Davis College Republicans General Meeting Recap 4/11/12

Spring is here, and DCR is at it again! For our first meeting of the quarter, our topic was “The Ideology of Catastrophe”. Marcus started off the discussion with some examples of crises that have come into the public’s awareness in the recent past – from bird flu, to melting polar ice caps, to peak oil. The panic that ensues as a result of these so-called “catastrophes” create an environment in which brash and illogical decisions are easily made, and public sentiment is easily swayed.

Coincidentally, on the very day of our meeting, the Reynoso Task Force that was established to investigate the pepper-spraying of students involved in the Occupy protests on campus released their official ruling. The Reynoso report claimed that Lt. Pike was wrong for having deployed pepper spray. As a witness of the events that day, a contributor of testimony to the task force’s report, and as an attendee of the committee’s official presentation of their opinion, I felt it was important to bring up this case as an example of “The Ideology of Catastrophe” at work. As I explained in the meeting, it is my view that the response to the actions taken by the campus police has been yet another instance of a knee-jerk reaction that swings things too far in the opposite direction in light of a (perceived or real) crisis. The proposed disbanding of the campus police force would be a negligent decision that would put many more students in danger of much worse than pepper-spray. As Republicans, as students, as people: we must always be able to take a step back and think logically about the decisions we make. When faced with a crisis, it becomes much easier to be ruled by our emotions and our fear than to think objectively, but a time of crisis is the very time that objectivity is needed most.

A big thank you to everyone who made it to our first meeting of the quarter! We had a great turnout this week. To all our new members: I look forward to seeing you again! To those of you who weren’t able to make it, come check us out next week!

Nelson Harris
Secretary
Davis College Republicans