Yeahhhhh....
Well, this afternoon has only solidified my dislike for Rick Santorum.
So Rick Santorum
spoke at Wofford this afternoon to a packed room: there were students from
Wofford and neighboring schools, faculty, and local people interested in what
he had to say. I personally really wanted to hear what his opinions were (not
that I was going to agree with them necessarily, but I like to see what others
have to say about different things). Like I said before, he was talking about Islamic extremism and how it's
a bad thing.
He kept telling us
how this war (against the "Jihadists", as he kept calling them) was
the war that would decide the future of Western Civilization itself. He also mentioned that Europe is currently in
a downward spiral, based around the ideas that they have disregarded their rich
histories and turned a blind eye to the increasingly more vocal Muslim
communities within their nations. He also placed blame on a lack of religion
amongst Europeans, quoting a speech made by the Pope in Regensburg in which the
Pope said we needed to "reclaim reason" in order to defeat Muslim
extremists.
Santorum went on to
explain the differences between the Sunnis and the Shiites and named the
countries which were mostly controlled by each; he also went on to say that
because the Muslims had Mohammed as their religious figure head, they had a
greater role model (he said that having a role model that led the people to war
would naturally entice them to go up in arms for religious reasons).
The main point that
stuck out in my mind is that they are waiting for the return of the
12th Imam, Mahdi. However, this will only occur at the end of the world (true
armageddon, essentially). Santorum believes that in order to expedite this process,
the Shiites (which would be mainly Iran) will obtain WMD's and destroy the
world.
There was also a
question and answer portion of the afternoon; a handful of people (myself
included) were able to ask the former Senator questions. The one thing that
stuck out in my mind about this was that he seemed to jump down people's
throats before they even got the opportunity to finish asking their questions;
he was also highly argumentative (at least in my opinion). A few questions
posed were: whether or not the US have worsened the problem by going to war in
the Middle East; wasn't it a bit presumptuous for Santorum to talk about
Muslims as a whole; why should the American left (aka Democrats) oppose the
Jihadists, as proposed by Santorum throughout his speech, and not the American
right; and (my question) why did Santorum propose that we should "reclaim
reason" (which he led the crowd to believe was through science and
discovery) when he himself has long been a supporter of introducing intelligent
design into school curriculum?
Unfortunately, while
all of these questions were good and valid questions, in my opinion, Santorum
didn't really give a straight answer to any of these questions. He's the master
of skirting around answers by backtracking and giving lengthy answers that,
upon closer inspection, don't reveal too much substance. But then again, that's
only one Democrat's opinion. In the end, I think that this visit to Wofford
left Santorum with more people who know his name then before, but I wouldn't
necessarily call that a good thing for him.
After everyone starting clearing out, I actually went down to the table where he was selling his book and signing copies (it's called It Takes A Family: Conservatism and the Common Good, uh, no thank you!) and shook the man's hand (it's quite possible that a bit of my soul was sucked out at that moment, but I digress). Basically, this is how the encounter went down:
Me: I just wanted to come down and meet you in person so that I could say that I had. I'm actually from Mars, PA, and I go to school here.
Him: Oh, really? Well, that's great. Did I answer your question well enough for you?
Me: (Trying to be as tactful as possible, but my composure started to disintegrate) Well, sort of....to be honest, I didn't agree with a lot of what you had to say, but you kinda answered it.....like I said, I disagree with most of your points.....I mean, if I had been able to vote in '06, I wouldn't have voted for you, I would have voted for Bob Casey.....
Him: So, Butler County, huh? Enjoying it in the south?
Me: Yes, I am. Thank you so much for coming.
So yeah, I wouldn't exactly say that I was NICE to him, but I think I kept my composure rather well. I mean, I wasn't physically violent, I didn't ask below-the-belt questions or make snarky comments (in front of the whole crowd, at least), and I didn't SHOUT my personal mutterings while he was speaking (I did, however, scribble them in my notebook and whisper them to my neighbor while making disgusted faces).
Sigh. Oh darn. Somehow I think that I will be ok with myself. Well, I'm going to go to sleep so that I can get up for class. Goodnight kids!!!
So Wofford baseball started this past weekend with a season opener against St. Peter's (and we kinda destroyed them, I think one game was 14-1 and the other 15-1). Then last night me and Rebecca went out and froze our toes off (because we decided to wear sandals??? and it was like, 30-something) for the whole 9 innings to watch a 10-8 win against USC Upstate (ewwww). It was quite fun and there's another game Friday afternoon against Albany (but I'm not sure if I'm going to that one, I might be going to see "The Other Boleyn Girl" with Laura). But if you get the chance you should totally come out and check out the games; they're free!!! And super super fun (plus I love all the baseball boys; I know quite a few of them and they're all great guys).
