A personal journey

In the comments, “George” calls me out: (He writes “Innermost Parts” instead of” Sahar Massachi” but I speak only for myself here)

It’s amazing how innermostparts would freak out when student leaders last year and the year before did minuscule things you disagreed with, yet now you don’t care to hold any of the current leadership accountable? Please do us all a favor and either admit that you are a hypocrite or that you were wrong in the past for writing incessantly about “meaningless bullshit” and demonizing past leaders.

Yo George, that’s the thing.

Last year, I cared *so much* about these sorts of things. Now, I can’t summon the enthusiasm to even write about this sort of stuff, most of the time.

I don’t really know why; I guess I’m going through a personal journey of sorts, and you’re watching it in real time.

Does Diana deserve to be impeached? Would be better off if she was? Maybe. In fact, I’m even sympathetic to the pro-impeachment side of things. Intellectually, I do feel these sorts of struggles are important, that proper running of the Union is important, that the Senate has the power and responsibility to do such things.

Still, I just can’t summon the energy to cover it, or to try to affect the outcome at all.

We’re all just students here, ok? Andy and Diana messed up, but they weren’t mendacious. They’re just kids. We’re all just kids. (In my mind, 20-ish is still a “kid”. You can replace “kid” with “young adult” if you want) They work hard, or don’t, doesn’t really matter. They were intimidated by the voting system and kept putting it off, then forgot about the whole matter. Rather than remind them, the Senate freaked out and impeached Diana.

Or maybe that’s not what happened at all. If that’s the case, we’ll find out at the trial.

Look, Innermost Parts was founded to uphold Brandeis values and uphold Social Justice. I want to get back to that vision of what we’re supposed to be. The internal power struggles of the Student Union, however much they matter to those inside the Union, look so boring now.

By focusing so closely on the Union for the past I-don’t-know-how-long, Innermost Parts hasn’t been able to grow in scope. We should be talking about funding decisions for the University, Board of Trustees affairs, about Dining and Aramark. We should be boosting worthy clubs and events, and we should help keep Social Justice a meaningful thing, not just a phrase that everyone bandies about.

That’s what I’m talking about.

Before anything else, we’re fellow students here. Sometimes I feel we act out these roles – blogger, journalist, “senator”, whatever, and forget that fact. Let’s just take a step back and remember that, come on, let’s not take ourselves so seriously here.

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9 thoughts on “A personal journey”

  1. Brooksie! You’re back! How’ve you been? How’s being a Justice of the Peace?

    I should have known that there are only so many people in the world who care this much about the Student Union.

    But I’m actually glad you’re here, because I have a question for you. If I’m not mistaken, you served on the Senate when then-Secretary Mike Goldman was accused of giving out union election results to close friends before the polls were closed. Do you feel that Andy and Diana’s forgetfulness is on the same level as Goldman’s corruption? (Remember that Goldman was only censured).

    I don’t really expect an honest answer to this question, because after all this time you can say whatever you want to avoid looking like a shameless hypocrite, and there really isn’t be much I can do. But whatever. I tried.

    Speaking about the Gold Standard, how is he these days? Does he troll around innermostparts under a pseudonym as well? I hope so. I’d love to say hi.

  2. Hey Sahar,

    I hate to disappoint, but I’m not George. I’ve been hosting a ‘Deis friend of mine (a former Student Union member) for the past few days. That is the person posting as George. If George wants to reveal his/her identity, it isn’t my business. I determined it wasn’t worth my time to get involved in the current Student Union drama, especially given my distance from it.

    I don’t have a habit of posting under false names. I have no need or reason to hide my identity. I occasionally read Innermost Parts to keep up with ‘Deis news, but I don’t recall commenting since graduation.

    Your problem with my friend’s use of my computer to comment anonymously should not involve me. Please refrain from accusing me without knowing the particulars. If you’d like to discuss further (or to catch up on things), feel free to call me sometime.

    Thanks,
    Andrew

  3. Andrew Brooks,

    I’d take you a lot more seriously if you weren’t hiding your identity behind this fake “George” persona.

    You have a history of dishonest sockpuppeting on this site and honestly I’m losing my patience for it. I don’t know why I humored you for so long.

  4. Ok, so wait. Those of you who know me know I’m not in any way unbiased on this issue. Those of you who don’t…I’m a friend of Andy’s. So obviously I’m coming at this from a very specific viewpoint. I guess my issue with all of this has a lot less to do with the Constitution than it does with common sense. The point of this referendum which was not referred was to add a midyear senator position to the Constitution. The Constitution is under review, and the end result of this process is going to be a complete revision of the Constitution. Diana (or Ms. Aronin, as those too uncomfortable to criticize her by first name call her) delays it at first because of concerns on the voting system and then because, hey, this stuff is all going to be changed anyway. And Andy backs her up or tells her to or something.

