THE
Daily Egyptian SERVING THE SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY SINCE 1916.
DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2022
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SIU Alumni is new director for SNL
Carbondale Dog Park brings its first ever Howl-O-Ween
VOL. 106, ISSUE 12
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Are you not cold?
Remembering radio alum Bill Wilkerson
Lane Frost | lfrost@dailyegyptian.com Daniel Bethers dbethers@dailyegyptian.com
George Orwell, the widely celebrated mind behind the dystopian novel “1984,” wrote his works in reaction to the stifling extremism of oppressive governments, under which servile societies toiled in the ash choked middle years of the 20th century. A journalist and teacher in his own right, the ideas Orwell left on the conscience of the western world were designed to be heavy, philosophical boulders on the hands of those who would move societies towards conformity, omnipresent government scrutiny, and authoritarian control without respect for history or their opposition.
While they are often heard, some of his warnings have become more of a mantra for the modern era, a mechanical reminder of problems which are taken as a given as the world plows forward into unexamined politics. Even so, his ideas found fertile ground in the hearts of both political parties in America, despite Orwell’s own preference for democratic socialism. One quote of his in particular remains as clear as it was the day he inked it out, etched in stone by his statue at the BBC’s headquarters in London, “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” For Republican students at SIU, this liberty to express
themselves freely is something many feel they don’t have. There are no Republican Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) and there haven’t been any for years, in contrast to an abundance of active left leaning RSOs, including the College Democrats, the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) and several non-partisan presenting groups that Republican students believe to be left-leaning, such as the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute. “Well, it’s certainly disheartening because, I mean, it’s kind of ironic, too, because you just go like an hour north, kind of where I’m from, being Ashley area, and it’s, like, it’s the most conservative red area, but
you go south of Du Quoin and it suddenly becomes this bluish kind of story with Carbondale,” said Brandon Kujawa, a freshman student in his first semester. “...It certainly makes it a lot harder for me to voice my opinions on topics whenever discussion gets brought up in my classes. Because, I mean, very, it’s not that I find it that there’s a whole lot of liberal students, but I mean, the most vocal, certainly make it a lot harder for me to even say a more moderate position that I hold on a subject.” Democratic RSOs are often visited by a wealth of local Democrat thinkers and leaders with valuable knowledge and inspirations to pass on to students. They also provide a
place for students to organize political actions such as protests, or public awareness campaigns, and a space for Democratic thought, where young liberals can bounce ideas off each other. Recently, the College Democrats received a visit from Chip Markel, the democratic House candidate for the 12th district of Illinois. Early in October, the Young Democrats executed a protest against an unwanted new tow truck facility encroaching on historically Black areas of Carbondale. These are real world political experiences that Republican students are denied, stifling political participation in the Republican community. Please see ELEPHANTS | 3
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