I wish to tell my readers the truth. So stating, it is imperative they primarily understand that I suffer from cynical objectivism and my veracity knows no bounds.
I was deeply engrossed in a cynical and veracious moment walking around campus recently when I happened to observe the flyers advocating the President Ladner protest. Since this appealed to the perverse cynical side of my personality, I decided to stand back and observe the outcome. In doing so, I learned many things about the individuals protesting and our student government.
First of all, it is my belief that human beings are inherently evil and that many of them can be very easily led around like sheep because they lack the fundamental ability to think and reason for themselves. Of the human beings that have the capacity to reason, many of them are uniquely gifted with the ability to incite others' passions and direct the "sheep" energy towards the furtherance of their own narcissistic goals. Such was the case during the recent President Ladner protest. Our student government composed the few, and the majority of the student protestors were the sheep.
Regardless of where one stands on the issue, I find the very idea of a protest ridiculous. Reason being, everyone either knows or should know that a protest is really only about the issues of one person who has successfully garnered support for his/her issue. Juxtapose this with the fact that many who show up for such an event do so because they have succumbed to the mob mentality and/or are unimportant individuals who wish to be noticed if only for a brief moment. These individuals are "protest whores" who get in bed with any issue just so they can be with the crowd.
The upside is that protest whores who are granted a degree from American University have much to look forward to. These individuals will likely grow up successfully to be the white-collared yuppies that are the cancers on the spine of democratic society, because they become either apathetic non-voters or waste their votes on non-essential parties that cannot win.
What I see is a massive rush to judgment without people considering all the relevant issues. I mean, let's face it. Becoming president of a university such as American is largely a political appointment. With that comes a great deal of friends and enemies. President Ladner's downfall was his inability to either appease or decimate his enemies, so that they would not incite the "protest whores" or leak information to the press. For this reason, and because I think no one deserves the public flogging that he has recently endured, I feel a profound sympathy for him.
The bottom line is, whatever he did or didn't do, someone knew about it and the practice was accepted. Also, just as a protest is only really about one person, so is a committee. So I firmly believe that whoever this one person is (probably the anonymous author of the Post letter), is also an enemy of President Ladner's who knew what the effect would be of releasing his alleged improprieties to the Post and the student body. [As we speak, this ÿÿÿÿÿ individual is probably actively planning for the removal of President Ladner and is prepared to do whatever necessary to continue directing the "sheep energy" to the furtherance of this cause.]
Furthermore, since Mr. Ladner will probably never be indicted, neither I nor anyone else will ever know for certain whether he is guilty or innocent. The long and short of the matter is this: No matter what happens, none of it will affect me. Whether President Ladner stays or goes, I will still write out my tuition check every semester, attend class and get my degree. In the end, none of this will really matter. The polarized energy towards this cause will dissipate and be waiting on the wings with baited breath for the next protest to blow its way.
Eve Gatewood is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, majoring in psychology.
