I am a hypocrite. In fact, I am such a hypocrite I have the audacity to write about an event that I did not even attend. If I am being honest, I just really did not want to go. Hopefully, by the end of this article, you’ll understand why, or at least show me some grace. On Monday, October 21st Charlie Kirk, a conservative American writer, Kimberly Guilfoyle, an American political analyst, journalist, attorney, and television news personality who co-hosted The Five on Fox News (that’s a hefty list of accomplishments), and Donald Trump Jr. himself all made an appearance at GCU. The goal was to talk about a “Culture War” and a ploy for Donald Trump’s re-election in 2020. I couldn’t help but think how interesting it was that a college institution would consider hosting an event on such a controversial family. I mean less than a year ago Grand Canyon University denied Ben Shapiro, a conservative political commentator, public speaker, and author, to speak at the university because his views were simply too “divisive”. As I researched further, I saw that Charlie Kirk had tweeted a response after Shapiro was denied. His tweet had stated that he was disgusted with the university and quote “I am stunned and have already rallied significant support from major donors to pull their gifts from this intolerant institution”. But less than a year later after posting this very tweet Kirk is invited to speak at GCU…… coincidence? I highly doubt it. GCU is a nonprofit organization so it makes sense that the university would try to patch things up if it meant their donations were at stake. This I believe, is how politics works, and why I believe more young people feel politics is tainted. I was always passionate about politics, but that passion soon turned to resentment. Are there others like me that view politics as repugnant because it is just too emotional and hate-filled?
Yes, I understand it is detrimental that we know what’s going on in our world and our government, but with how polarized each party is, it’s almost impossible to get unbiased information. This polarization has completely forced society to choose a side, and to hate the other. A classmate and close friend of mine, was attending the rally with her roommate in “Make America Great Again” t-shirts; and she said the harassment they received from her dorm to the lecture building that was maybe a hundred yards away, was so unbearable her roommate begged for someone to bring her a shirt to cover up on the way back. They were subject to everything from groups pretending to throw-up and yelling vulgar language.
We are becoming so divided that we can no longer celebrate in our differences, or even have relationships with those that hold different beliefs. I think we forget that the most powerful people in the government is us. You and I dictate what we want to see changed in America. I know some people will argue that the unemployment rates are the lowest they’ve ever been, including amongst women and people of color and how good the economy is, but I don’t believe the president had anything to do with it. The president is simply a face that represents the country. And as our country changes, the face of it should as well. Maybe our founding fathers knew what they were doing when they set a limit on one’s time in power.
I may not have attended the “Culture War”, but I didn’t need to in order to come to the conclusion that there are two types of people in this world: the ones who talk about the problem, and the ones who try to fix it.