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Show Up or Shut Up

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Walk Emily Home

I have a strange confession to make. I love mean old women. I think what draws me to them is the way they carry themselves that says they’ve figured life out, that they’re too aware of the world around them to give a damn what other people think. I’m thinking of vicious, conniving, driven old women who have their aged husbands wrapped around their fingers. I’m thinking of manipulative, cunning, cruel old women who send back bottles of wine and have no qualms telling their grandchild their Valentine’s Day finger-painting is crap. I’m thinking of Mom from Futurama; Karen from Will and Grace; my high school English teacher; John McCain’s 96 year-old mother, Ro­berta; Hillary Rodham Clinton; Lucille Bluth.

What makes these women so powerful is that they stand up for themselves and speak out when something bothers them. They don’t play passive aggressive games, they don’t waste time with petitions. They don’t picket, they don’t boycott. They find the person in charge of a problem and ask them, bluntly, to get things done.

I have a second strange confession to make. I love Prime Minister’s Questions. PMQ is a weekly event held in the British House of Commons where the sitting Prime Minister must spend half an hour fielding questions from members of Parliament. By English law, the Opposition Party has the right to ask Gordon Brown anything they want. To put this in context, imagine if George W. Bush had to stand before the country once a week and answer anything that Congress asked of him.

I admit these two things about myself because I’d like to suggest that our society has room for more of both. I’m calling for an influx of mean old women and increased, vocal attendance at government meetings. I say this because I think we’ve neutralized whatever effect quarter-cards may have on our decision-making. Fliers rarely inspire protest. Posters aren’t very effective, chalking less so. Petitions signed on Ho Plaza disappear, crumpled at the bottom of a backpack. Facebook groups are largely pointless when it comes to changing things in real life. In fact, the only thing that seems to work in getting results in this age of massively overdone media is a return to real, person-to-person contact. Mean old women don’t join Facebook groups. Mean old women raise hell by asking questions.

I’m thinking now of a character with whom I’m sure everyone has some experience: the aging crazy who shows up to school board meetings to shriek even though his kids graduated years ago. Yes, that guy’s nuts, yes he can make the meetings unbearably long, but if he doesn’t show up to keep Superintendent McStealsalot in check on weekly basis, who will?

At Cornell, we have our weekly meeting, and it’s noticeably lacking crazies. I speak of course about the Student Assembly, and as its election season draws closer (have you seen the posters?), the lack of vocal questioners is somewhat offsetting.

This semester, as an outgoing senior, I’ve decided to attend Student Assembly meetings, first as a casual observer and now as a participant. What I didn’t know, through no fault of anyone but myself, is that the S.A. allows for non-voting parties to speak on issues as they are presented. If someone feels they have a perspective that has been overlooked by the S.A., they are encouraged to take a seat at the microphone to voice their point of view. Anyone may speak, but so few choose to.

The past few weeks, this newspaper has been filled with news about the S.A. changing its election rules and articles regarding the upcoming S.A. meeting where our representatives will decide upon the Cornell Republicans’ concealed carry initiative. These are hot button issues, everyone knows, but I’d wager too many people were not aware that they had the chance to show up to SA, and, face-to-face, argue their side of a cause.

Perhaps the gun question touched a nerve. It’s an issue with which I’m immensely interested, and I chose to show up to S.A., not as a Democrat, not as a liberal (don’t reduce me!) but as a concerned Cornellian. I’m so appalled by the possibility that the S.A. won’t shoot down Concealed Carry that I think potentially embarrassing myself as I stutter and sway in public is worth the peace of mind of knowing I said my piece.

So, for that reason, I say show up, or shut up! Mean old women, like British Parliamentarians, don’t outsource their concerns, they march right up to the microphone and they demand extended hours at the shuffleboard center. I’m not condoning anarchic shouting, I’m not recommending a filibuster of any sort — in essence, frankly, I’m calling for increased student participation at S.A. meetings because, like adorable crazies everywhere, only we can keep our governments in check. Show up, put your name on the list, and say something.

This semester, The Sun has published a series of articulate and widespread “Guest Room” columns from various sectors of campus life, giving many previously unheard voices a forum in which to reach our sprawling community. The weekly S.A. meetings offer a similar chance to bring attention to unspoken issues and ask questions about pressing concerns. A good person takes advantage of such an opportunity!

So buy yourself a Robert’s Rules of Order, pretend you’re Lucille Bluth interrogating Margaret Thatcher and show up to S.A. Speak up against concealed carry, speak out against the lack of soft-serve at Okenshields, raise your voice for a gym in Collegetown, for free hockey tickets, for cheaper books — say it to the faces of the people we elect to do our bidding. Whatever your politics, whatever your concern, know that S.A. allows for open and fair discussion — if it ever stopped, we’d have some real speaking up to do.

Noah Hy Brozinsky is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be contacted at nbrozinsky@cornellsun.com. Walk Emily Home appears alternate Wednesdays.

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