MY TOUGHEST critic calls my columns "rants," looks at all the writing I've done on these pages and quite often wonders aloud whether I have anything positive to say about anything at all.
Today marks the end of my run as an Opinion columnist with The Cavalier Daily, and reflecting back, he makes a reasonable case. I have, in fact, done well more than my share of ranting, raving, playing attack dog and bemoaning the state of things.
The first column that ran with my byline was a rant about the hypocrisy of the current occupant of the Oval Office -- many months and one re-election later, the diatribes against W (and Republicans in all branches of government) have hardly abated. Yet I can't help but hope that kids like me on the pages of college newspapers across the country sort of represent the two hundred-plus-year fruition of a handful of radicals with wild ideas about the rights of speech and the press.
I have done my best to challenge the policies and actions of the Bush administration and the GOP-controlled Congress not out of anger or bitterness, but because I believe this nation deserves leadership that will do better by those ideals of freedom. I lament the existence of poverty and racial inequity not because I've given up on the American dream, but because I believe in it so deeply that I think it ought to be extended to everyone. And when I have called into question the choices and actions of the Democratic Party, it is because I have faith that the words of one liberal still matter to the party that lives and dies by the populist spirit.
I have had choice words over the past year and a half for the powers that govern the Commonwealth of Virginia. I have been filled with indignation watching the General Assembly each session, but if I were capable of seeing Virginia as backward or hopeless, that well of ire would have dried up immediately.
Instead, three years have shown me sunsets over Abingdon in Southwest, the bustle of first-generation business owners in Northern Virginia, the historic charm of Richmond's old neighborhoods, a daily breathless view of the Blue Ridge, and above all, Virginians themselves, who combine Southern hospitality with the spirit of intellect and inquiry. I wouldn't bother to rant if I were simply a self-righteous Yankee, but I have fallen head over heels for the Old Dominion and believe that the legislators of this remarkable Commonwealth ought to do justice by its history and potential.
Above all, I have directed my rants toward this University, called upon its administration to better meet the needs of students and its students to better meet the needs of their peers. Yet had I not walked down the Lawn at twilight enough times, had I not encountered enough bright and talented Hoos both in the classroom and in extracurricular organizations, had I not been steeped enough in the Jeffersonian vision for a University unlike any other, I quite likely could be convinced not to care. I suppose there's nothing truly unforgivable about the status quo, and if I didn't believe in the potential for the University to be a beacon of not only education, but community and achievement, I may well have taken all the hours I've spent writing and joined a couple more of the 508 clubs here instead. But even good can do better, and in the spirit of healthy tradition of student protest, I've tried my hardest to ask more of the arbiters of Thomas Jefferson's legacy of progress, knowledge and liberalism.
Perhaps it all sounds like rationalization, but to me criticism has always been consistent with patriotism and love for my community. I am endlessly grateful for having had the opportunity to share both. My thanks to The Cavalier Daily for providing me with a soapbox, and to Pat, Mike, Elliot and Maggie, the talented and tireless editors of the past two years, for helping me better articulate the message to speak from it. My thanks to anyone who has taken a moment to read my columns, and my particular thanks to those who have challenged me and engaged my arguments, because it is those who have made this endeavor worthwhile.
My thanks as well, to that tough critic, or to call him by his more familiar title, Dad.He's right, after all. I have indeed spent the better part of my time at this University ranting on the Opinion pages, criticizing the state of our Union, the politics of our Commonwealth and actions of our school and our neighborhood. And after all this time and all those tirades, I love my country, my adopted state and U.Va. more than I ever thought possible.
My most earnest wish for this University is that we never grow complacent with how far we've come. I hope that I will always be able to pick up a copy of this newspaper and encounter a lengthy, impassioned rant about how far we've yet to go.
Katie Cristol's column usually appeared Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. She is president-elect of the University Democrats. She can be reached at kcristol@cavalierdaily.com.
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