Everyone's Favorite: Politics

The student politics at the Univ. of Alabama can be intense, for a couple of weeks before elections.  Other than that, politics are pretty mundane.

On many Universities around the world, student politics seem MUCH more intense.  We recently had student government elections here at UB.  It seemed such a big deal that two of my students who were running for office, chose to forgo the test (1 of only two for the term) in order to campaign at the polls on election day.

In the above photo you can see the loooooong queue for voting in one of the cafeterias.  It was a big day.   In the weeks preceding, the campus was covered with posters, and every party had a tent on the plaza in front of the student center.  This was big time campaigning.

Above is a picture of  a well-dressed politician on the evening of elections.

I recall in VZ, at the Univ. of Maricabo, elections and student government were a major power.  Students were a political force, not just on campus, but in national politics too.  Here, student protests and strikes can be pretty serious.  Police disbursed a group of students at a local private school just last week.

I think it is a universal hope that somehow, somewhere, some day, politicians will actually act in the best interests of their constituency.  It has happened on a rare occasion here and there.

Hope springs eternal, and I understand the need for hope.

As most of you know, I am a cynic and skeptic but nature and by training as a scientist.  As an old timer, I have increased my cynicism, and decreased my hopes that politics will ever do very much good for anyone except the politicians.

My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus blood and righteousness.   I hope not in man, and certainly not in politicians.  Dr. Robert Griffith's emails end with this CS Lewis quote, "If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world."

Indeed.