Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Dartmouth is not conservative

It's been a while since I've blogged. The term is wrapping up, and I have been buried in papers and projects. However, I was taking a break and reading the news, and I came across an article about The Dartmouth student body electing an openly gay president. While I'm happy for the guy, I'm not at all surprised that we elected a gay president. Dartmouth kids are smart enough to vote the issues, dudes.

The winning candidate is quoted as saying, "I hope people see Dartmouth as not as conservative as they once thought." Why does everybody still think that Dartmouth is so darn conservative? Yes, it was once. IN 1985. Dudes. Big hair was in then. So were flourescent clothing and parachute pants. Michael Jackson was a well-respected singer. 1985 was a looooong time ago.

Dartmouth had already begun getting very liberal while I was there. The politically correct atmosphere bordered on stifling; not because I disagreed with the intention of the movement, but because the care with which people avoided elephants in the room made my stomach turn at times. (Yes, I'm sure that little old lady is carrying a bomb. Be sure to frisk her to prove there is no profiling of any kind going on).

Anyway, I love Dartmouth, don't get me wrong. If I had to live my life over, I would still apply there early, and would still participate in all the activities I did while there. I guess I'm just ranting about people still considering Dartmouth conservative in order to avoid doing the PDD or System Safety presentations. Who knows?

Just keep in mind that times have changed since the Dartmouth Review and Michael Jackson were popular. Now the Review is run by a group of nerds; nerds so nerdy that they would stand out at MIT. The Review barely made a peep while I was there. Once a week, I would find a paper lying in front of my door. When I had a bunny, I would line the cage with it. Once they wrote me up for being too liberal. Some people around campus had the article I wrote hanging on their walls...I had the Dartmouth Review's review of me on mine. It was hysterical and poorly written. What can ya do?

Okay, I'm done procrastinating. I'm going to go out humming the Dartmouth Fight Song (yes, there is one...) Glory to Dartmouth, loyal we sing, now all together...LET THE ECHOES RING FOR DARTMOUTH...

1 comment:

Andy said...

Dartmouth has nerds? Somehow that is more disconcerting to me than an openly gay president.