Ryan: Political labels prevent understanding
One-word viewpoints trap people in ‘bubble’
Political identities are more complex than one-worded labels. Affiliations do not always conform to stereotypical conventions.
By Jordan Ryan (Contact)
Friday, January 18th, 2008
If you were to do some snooping to find out if someone you were interested in was liberal or conservative, the easiest route to take would be Facebook.
After many discomforting questions, conversations and exchanges, I gained respect from and grew affectionate for other enthusiasts and many retired farmers that I may have once dismissed as closed-minded, simple old fools.
If you were to go hunting in this manner for my political affiliation, you would see on my Facebook that I am “liberal.” But if you were a really dirty P.I., you might have been confused why I spent last weekend at the 38th Annual Missouri Valley Arms Collectors Gun Show, where “Dutch” VanKirk, navigator on the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, shook hands and signed autographs.
Allegiance to a political party is an association that many young adults begin to feel strongly about as they become a part of a campus world of powerful ideas and entreaties to be the generation responsible for positive change.
It is safe to say (like many other public universities) that the University of Kansas is a very liberal one.
According to the Kansas Equality Coalition’s Web site, Lawrence was the only city in the notoriously Bible-belted Kansas in which the majority of voters opposed the Marriage Protection Amendment, and the Lawrence City Commission was the first in Kansas to pass a domestic partner registry.
Lawrence is surely an independent entity in a bubble within Kansas, and it can be easy to lose awareness of the world around us when the warmth, excitement and progressiveness of Lawrence become our reality.
The University, then, can be seen as another bubble world within Lawrence that can make us feel empowered and periodically aloof when academia and knowledge lend insight into lofty analyses of race, gender, art, literature, etc.
In this bubble, we can too easily overlook the fact that we breathe the same air as those we know of only in textbooks and lectures.
I have met some of the most interesting, warm, sentimental and generous people at National Rifle Association-sponsored events, behind display tables of cowboy guns.
I began doing photography for an antique gun collector/auctioneer when I was in high school and was initially uneasy about being near firearms.
The idea of me being comfortable around weapons, which were purposed for death, terrified me.
In time, I became comfortable handling firearms. After the initial shock of being one of only three or four women at a day-long auction seating hundreds of older men, I found my place in the world of gun guys.
After many discomforting questions, conversations and exchanges, I gained respect from and grew affectionate for other enthusiasts and many retired farmers that I may have once dismissed as closed-minded, simple old fools.
Although my gun-guy friends and I disagree frequently, they have taught me that you can connect with anyone through genuine sincerity.
We have come to obtusely think of conservative people like gun guys as closed-minded and liberals as open-minded.
But these groups of people with polar opposite political ideals can be equally accused of sealing shut their bubble worlds from ideas that can, at the very least, affirm their own. If you get too confident, it is sometimes easy to say “you are wrong if you don’t believe in what I do.”
This only segregates you further.
There are many stigmas about Kansas, and it is easy to feel as if we are constantly fighting conservative force, but in Lawrence, liberalism is the norm.
I am by no means passing judgment on any one group, but rather I am encouraging you to step outside of where you feel comfortable. This is in regards to any instance (although here exemplified by political stance) that you might find yourself sweating in.
I believe in uneasiness as it relates to being regret-free. Being aware of yourself in a situation in which you are uncomfortable or the minority only makes you and your ideas more informed and powerful.
And who in the hell wants to be contained and comfortable all the time?
Ryan is a Salina junior in art history.
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