By KELSEY GHERING
One of the book series that fueled my love for dialogue in literature was “Lord of the Rings.” When Peter Jackson’s film adaptations were the hottest thing in theaters, I was dying to see the movies so I could play Arwen and Aragorn with my cousins. No joke.
Well, my parents made a deal with me – read the books and you can watch the movies. So naturally I read each 400-page book in the series as fast as my fourth-grade reading comprehension allowed me.
Later, I learned to appreciate Tolkien’s stuffy writing style for his description of hobbits, especially. Hobbits are simple folk who enjoy the little things in life, like parties and beer. It might be oversimplified, but that’s what hobbits are all about.
And as enticing as that sounds in this day and age of megastores and Donald Trump, now is not the time to live like a hobbit.
Gannon put on a program for the inauguration Friday, complete with popcorn and respectable speakers like history professor Jeff Bloodworth, Ph.D.
Imagine my surprise when I arrive to a nearly empty Yehl Ballroom. In all honesty, I didn’t expect stellar attendance, because there never is, but this was pathetic.
Maybe this was a form of protest, but it was painful to realize the only students in that room were the same ones clapping every time the Donald opened his mouth.
I completely understand feeling upset about this election. I didn’t vote for the guy standing at Capitol Hill, either.
Gannon students, if you’re reading this, whether you’re red or blue – this is important. We cannot move forward as a country if you are not willing to pay attention. What I saw Friday was a confirmation of ignorance.
There were plenty of people hanging out in Waldron who were more concerned about selling raffle tickets, socializing or homework than making an effort to understand how the next four years will go.
The university treated the event as objectively as possible, and bringing David Kozak, Ph.D., to offer his analysis as a political scientist was genius.
Even if you didn’t want to participate in an event because of TV ratings, the less-than-anticipated crowd size at the inauguration was enough to have Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, saying CNN used “alternate facts” in its reporting.
What? Is this just a souped-up way of saying CNN said something different? Because that meme circulating the internet comparing Trump’s inauguration with Obama’s told a completely different story.
Come on, Kellyanne, you of all people should know about the power of the internet. Isn’t that how you got your candidate into office? Or would you like to talk about Russia? I’m all ears.
And I’m not about to lose my mind every time there’s a misleading headline in the news just because our president thinks the media lies. I write headlines, too, OK? And it’s the hardest part of the job. It’s a “yuge” part of the job. Maybe the president will learn to use the internet for fact-checking, but until then, I guess I’ll brace myself for “fake news” accusations.
