President Barrack Obama delivered a speech announcing plans to withdraw from Iraq by 2011 and send another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan on December 1.
Some teachers assigned their students to watch the speech, but the majority of the school did not see it. Many weren’t even aware that this major discussion was occurring.
Our hectic lives tempt us to disregard current events. This is compounded by a vacuum of political activity on the part of student organizations this fall.
Where are our political clubs?
While our daily routines go on as usual, the turmoil of the outside world continues. With important questions concerning health care, the recession, our involvement in two wars, and climate change on the table, it’s crucial that we remain informed of decisions that will affect us for the rest of our lives.
Our campus political organizations may be lacking energy this year, but the responsibility of keeping ourselves up-to-date is in our own hands.
As a former head of the Young Democrats and member of the Current Events club, I dedicated most of my extracurricular time at DA to this kind of activity. From my experience, it’s hard to get students interested in things that don’t affect them immediately.
I felt like there used to be a minority of interested students that gathered and discussed issues my sophomore and junior years. But after the election of Barack Obama, members of my club slowly stopped showing up to meetings.
I really hope that current students take initiative and join the Young Democrats/Republicans and attend meetings. The Current Events club was also a great place to discuss news and opinions. I think the Scroll should also have a political column like it did when I wrote.
Respectfully,
Ard Ardalan ’09