Friday, January 8, 2010

Koren Frankfort
Pub. The Montclarion Nov. 13, 2008
Transcribed and revised from Archive
January 6, 2010
korenfrankfort@gmail.com




In light of the great successes had by the Democratic Party, it is necessary to keep the momentum going. We, as Americans and the next generation of professionals, must understand how change works to continue what this last election implies for the future and what it echoes from the past because history does indeed repeat itself.

It is not enough to cast your vote and put your feet up and expect the world to change. To prove to our elders that our generation is truly not an apathetic one, as even I once thought, we must consider what has happened on the line of time.

Political parties change over time. The Democratic Party was once the right wing and the Republican Party was the left. In fact, the Democratic Party we know today was once called the Democratic-Republican Party. The Emancipation Proclamation that freed the slaves of the U.S. was made law by Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican.

The face of the Republican Party has shifted from primarily conservative spenders and highly educated elite to primarily middle-American Evangelical Christians.

What tends to happen is that there will be a party of change and a party of stagnancy. The wealthy elite appeal to the larger party, which was the Republican Party (the stagnant one) eight years ago, because the majority rules and the wealthy - for this reason - will side with the majority regardless of religious and philosophical inclination with the hope that money will sway people's allegiances.

As the majority shifts, the rich lobbyists shift as well. It is fair to expect that the corporations will soon attempt to appeal to the Democratic Party, and it is therefore fair to also say that the face of the Democratic Party could potentially shift in the spirit of circular history.
We must prevent from happening again in our government.

Because of the repetition of history, it is vital for every person, and from our generation in particular, to derail this merry-go-round historical tradition by changing the things that need to be changed and emphasizing what we, as people, have already done right.

There's going to be a renaissance of philosophy, art, music, science and writing, and the reason is the hope and desire for change. The cultural climates of the European Renaissance and the Harlem Renaissance are perfect examples of what is going on now; there was a dark age--ours being the Bush Administration--followed by a boom of change and a rapid evolution in the aforementioned fields.

This is good and we should embrace that tendency had by our fellow human beings, past and present.

However, from these amazing evolutions we as people have always slipped back into the dark ages and have always regressed back into apathy.

To avoid this, we must remain focused and shift our culture to a linear progression instead of a circular regression that our ancestors have fell victim to.

I challenge any individual who believes they can describe their views in one sentence. It is not enough to subscribe yourself to a party to summarize the entirety of your belief structure. I voted Democratic, but not because I am a Democrat.

I voted Democratic because I believe in choice, because I want this war to end and because I am clawing my way through the higher education system alone and I can't afford to go as far as I should in a world that prioritizes the greedy people over the visionaries. I voted Democratic because I want to be healthy so that I can contribute to society and not drain it and because America needs to shut down its jails that torture their prisoners and because non-Americans deserve fair trials too.

I voted Democratic because rape victims deserve to be heard and not shamed and not one person on the Democratic ticket contributed to that shame. I am not a Democrat; I am a person who agreed with the candidates on that ticket. I will only vote as my conscience dictates and my conscience is with the issues and not a label.

As you can see, it takes more than a sentence to describe what you feel is right. One must substantiate their beliefs one at a time and with evidence. It takes moxie to change the world. It takes knowledge of what is happening and it is simply unrealistic to expect easy solutions to complicated problems.

When a plant lacks sunlight, it withers and dies. When a human being lacks sunlight, its vitamins deplete and the structure of its framework warps and deforms. The same goes with knowledge. If we as a nation get lazy and don't bring things to light, we will once again slip into that circular history and we won't change anything.

[Victims of violent crimes must tell their stories especially if they received no justice. For this reason,] I will shout from mountaintops and seek out information and share what i find for free because knowledge is a power that we all deserve to have.

We must not adhere to labels and we must speak in paragraphs. We should know what is happening in our own communities as well as in others so that we can amplify our virtues and move away from our vices. We should root for our own team and never allow the blind to lead us as that would mean we are blind too.

We as students are blessed to be in the position to be fed food for thought. Our professors care and they will help us push forward and not regress. We should make sure not to disappoint them with apathy and academic dishonesty and value their and also help them as they want to help us.
Amid our own staff of professors, we have the father of a woman imprisoned in Peru and I am shocked that t took so long for me to know this in spite of the many positions I held at The Montclarion. We - the thousands of students of MSU - shouldn't be so blithely unaware of this fact.

Awareness is the recipe for success and change and anything less simply means that you are not trying hard enough.

Frankfort/writing sample