Every Incumbent Needs an Opposition

The blogsphere has been pretty absent from my life in the past month due to work and school but I'm certainly trying to involve it, and today I don't have a music post but instead I guess what you could say is a political one. It's that time of year again, election season is here and last year I made some political posts around this time. Now, it's not quite as poignant towards politics but instead what my school (Seton Hall) chose to do about two politicians coming to give a speech here.

The two politicians who were coming to do a speech at my school were Senator John Kerry and Senator Bob Menendez who is currently up for re-election in a very tight race. Both of these Senators are Democrats which is extremely important to keep in mind. The event of these two coming to speak here was announced on very short notice. Yesterday afternoon word got around the school and I didn't actually receive an e-mail about the event until early this morning.

I was extremely excited about the event for pretty obvious reasons, John Kerry was only the second most talked about American in 2004 and Bob Menendez is a Senator in an extremely tight race. There are only 100 Senators in America and Two were coming to speak here; what a great opportunity for the school, Right?

No, my school sends out an e-mail thirty minutes before the event saying that it was canceled. Why you may ask, because: "It is not the practice of Seton Hall University to host politicians in an election season without also hosting their political opponents, lest the University be seen to endorse particular political candidates." Yes, they choose to deny their students of actually hearing something which encourages political participation, what I would like to know is if the President came here, would the school allow him? Or would he need an opposition?

Not only is the school denying the students of actually learning something about politics but they wasted Bob Menendez's time who is in an extremely heated race who needs to take advantage of all the time he has left before election time. The school is also impeding on the almighty First Amendment, Freedom of Speech! Maybe it's just that these two politicians are Democrat who have views that don't exactly comply with the "Catholic Mission" (Seton Hall is a Catholic University) which I've heard was another factor in their reasoning for not allowing them to come. Then again what politician does follow the "Catholic Mission," but on a side note, these two politicians are indeed Catholic which isn't exactly the norm for politicians.

As a student of this college I'm disgusted with their choice to not allow these two politicians to come. Regardless of what party they are for, they should be allowed to come, not only is it an Amazing thing for the students but it puts a positive light on the school. By these two politicians coming, it gives a great image for the school showing that it is big enough to attract extremely big political names.