Turning a Blind Eye

Where did I go wrong?” my father jokingly asks every time he and I engage in a serious debate about politics. As a fairly strong Democrat who raised a robustly conservative Republican for a younger son (me) and a moderately conservative Republican for an older son (my brother), my father was stampeded by a herd of elephants. You see, I was raised in Rhode Island suburbia, where fiscal conservatism and social liberalism reign supreme. As a result, no one seems to find it odd that I support free trade policies, oppose the welfare state, and would like to privatize social security. But, when I venture into the other realm of my beliefs (ones which I hold more dearly and fiercely), my social conservatism, many raise their eyebrows.

Just the other day, while enjoying a late evening sandwich at The Gate, I struck up a conversation with a girl sitting at one of the tables. After the conversation drifted towards politics, she was utterly perplexed as to how I could hold such views. We seemed to have similar backgrounds, both having grown up in Northeastern suburbia—she from Long Island and I from Rhode Island. But when topics like gay marriage, abortion, and various other socially-oriented issues surfaced, she could not fathom my belief system. “Why are you at Brown if you are not a social liberal?” she asked. I managed to conjure up a few bogus answers so as to not reveal my true intentions for coming to Brown—after all, discussing my hope of halting the declining moral fabric of a once Christian university is not exactly the type of conversation one discusses with a stranger.

I emerged from that discussion a wiser man, however. And even if I have only spent two weeks at Brown University, I have already been made quite aware of the fact that social conservatives are not welcome here. Everything that Brown University represents flies in the face of the conscience of a social conservative (I am sure that Barry Goldwater will not mind my innovation). Though I enjoyed my first two weeks at Brown, I have repeatedly discovered that this University is not meant for the student who goes to church every Sunday, who thinks that sexual intercourse should still be reserved for those who have entered into the covenant of marriage, and who thinks that consumption of alcohol is to be done responsibly and respectfully.

My first encounter with Brown’s combative social liberalism was during the very first class meeting of the year. The first! It did not take long for this University to mobilize its message of in-your-face toleration and unadulterated hedonism. To be as straightforward as possible, there was a gay pride flag hanging quite noticeably from a window in Faunce House, which made quite an impression on this freshman. Now, I have no information regarding the University’s role in placing the flag there, if it even had any, but the fact of the matter is that the flag was displayed quite conspicuously to all of my freshmen classmates. And I do not want to hear freedom of speech arguments from those who did not take offense. For, if a national-socialist desired to hang a Nazi flag from the window, I have a sneaking suspicion that these so-called free speech defenders would change their tune. The idea in question here is that of forum, and the University acted rather poorly in ensuring that the very first class meeting was not politically charged. I, as a person who supports traditional marriage and vociferously opposes the homosexual agenda, was offended that the University would allow such a hollow display, as there was no opportunity for debate to take place. But I suppose that I am just an unenlightened conservative, who has yet to be made “progressive.”