Finally, a group for the middle

Finally, a group for the middle

by Katie Sellers
Boston College Heights
April 24, 2006

Where have you been all this year? I have spent nearly two semesters on this campus, and I am yet to find a single group that I feel I can connect with concerning American politics. I'm neither conservative right nor liberal left. Like Ohio, home sweet home, I fall right in the middle. That is not to say I don't hold genuinely strong opinions.

It's quite the contrary: I am more passionate about politics, international affairs, and America's role in the world today than nearly anyone I know. Time and again I've found myself wanting, needing to have a conversation about any number of issues but unable to do so because the venues open to me seemed closed to my moderate views, that is, until last week.

I spent eight hours sitting in a room of hundreds of students from across the country and the world brought together by one, nonpartisan organization. Its sole mission is to increase Americans' global awareness by fostering dialogue and promoting education, especially among college students. I admit, it sounds rather idealistic. Who doesn't try to 'foster dialogue" and "promote education"? But where others have failed to engage or welcome me, these individuals have absolutely succeeded. (So much so that I was up at 5:45 a.m. to meet a car full of students headed south to a one-day conference at Yale, where we met up with lots of other Boston College and Boston kids!)

In its first year on campus this group, Americans for Informed Democracy, has managed to organize two - soon to be three - "town hall meetings" bringing together numerous experts on issues of Islamic-Western relations, international oil policy, and now, traversed states to teach about the International Criminal Court (ICC). In this most recent event, we were spoken to by some of America's experts on this judicial body, including Ben Ferencz - the man responsible, in his first legal case, at 27 years old, for successfully prosecuting 22 of the world's greatest criminals during the Nuremburg Trials. Since then he has devoted his life to the creation of the ICC and today, at 87, proved to be one of the most articulate men I've ever had the pleasure of listening to.

So where have you been all my life: you students who are passionate, interested, and concerned by international issues?

Those young (and old) leaders who believe that moderates like me matter enough to be heard and to be further educated?

You are in this growing and enthusiastic group that has welcomed one student with open arms. Thank you Americans for Informed Democracy: for the first time this year, I'm not asking whom my voice concerns, because I know it concerns you.

Katie Sellers is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences.