Let me just start out by saying that global warming and climate change are in no way partisan issues. In fact, both are considered by the U.S. Dept. of Defense as national security threats.
The detrimental effects of global warming and climate change are real; people face the consequences of my actions and yours as well, Ben, every single day due to our significant contributions to climate change and global warming, especially here in the U.S. Let’s not forget the words of Mayor Carlos Gimenez from Southern Florida, when he spoke about global warming and climate change: "Let's be clear, sea-level rise is a very serious concern for Miami-Dade County and all of South Florida. It's not a theory. It's a fact. We live it every day."
Ben, I understand that you would like to see your tuition payments go towards educating students on psychology rather than these liberal propaganda tirades about global warming and climate change, however, my sympathies for you stop there. This letter I am writing to you is not in efforts to offend you by any means, but let’s not confuse your experiences of “trivialization” as being ostracized or oppressed, or that professors who are free to speak as they choose in their own class time are making an attempt to dismantle your white, male privilege.
This same academic freedom you speak nostalgically about is still very much present on DePauw’s campus. These same challenging, new, and controversial ideas you talk longingly of are presenting themselves to you. However, you fail to not see these new, controversial, and albeit challenging ideas and concepts as a good thing, even when they have been handed to you on a silver platter in the middle of a class that was built on the principles of mental characteristics or attitude of a person or group. But, instead of trying to understand the other side, you choose to write an article and complain to the school paper about how you shouldn’t be forced to learn how to deal with different mindsets than your own.
Ben, you say you want new challenging ideas, yet you reject them and trivialize them as partisan issues when they negatively affect the lives of so many students right here on the same campus as yourself. I am sorry you felt as if your voice was not being heard in class and that you felt “uncomfortable” and “awkward” inside your classroom space. You bash liberal ideology that is obviously different than your own, but at the same time you beg for new and different ideas to be presented to you in the collegiate sphere.
You speak against political polarization, yet you are perpetuating that same polarization that you feel is harmful and even detrimental to your success in a classroom at DePauw. I am not trying to stand on a pedestal and talk down to you, merely I wish to have open dialogue and try to point out some hypocrisies you make in your own writing. You feeling “uncomfortable” in a classroom is exactly what college is supposed to achieve. Welcome to life. Life is uncomfortable and we will not always be surrounded by individuals with the same backgrounds and values as ourselves, but that does not mean it is an attack on you as an individual, especially concerning your privilege compared to many minorities and marginalized groups on campus. More than anything, perhaps it is healthy for you to now know how it feels to be a very, very mildly marginalized individual and will help you to empathize, learn, and grow as a person.
