Destino 2008

Hello again. Another week is coming to an end (finally) and I thought I should update before I drop off the map for the weekend. I have two papers due on Monday and a test on Wednesday, so I'll be flying under the radar for a few days.

First off, I thought I'd write something about an interesting discussion we had in my English class today. I know an interesting class discussion sounds like an oxymoron, but it does happen every once in a while. Our current topic in this class (World Literary Masterpieces) is Jean Renoir's 1937 film The Grand Illusion. While I'm not entirely sure how this qualifies as a literary masterpiece, it is a truly amazing film by one of the most important filmmakers in history. If you've never heard of Renoir (son of the famous artist), his film Les Règles du Jeu is often listed as the second-greatest film of all-time, after Citizen Kane. I have never had the pleasure of seeing it all the way through, so I can't say for sure. So, today we were discussing The Grand Illusion and, as is often the case when discussing a movie in a literature course, we had one of the more energized discussions I have experienced thus far at UM. Everybody seemed to have a very specific opinion of what is going on in the film, and all of these opinions were strikingly different. Of course, I have my own opinion and generally think everyone else was laughably wrong. But that's just the way I am. I do think that a lot of people in the class missed the irony inherent in the film entirely.

You know, I find it extremely distressing every time I watch a movie dealing with the absurdity of war these days. Considering our current dilemma in this country, it's a little bit frustrating to watch a movie indicting a meaningless war (World War I). Have we learned nothing?

While I'm on a slightly political subject, let's move on before I get too worked up, and talk about my actual topic for this post. Earlier this month, UM hosted the first-ever Spanish-language Democratic Presidential debate. Sponsored by Univision, the debate was conducted in Spanish (except of course for the candidates' responses) and addressed issues important to the Hispanic community. All of the major Democratic candidates other than Joe Biden took part in the debate.

On the morning of the debate, I got a phone call. As a member of the UM Young Democrats, I had signed up to volunteer with the events surrounding the debate. As I am a staunch Barack Obama supporter, I volunteered for his pre-debate rally. In reality, what this consisted of was standing on the side of US1 from 2:30 to 6:30 waving signs and cheering at passing cars. Great weather, too: at the beginning it rained for about an hour, and then was unbearably hot for the rest of the day. The funniest part of the day for me was that about four different police officers stopped me while I was walking from my apartment to the rally to check my UM ID. Also, apparently there are only two songs used in the Obama campaign. Four hours of two songs on repeat almost turned me into Jack Torrance. To be frank, two hours of the rally was really fun. Unfortunately, there were still two hours to go. Finally, after four hours, the moment we were all waiting for came. Senator Obama stopped by on his way to the debate. He shook everyone's hand, took a couple of pictures and said a few words, and then he was off. I must say, the man is even more commanding and charismatic in person than he is on TV. I wish I thought he could win. It won't stop me from supporting him, though.

Afterward, I led the Obama supporters back to the University Center for the debate watch party. As in all of the debates to this point, the frontrunners (Clinton, Obama, and Edwards) were so scared of losing supporters that they said nothing of substance, and generally Kucinich, Gravel, Richardson and Dodd mopped the floor with them. Will this affect the race at all? No. Considering that I am sure no one was watching the debate, no one noticed. Those of us who did watch the debate are mostly interested enough that we have already picked a candidate. Maybe I'm just a cynic, but the whole elective system is sick in my opinion, and I don't know how it could be fixed.

See? It is possible to express political opinions and still stay on a topic relevant to prospective transfers. In the end, I really do feel blessed to be at a school where an event as important and historic (at least in theory) as this could take place. Sure, Columbia had Ahmadinejad, and I would love to have been there. But at least at UM we didn't jeer and insult our guests. Until next time...