The danger of complacency

I've been told to shut up a lot lately. Well, I'm not sure anyone has actually said, "Jamie-Lee, shut up," but in several situations, that was the message. In one of my classes this week, the teaching assistant told the entire class to shut up. I really don't know what happened, come to think of it. I think she had actually made a joke. There was that low rumble of laughter throughout the spottily filled David Rittenhouse Laboratory lecture room, but it went on a bit too long for the TA's taste.

"Guys. Quiet down. I mean it," she said in a flat, nasally voice I thought was reserved for middle school substitute teachers. Now, I really don't know why she got so upset so quickly. I don't remember the last time a teacher of mine was so quick to put on the Authority Hat. Certainly not in my last three and a half years at Penn. It was so condescending, but no one, myself included, did anything about it. I probably should've just left, so I wouldn't have to sit there annoyed for the rest of class. I'm taking that class pass/fail anyway, so I probably shouldn't have even gone that day in the first place.

In the grand scheme of things, that out-of-place frustration from my frazzled TA really wasn't a big deal at all. It just made me think about how dismissive people can be.

A lot of people are sick of hearing about my political concerns. It's no secret that I'm not a fan of President Bush. My opinion of him has been greeted with retorts that I need to stop bellyaching and start uniting with Bush and his supporters. These people are missing the point. I am all for engaging in respectful and intelligent discussion with people of any political beliefs. That is, after all, the great thing about living in a democracy. And that's why I will never let my dissent with President Bush go unheard. Sure, I'm not going to protest outside the White House every day for the next four years and I'm also not going to automatically oppose every idea that comes out of his administration. For instance, I think John Ashcroft's decision to leave his post as attorney general was a great idea (oh it's just a joke, calm down).

It is one thing to be united. It is another to be complacent. I think the problem of complacency is especially relevant here at Penn and it applies to more than just national politics. For some reason, we Penn students don't want to make waves. We're pretty square. I'm at fault as much as anyone else. Maybe I'm even more to blame than most, since I give off the illusion of being a badass by wearing my little anti-Bush button and I'm all proud about not being pre-anything (med, law, success, whatever). In general, we at Penn go with the flow and don't do anything too radical, probably for good reason. Regardless of our diversity (cultural, ethnic, economic and otherwise), we are all here getting a degree that will probably do a lot for us in the future. So, whether our tuition bill is being paid by our parents, our loans or Penn's endowment, we're all still on our way to a relatively comfy position in society.

Whether we realize it or not, perhaps this is our reason for being so resigned -- to global, national and campus issues. We write off dissent as arrogance and whining, because we don't want to deal with conflicting opinions if we don't have to. And sometimes, we're just plain ignorant. Most of us, myself included, hardly pay attention to problems infinitely more severe than Bush's extended presidency. Take the violence in Sudan, which has been raging for 21 months and has caused tens of thousands of deaths, as an example. Even many of us who try to read a newspaper every day probably don't know much about the state of Sudan, because we prefer to focus on things like the American political circus.

But, not all Penn students are so closed-off. While I continued to copy down notes after getting yelled at by my TA the other day, a group of students were on College Green. They were protesting the fighting in Sudan and trying to spread awareness of the situation. Sure, the group of Penn students didn't change the world by standing on the Green with flyers and signs, but at least they acknowledged the problem.

I really should have skipped class.

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