For my first diary here at Daily Kos, I want to talk about something that is still going on but doesn't seem to be getting a lot of attention anymore: David Horowitz's Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. When my school's College Democrats found out that IFAW would be coming to our school, we knew we had to take some kind of action, so a friend of mine and I organized an event we called the "Teach-In for Tolerance."
Rather than condemning the College Republicans for showing one of Horowitz's films (and believe me, we definitely considered it), we decided that the best way to respond was to present our views and explain the problems with those of Horowitz in a calm, rational setting. More importantly, we made a point of not making the Teach-In and IFAW a partisan issue. We got the support of nine non-partisan groups--including both the Muslim Student Association and the Jewish Student Union--and a couple faculty speakers to reinforce that our message transcended simple party politics and affirm the serious implications of IFAW. (For those who are interested, streaming audio of the event is available here.)
I am convinced that framing the discussion as something other than left vs. right is the reason that the Teach-In for Tolerance was successful. Students are tired of negative party politics and ultra-partisanship--we even get complaints at College Dems meetings about how divisive our political system is. Our generation knows that if we can't all settle our differences and sit down at the table of compromise, we're all going to end up screwed. Maybe the current group of people in Washington don't get it, but don't give up home. I can't shake the feeling that things are going to start changing when this generation starts sending its members to Congress.