and your voice will be heard.
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