Let’s be honest: anything that drags hundreds of us out of bed at the nauseating hour of (gasp!) 9:00 in the morning on a Monday has got to be good; after all, most classes don’t even manage to get us up that early, if at all. Granted, we’ll wait outside of Tavern for an hour on a Thursday night, but lining up, sober, outside of the Ticketmaster window on a frigid Monday morning is a different ball game. Completely. Was I pissed that I had to wait in a line that stretched halfway to Richter? Yeah, a little bit. But the goose bumps that I got from this sight were well worth it. Hey, I don’t judge the things that you get off on.
What was supposed to be a week-long distribution finished after just two days. So, either everyone is rightfully enthused about hearing these guys speak, or people are planning on scalping tickets. I’m going to go under the pretense of the former.
If the interest that has been displayed for the tickets has any correlation to the political fervor of our students, specifically regarding the 2008 presidential election, I’m pleasantly surprised and impressed. In all seriousness, if voter participation for our demographic wasn’t abysmal, Mr. Sean “Diddy” Combs wouldn’t have felt the need to threaten all of the MTVers with his “Vote or Die” slogan in 2004. Then again, for those who didn’t vote – or for those who did and voted for Bush, again – many of our nation’s finest did die in Iraq in a “war” that could have gone differently-or not at all-with a different regime, I mean, administration. Oops?
With voter registration forms abounding practically everywhere on campus, there is really no excuse. Don’t wait until October of 2008 to establish your voting rights-do it now. Do it for Al and Bill. Better yet, do it for President Shalala who came through with this University Lecture Series. Who says that women can’t have cronies, too?
And while we’re on the topic, allow me to put this out there: Al Gore for President in 2008. Yeah, I said it, but I’m sure I’m not the only one who has been thinking it. If the Democrats could genetically engineer a candidate, it’d be Gore. He didn’t vote in favor of the Iraq war-ever-so “flip-flop” your hearts out, Republicans. He has more experience in the Senate and in the White House than most other Democratic frontrunners and, face it: With “An Inconvenient Truth”, he’s a celebrity-a celebrity with a one-up on Britney’s white supremacist haircut.
I’d like to think that all of the publicity surrounding his documentary isn’t due solely to the urgent, and in many ways revolutionary, presentation of the aged theory-and by theory, I mean proven scientific fact; watch it and weep, George-of global warming. Rather, I’d like to think that it’s this, coupled with his intentions to run for president in 2008, that has had him on every primetime talk show for the past 6 months. There’s no hurry to jump in just yet. Instead, let Mr. Gore sit back, enjoy the campaigning show, and wait until the water is just right-then storm the race fresh-faced and sound-minded and throw some ‘bows. Gore is money for this election and there is nothing inconvenient about that truth.
Nayda Verier-Taylor is a junior majoring in journalism and political science. And yes, she’s on Facebook. She may (and should) be contacted at nveriert@umsis.miami.edu.