Things That Make Me Sad

Don't get me wrong...I've been pretty happy lately. I've completely rebounded from the recent boy drama, and am actually even more recovered from the old boy drama. Still...there are a few things that I've read about in the news recently that have made me really sad, if not a little angry.

• The shooting at the Amish school in Pennsylvania. I mean really...what was this man thinking? It just breaks my heart to think of those poor little girls and their families... The Colorado shooting makes me sad too, of course, but there's something about this one that really tugs at my heart. Maybe because the girls were so young, or because they were Amish, or because there were more of them...I don't know.
• The Congressman who sent sexually-explicit emails and IMs to the underage male pages. There are a lot of things about this whole mess that really bother me. Probably the biggest one is the coverup. The preservation of political power should never trump the preservation of the safety and innocence of children...never.
  
• The Code of Inclusiveness, part of the Visioneering Wichita project. I'm all for racial unity, believe me. Anyone who knows me knows that. However, asking Wichitans to sign a Code of Inclusiveness is just a waste of time and resources. Mostly a waste of paper. The people who would be willing to sign this pact and really uphold it are the people who already advocate racial unity. And the people we should really be reaching out to are the ones who wouldn't sign the Code of Inclusiveness anyway.
• Thursday's Hendrix Forum topic. I wish I could attend the Forum, but unfortunately it's at the same time as my Spanish class. The topic: "Is the Hendrix Community a 'Safe Space' for Political and Religious Conservatives?" To which I say NO. I think Hendrix is maybe more tolerant of religious conservatives than political conservatives, just because it's a religiously-affiliated school (although its affiliation is with Methodism, which is relatively liberal), so there are a lot of religious organizations on campus. But there's only one organization on campus for political conservatives, and it's not a very active group. People are really hostile to Republicans on this campus, and I don't just mean students...I can't count the number of times I've heard professors make derogatory comments about them. Personally, I don't like either party. I think they're more concerned with holding power than actually getting anything accomplished. I think politicians are under too much pressure to constantly vote along party lines (or risk losing support and funding when the next election comes along), so nothing constructive and truly beneficial is ever accomplished. However, I don't believe that all Republicans are as extreme as the people in office, nor do I believe that Democrats are as extreme as their leaders. But on this campus? When someone says "Republican," everyone assumes you're a greedy, cold-hearted, intolerant, backward-thinking hick. It's offensive.