    Is it against the Constitution? Probably. But it also makes a great deal of sense: why go through all that effort for something that is going to be essentially useless? And it isn’t as though they are doing this to save themselves more time to light up in the Romper Room. They’re working on actual student advocacy, while the Senate churns out some great resolutions. You all saw that Andy got himself onto the Presidential Search Committee. You think that shit just happens? The problem I see with this is the least effective part of the Student Union is using the power it retains to try and mess up the work of people who are actually trying to work on student issues. I don’t really care if the Constitution gives them the power, they are using it in a way that is essentially dumb.

    So you know, George, Alan, it seems to me that maybe we should all take a step back here and think about what we are actually doing. We get mad at the Senate, the Union, Andy, Diana, and even Sahar. But we remain connected by our relation to a single institution, Brandeis University (which we also get mad at sometimes). We are students, and if we spend our time sniping at each other on blogs and censuring each other and passing articles of impeachment, we risk losing sight of our common wants, needs, wishes, and dreams. And I think that we have a lot more of those in common than is apparent during this ridiculous Union infighting.

  5. George- were you here when they decided to personally attack the counsel for a UJ case, someone with no personal involvement in the case but just volunteered as a member of mock trial? They attacked everything from the way he spoke to his mannerisms, just for believing in the democratic process (that everyone deserves representation). Called out on that, they pointed out that it was all in good fun! Oh fantastic, I’m sure the counsel in question found that quite comforting despite being ridiculed on a public blog by name. If IMP was serious about no longer being awful awful human beings they would apologize to those they’ve callously attacked and remove all such references from their site.

  6. Sahar: I take no issue with your personal journey. I honestly think it’s great that you’ve decided to become more mature and stop demonizing student leaders with whom you disagree (although calling someone who did something wrong is appropriate). Unfortunately, you haven’t really lived up to your new mission as it appears you’ve still managed to demonize the executive senator by name on your website for the senate’s vote to impeach Ms. Aronin (despite your own admission that the UJ case proposed by Deena Glucksman was without merit). I think you owe the executive senator an apology for your choice of words if you have any integrity and intent on actually pursuing this “personal journey” of yours.

    While I appreciate your response, I still get the sense that you’re attempting to “cop out” of addressing the fundamental point of my comment: were you wrong in the past for focusing so much on the union and demonizing student leaders you disagreed with? If so, you probably should apologize to all those people too (weren’t they also “just kids” that shouldn’t be have been treated so savagely on this blog)? If you think you were right to demonize union officials in the past but now don’t think it’s important/appropriate to do so (as in Ms. Aronin’s case) because of this new “personal journey”, then I think you should admit that you’re a hypocrite for holding “kids” in the past to a much higher standard than you do now.

    And for the record, the “we’re just a bunch of kids” line sounds like some sort of defense of Aronin and Hogan’s actions. Being the secretary is like having a job…you’re accountable to your employers, in this case the student body. Just because the secretary job doesn’t come with any money doesn’t mean it’s not important. Being on the executive board of a $1,000,000 organization is pretty important, so it does matter when someone with that kind of power screws up, intentionally or not. If you think being a kid means it doesn’t matter when someone ignores the duties required of a job they volunteered for, then I pity these kids’ futures in the real world. College is supposed to prepare kids for the real world, not just provide a venue for taking classes or doing hobbies/drugs/etc.

    Anyway, I seriously wish you well on your new journey, but I hope you address your past actions as I described above before you move on.

    Lev: The difference in calling Ms. Aronin out was that she had violated the constitutional duties of her public office and thus the public trust. On the other hand, Rubin has not done anything wrong. She is simply 1 of 14 senators who all voted to impeach Ms. Aronin for her constitutional violations. If you disagree with the senate’s choice, then all 14 senators should be called out (instead of singling out Ms. Rubin).

  7. This post deserves a big Amen. I’ve always been under the belief that one of brandeis’ biggest problems is that students take themselve way to seriously. Seriously were all in our early twenties, there’s plenty of time to be boring and serious as grow up. Right now, we are at the best part of our lives, lets not waste it on pointless infighting, and using obscure bylaws to screw each other over. Lets focus on the things that matter: the ridiculous cost of tuition, the new president of Brandeis, and any other things you feel strongly about. Beyond that, lets just all get along and have a good time, your only in college once.

    I’ll leave you with a video of Asher Roth, “I Love College” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYx7YG0RsFY&feature=fvst. Never forget, “pass out at 3, wake up at 10, go out to eat, then do it again”

  8. I don’t see how that is any different than the Senate impeaching Diana – the Justice articles include her first and last name. Does she not have to apply to jobs and grad schools too?

    I think employers are smart and can filter out what is generally stupid (i.e. this whole impeachment issue) and not consider it when making decision.

  9. I’m unclear on how you can say none of this matters, yet justify attacking someone by first and last name on a blog that is publicly accessible. if she’s just a “kid” too, why do we need to take shots at her that could seriously hurt her in the future?

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