by Seth Gellman
Political Forum is a club where members respectfully discuss their perspectives on a wide range of issues. The club is run by Dr. Redmond and meets on Thursdays. It meets biweekly and always has interesting topics. Some of these topics include gun control, the current situation in Venezuela, surveillance by the Chinese government, reparations, and Brexit. Each week the members vote on the topic that will be discussed in the next meeting. The first topic of the year was gun control, which was discussed on October 3rd.
At the club meetings, all opinions are welcome. Some people play the devil’s advocate to provide a different perspective to the discussion. It is recommended, but not necessary, to do research on the topic being discussed so that everybody is more informed and there is little to no misinformation. Members are encouraged to participate in discussions as everybody can provide a different perspective that nobody else had thought of before. It is interesting to hear the perspectives of everybody, regardless of age.
Last year at the gun control discussion, there were many people on both sides of the aisle. The discussion evolved into a debate on the morality of owning guns and whether a “good guy” with a gun would realistically stop a “bad guy” with a gun. At that meeting, many people had very different viewpoints but nobody spoke over one another and the discussion was respectful. By the end of the discussion, some peoples’ opinion on the matter changed because of the fascinating points and statistics that others were bringing up.
Political Forum is a place where students can safely discuss their opinions without the fear of backlash or hurtful comments. The next meeting on October 17th is certainly worth attending.
