The True College Moment

Last week, I finished college (huzzah!). It gave me reason to reflect back up on my 4ish years at UW, and all the joy and sorrow that I experienced. There are many good memories: picnics on the quad, leading tours for excited high schoolers, the stunning view from my room in Haggett, my year as a resident adviser, winning the drag show (twice!), studying abroad in Norway, meeting two of my best friends, meeting many more of my good friends, and so much more. Of course, there are some memories that aren't so good. On the whole though, the good far outweigh the bad, so I think I can safely say that I had an amazing college experience.


But there is one memory that stands out above them all. It is, to my mind, the most quintessentially "college" moment of my 4ish years.

It was a sunny day in fall, early in my freshman year. It was one of those beautiful days that makes Seattleites remember why we live here. All of us college students were taking advantage of the weather, and the midday campus was bursting with youthful exuberance. Among the numerous groups making their voices heard on the HUB Lawn was the recently resurrected campus libertarian group. Their spokesman, a particularly vocal student who was running for King County Council, was engaging in a lively debate that I and a friend happened upon. A representative of the Young Democrats was doing a passable job refuting the libertarian position, and a small crowd started to gather.


As the debate went on, I found myself getting more and more upset, both at the idiocy being spewed by the libertarian and by the ineffectual responses from the Young Democrat, so I started to get involved. It got heated, but it didn't degenerate into a shouting match. Rather, it was that most beautiful of college moments: the intellectual disagreement. The debate continued, and started to wind down as the crowd dissipated. It was left, of course, unresolved; the chasm between the libertarian view and my own was to wide and deep to bridge. But it was so invigorating to defend my viewpoint, to argue my thoughts eloquently, and to change (hopefully) a few minds. It was college in a nutshell.

But the story doesn't end there. No, here is where it turns into one of my proudest moments as a liberal: they wrote an article about me.

The Right Turn was a campus newsletter (I'll let you guess where they fell on the political spectrum) that I think may now be defunct. Our friend the libertarian wrote an article about the debate on the HUB Lawn, and I turned into the star attraction.

"This young man was able to phrase concisely and effectively in a single sentence what the spin-doctor couldn't express in an hour of deluging us with facts. He said, 'My right to get a good education supersedes your right to get a better one.' And this, I believe, represents the real core of leftist policy."

Well, I don't know about that, but it does effectively sum up my political viewpoint. The article then focuses on refuting this belief by, among other methods, comparing the right to education to the right to a sports car (I wish I was making that up). He used the fake name Percival to refer to me. Young Percy the liberal.

I have many happy memories of the University of Washington. But looking back, I must admit that being such a vocal liberal that the libertarians wrote me up is probably one of the happiest.

Cheers!
-Mantini

(I have a copy of that issue of The Right Turn in PDF format if you want it - just leave a comment)


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Shakespeare Says: "Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs, you would say it hath been all in all in his study." Henry V, I,i,41