Though October 13 fell right in the middle of midterm week, plenty of students managed to break from studying and spend some time watching the two “big deals” of the night; the third presidential debate and the Yankees-Red Sox ALCS game.
Torn between my loyalty to the New York Yankees (big-ups to Queens) and my interest in how the third debate would play out, I divided my time between the two events. While quasi-calmly watching the debates and not so calmly watching the game, I was struck by how divided the campus is right now.
While watching the debates, I noticed that some students would moan and scoff at comments made by either Bush or Kerry. No matter how valid or non-confrontational the comment, there would always be people rolling their eyes and exhaling purposefully.
Being the inquisitive (or nosy, if you wish) person that I am, I asked some of the scoffers why they were supporting either candidate — you know, just to spark some political discussion. Well, the responses basically boiled down to this:
“Kerry flip-flops too much,” “I just think Bush is an idiot” and “I’m voting Nader because they both suck.” These statements were, sadly, the whole of our “discussions.”
Actually having information and political knowledge to back up these statements was inconsequential.
At 10:30, I migrated to the lounge where Red Sox and Yankees fans were gathered, anxious and alert. As my team scored again, bringing the lead to 3-0, murmurs of “the Curse” floated through the lounge-not surprising.
What did surprise me was the number of people who vehemently cheered against the Yankees because they believed in “the Curse”– which was, for them, the fact that the Red Sox have not beaten the Yankees since 1918 because they traded the great Babe Ruth.
Last time I checked, the Sox have been giving us a run for our money all year-so much of a run that we are not seeing my Yanks in the World Series.
I say all of this to point out that polarity seems to be the trend of the fall semester. Die-hard allegiance to a presidential candidate and/or a baseball team can be found among many students.
While I myself stand by my baseball team and my choice of presidential candidate, I urge people to get informed before they jump on the respective bandwagons.
Go ahead-vote Bush or Kerry. Cheer for New York or Boston. Just have some knowledge to back up your choices.