Personally, I was a bit shocked that a survivor of
Rwandan genocide introduced Clinton. It looked
really DC, like we all had to say Clinton was
great, when that was not a
minor-say-you're-sorry-and-it's-done foul-up. It
was a grade A hundreds of thousands dead fuck-up.
An apology doesn't end that. I wouldn't ask Victor
Frankl to introduce Heidegger, despite his
admitting the whole Nazi thing was a mistake.
I thought Paul Begala said great things, but I'm
not sure he was the right choice for a battle of
ideas panel, simply because Begala is, again, a
campaign guy.
The panels had good people, but I felt that they
lacked much learning for people who have been
doing this stuff for a while, which a number of us
at the conference had. I'd hate to break skill
trainings out into novice and advanced (or
whatever), but I felt like the skill panels spent
a fair amount of time covering basics when the
range of skills among students varied broadly.
Oh, and, of course, the lack of a voice for
withdrawal in Iraq, which needs to be considered a
serious option, especially for progressives.
Following the 1st Campus Progress National Student Conference and a convention in my home state, I'm just starting to recover. DC is something else. And this Conference is something else. I met so many people who have done and are doing work all across this country that is great. And I met even more with plans in the works to do even better work.
I finally met, in person, friends like Asheesh and Ezra. I made new friends. I missed some people that I would like to have met (with 600 people, it would be near-impossible to catch them all). What can you do?
Still, I'm incredibly impressed by how the whole event came off. If you only watch one video of the conference, make sure you check out the opening panel on the battle of ideas. The panelists did a great job. If you watch another, watch the one on economic policy. I'm looking forward to downloading the videos of the panels I couldn't be at.
At this point, though, now that we've had an opportunity to look back, what would you want done differently? The greatest thing about blogs is that they allow for the dialogue, so, please, jump in and tell the folks at the Center what you would want to see done differently next year.
Talking to others, I can say that one of the frequent complaints was that there wasn't enough...time. The day we had was packed, fun, emotional, and exhausting. But we've got hundreds and thousands of young leaders across this country seeking skills and education to go out and do good work. One day was not enough.
One of my other concerns was that the skill trainings were all related to communications. All four were great and loaded with excellent panelists, but where were the basics of campus organizing, the Student Government Elections 101, or the live version of Nico Pitney's guide to quick, dirty, and great research.
These are some of my thoughts and thoughts I heard from others I met with.
What are yours?
Please remember that Campus Progress' terms of use do not allow promoting or endorsing any particular political party or candidate for office. Posts or comments that do this will be deleted.
!
I thought Paul Begala said great things, but I'm not sure he was the right choice for a battle of ideas panel, simply because Begala is, again, a campaign guy.
The panels had good people, but I felt that they lacked much learning for people who have been doing this stuff for a while, which a number of us at the conference had. I'd hate to break skill trainings out into novice and advanced (or whatever), but I felt like the skill panels spent a fair amount of time covering basics when the range of skills among students varied broadly.
Oh, and, of course, the lack of a voice for withdrawal in Iraq, which needs to be considered a serious option, especially for progressives.