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Except, perhaps, if it had been Barack Obama, I could not have been more proud of Oxy than when I heard David Brooks would be this year’s Commencement speaker. Our campus stands to benefit immensely from his attendance and contribution. Nonetheless, reading Hillary Holmes’ opinion piece last week about Brooks, I came away thinking it was incomplete.
Firstly, I think Holmes portrayed Brooks as more of an ideologue than he actually is. The man writes for the New York Times and provides analysis for public television; he has derided the Limbaugh-type commentator; and for Chrissake, in 2006 he wrote a column lauding Obama’s new style of politics! These are not the credentials of a rank-and-file Republican.
More importantly, however, I think the opinion piece last week missed an opportunity. As developing thinkers, we stand to gain nothing by shutting our ears to the opposition. At the very least, we act immaturely when we do; at the very worst, we risk injuring a fundamental (and endangered) property of democracy, discourse.
I have yet to actually hear around Oxy a negative buzz concerning Brooks. Even if I don’t, I ask that we all stop and consider that our pristine Occidental bubble would be a criminally skewed cross-section of our country. There are more voices out there than our own, and many we don’t agree with. But we’ll have to know how to deal with it and to learn to compromise.
Besides, David Brooks sits down with the President several times a year. Wouldn’t you like him to put in a good word?
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