This is my last column for The Daily Cardinal. This news will be a disappointment to some and a cause to rejoice for others. There is at first an urge to not get sentimental but instead write a normal piece. However, that really can't be done. I'd like to say that the last two years have been an amazing experience for me. To know that enough people cared about my perspective to print it and to read it has been an honor. I want to thank everyone involved in making this column, everyone who wrote a letter to the editor, and everyone who performed the simple act of reading my opinions.
My experience began in the fall of 2001. I was a shy sophomore who came into the Cardinal office with an essay. I caught their attention with a CD of myself interviewing a nationally known white supremacist back when I was in high school. My first essay was rough and my argument needed work. The editors saw something in me and developed it over a day or two until it saw print. I was published about once a month on average that year. Then I got this column.
My column has been about more than just my positions and concerns I had at the time I wrote something. It's been about evolving as a person and as a citizen. These are important years in our lives. We're technically adults, but still immature enough in the world that we need to keep going to school. This is the place that prepares us to function in the world up to our full potential. My own ideas and underlying world view have slowly evolved over time; I'm not the man I was when I began writing for you. I hope you're not the same, either. I hope you'll leave college a different person than when you arrived, and that I, in some small way, had a beneficial impact on you and the way you think.
If there's one single message to take away from my column, it's to never accept what politicians do or say at face value. Strip the artifice away and look for the hidden agenda, and then tear that apart because it's probably fake, too. At the same time, it's important not to become so cynical as to withdraw from society or act in a destructive manner. Remain involved as a citizen, hold on to your rights, positively affect the process, be your government. Involve yourself with the causes and candidates you care about, but never be afraid to question even your own positions, allegiances and fundamental first principles.
This will become more important in the coming election season. Both George Bush and John Kerry will be trading attacks, spin and counter-spin until November and beyond. While I will say that I unequivocally endorse John Kerry for president, the political game is still what it is. Double-talk, false allegations and empty promises will come from both sides. However, in the end Kerry will emerge the more worthy man by honest measurement, if for no other reason than Bush having the greater lies on both his surface and in his hidden agenda.
If the preceding plug felt out of place in an essay promoting realism, it was in fact out of place. Contradictions will always fill every last corner of our lives; there's no avoiding that. Nevertheless, live with it and keep going, searching for some kernel of honesty and truth. Don't ever give up. It's okay to feel disillusioned at times; it's never okay to feel discouraged.
Remember the words of the great Athenian statesman Pericles: \We do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business. We say that he has no business at all.""
It's been fun.
Eric Kleefeld graduated in political science.
