In the half hour break before my French teaching class, I sat down to eat my lunch. Another student from the class (before anyone in my family gets excited about this: he's married) came and sat down next to me and pulled out his.
We were talking about the homework assignment and teaching and whatever, and somehow we got on politics. Or he got on politics. It started out alright. Things I could smile and nod about. Then he started talking about how terrible it was that the Democrats wanted to get rid of democracy, and that really what would be ideal is to return to a flat tax--I mean, people don't want to move up to the next tax bracket, and it makes them lazy. And some people end up living off Medicaid.
I realized about then that this was like those moments on my mission where I started talking to someone on the street who turned out to be very Christian and whose son had been a missionary in China and Australia and just blessed me for what I was doing--when I knew, a moment later, I would talk to them about the Book of Mormon I was carrying, and they'd do a 180.
And so it started getting a little awkward as I didn't really give any "yeah, I know what you mean!"'s to what he was saying. I started making broad generalizations as I was thinking things like, "this is why I don't talk politics. I hate disagreeing, and I hate arguing my points." And that's mostly what I advocated in our conversation (and what I really do believe): we have to start agreeing with each other, or nothing is going to happen for anyone.
The awkwardness increased, though, as it became evident that, even though I'm a Mormon in red Utah county and BYU once more, I wasn't agreeing.
It continues.
This was the second time this semester I've talked about politics. The first one was maybe a week or two ago when I was doing homework in the Wilkinson Center, and a girl came and sat next to me. She was a journalism student, writing a story for the Daily Universe, and could she interview me? I said sure. She asked me about the elections. I told her I had voted for Obama. I was gone for the first year of his presidency, but what I've experienced since I got home I've been happy with--our big problem, though, is that there's no compromising. It's just becoming more and more polarized--therefore, more and more of a stalemate.
Okay, so back to today. Me and French Class Kid were walking into our classroom. I waved at a professor I know who was walking down the hall towards us. Carrie, said the professor as he stopped, you were quoted in the Daily Universe...today or yesterday. Talking about politics. Giving your opinion. French Class Kid turns to the part of the class that was there--hey! he says. She was in the newspaper!
At this point, I just about died. I know that professor's pretty conservative. I knew French Class Kid was, and that he knew I wasn't. And I knew this shouldn't be a big deal. Still, I realized I don't like wearing my politics on my sleeve at BYU. No, I don't really like it period. I kind of felt like I was outed today. ...Still, stand up for what you believe in, right?
