I Get By With A Little Help From My "Friends"

by Julie Robison

As a woman, I constantly need to be rescued. I can't say no. I do what I want, and if I can't, someone better give me the means to do it anyways. I am completely free and liberated!

Wait, what?

I know what you're thinking: since when did liberation mean total dependence on the government?

Since... now! Welcome to 2012, baby! My name is Julie, not Julia, and I don't approve of this plan. Enjoy the show folks, and don't forget that your tax dollars paid for this govertisment.

Stairway to Sacrilege

by Julie Robison

Ok Go, an alternative rock band known for catchy beats and viral YouTube videos, recently released a video in a Chevy commercial. The band drove a Chevy car through a two mile track of instruments, releasing their latest song, "Needing/Getting."

Their opening is, "I've been waiting for months, waiting for years, waiting for you to change./ Aw, but there ain't much that's dumber, there ain't much that's dumber/ Than pinning your hopes on a change in another./ And I, yeah, I still need you; but what good's that gonna do?/ Needing is one thing, and getting: getting's another."

This song, though about a girl, plays nicely into a recent NYT op-ed by psychologist Jonathan Haidt entitled, "Forget the Money, Follow the Sacredness." He writes to show the Right and Left's cultural narratives and their amazing ability to talk past each other on issues.

Protect Our Progress!

by Julie Robison

Liberals have a new slogan (new to me, at least). They say, “Protect Our Progress!”

According to the Organizing for America website, they recently held a phone bank in North Carolina. The informational page read:

We’ve made significant progress together in the last two years. There are those who want to stop our country moving forward to undo the progress we’ve achieved, but our community is looking toward the future. We’ll be meeting at the Charlotte OFA Office to protect our progress- - defending healthcare reform. Your voice is needed, so come out and join us at 6 p.m. to call Republican representatives and remind them that we are holding them accountable.

I have to admit- I like this little blurb! I like holding government officials accountable. I admire their tenacity in defending healthcare reform, which is more like healthcare overhaul and a love letter to special interests groups. My teeny-weeny remark I do have to make is this: the two year mark. I know that is the length of President Obama's presidency to date, but President Obama's passed legislation is not a proper measure of progress.

The Imaginative Soul

By Brittany Baldwin

The following is an essay I wrote for an American Studies Class, "We the People": An American Journey

Prelude

Once upon a time, a little farm boy in Nebraska grew up to be a young man, and as he grew, he decided to go to college. But he didn’t want to go to just any college; he wanted to go far away to a big city, where there were lights, and paved streets, and pretty girls. So, after he planted his last crop, went to his last church service, walked the fields for the last time, and ate his last family dinner, he walked to the train station, handed the Ticketmaster his one-way ticket to Chicago and waved good bye to everything he had ever known. When he arrived on campus, he felt as if he had been plopped into a magic city--buildings touched the heavens, horseless carriages zoomed across corners, and blinking signs illuminated the chilly air. At first, he was just as enamored with the classroom as he was with the city. The sophisticated professors and cultured students lived a life of leisure, compared to his days on the farm. Yet, the longer he attended classes, the more he questioned the professors’ philosophies, and there was something in his soul that cringes at this idea that “everything means anything.” The dancing and drinking and beautiful women, however, distracted him from his questions, and slowly he began to accept more and more of his professor’s teachings.