Column:
Only you can let yourself be mislead
Published Sept. 18, 2009
On Friday, The Maneater's editorial board wrote a piece calling out the College Republicans for slanting facts and the College Democrats for doing little to make a difference. The editorial slammed the College Republicans for adding to the problem of students not knowing what's really in the health care proposal and for "misleading students" by propagating "so-called facts."
Now, I'm not saying I disagree (or agree) with premise of the piece itself, but I want to point out a critical call to action that could also have been made — one to the students who aren't a part of either of these groups (or have no political affiliation to begin with, anyway). It's simple and would deter the problem of students being "misled" in the first place.
My call to action: Students, don't let a political party be the primary source for your initial education on any issue. At all. You're smarter than that. Whether you choose to affiliate with a political party, you have a responsibility to not just vote or care or have an opinion, but to understand what your votes and opinions mean and why you have them.
College students are often labeled (sometimes mislabeled) as overly idealistic. There is absolutely a value in idealism: in passion, in trying to make a difference, in trying to save the world. But this doesn't discount the value that can be found in skepticism — not cynicism, necessarily — just a dedication to discernment. To not believing everything you hear — or close to anything you hear unless you verify it.
Politicians are in the business of trying to gain power and influence — that's their job and sometimes that means not necessarily lying, but only presenting certain facts.
I was working on a story once about a bill that would allow Missouri motorcyclists to ride helmet-free, and I spoke to three different sources and asked, for the most part, the same questions. I got three different answers from a straightforward question asking for a specific number of injuries one year. The thing is, I don't think any of these people were necessarily trying to mislead me — but everyone goes in with their own slant on the way things work and you need to go to the basic level where information was gathered to find the truth you're looking for.
This doesn't just apply to reporters, though. It applies to all of us. Don't get your news from one source — if you read a story that changes your perception on something, check out other sources for that story, too — other TV stations or networks or newspapers or blogs. Get a holistic world-view.
So I guess my point is that the College Republicans have every right to present the information they think is important based on their paradigms and opinions. And so do the College Democrats. And so does any special interest organization — they should do whatever it takes to express the information that's important to them and to make the difference they think we need. They can lead us Tigers to water, but they can't make us drink.
If you want to have an opinion — whether you represent a specific group or just yourself — you need to know why you have it, and that means going to the source of the information related to the issue. Whether that means sifting through some of an extensive health care plan or reading past House Bill Activity Reports, it'll help you to understand and not just speak — and to not be "misled." The only person who can really let you be misled is yourself — and if you're thinking and learning and understanding, you'll lead yourself where you really want to be.