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If you are in college or graduate school right now, chances are that you are pretty worried about your career future. Unlike recent college graduates, classes going into the world face a receding job market that decreases the options one might have for employment post graduation. As a graduate student, I constantly wonder if my education alone is going to be enough when people with much more experience than me are being let go from the careers I might consider when I finish here.

I want to here the presidential candidates talking about people my age and what we are supposed to do to support ourselves and climb the economic ladder. So far I’ve heard a lot of talk about the middle class, but very little about those trying to get into the middle class. At the current stage of my life, I am not the richest of individuals, but I have the skills, the will, and the education to be a productive member of society. I just want to hear someone tell me what we’re doing to provide opportunities for others such as myself for success. Right now, it seems like the job market is shrinking and the number of college students seeking well paying jobs is increasing. Could I go work in a retail outlet or something similar? Probably, but that’s not why I’ve worked my butt off for the better part of a decade for my Master’s Degree.

If someone in politics was talking about the twenty-something year olds like me who are being affected by the current recession, that would really be something. Instead, I’ve heard plenty of talk aimed at people who have established themselves. There’s nothing wrong with that in and of itself, but we are citizens too, and need the guidance of our leaders to move into the future during this time of turmoil.

Philip Gibson

Columnist

philagan@gmail.com

I’m going to take a break from my normal political rantings to talk about our generation as a whole for a moment. I believe that our generation has been raised in a culture that believes in a “me first” philosophy that is incredibly dangerous to the future of this nation. We don’t believe in national isolation. We believe in personal isolation. The trouble here is that it leads us to seclude the ugly problems that occur in our own backyards.

There is so much poverty in Alabama, but you would never be confronted with it unless predisposed to seek out opportunities at addressing it. If you go through undergrad and get a normal job with benefits, chances are you could spend your days going out and shopping, hanging out with people just like you, and never have to encounter someone that might make you think twice about the way the system works. I don’t know if this is intentional or not, but it frightens me. We are so detached from the struggles of people in our own state that we can fight for lower tax burdens on our already luxurious lives without caring that there are people in true financial turmoil, and by that I mean people who are uncertain where their next meal is going to come from and how they are going to maintain housing.

Do yourself a favor. Go to a homeless shelter, drive into a delapidated neighborhood, or just step outside your front door and talk to someone about what is going on in their lives. Find out how they got to the point they are at now. Chances are you’ll find similarities and differences between your upbringings, but you’ll also be able to see the humanity in people who are different from you. It is in this kind of dialogue that relationships between the haves and have-nots can form, and these are the seeds of real change.

I can understand why people disdain religion these days. On the surface, it seems our religious institutions simply affirm our way of life without challenging us to truly improve the circumstances of those around us. The very faiths that call for justice are often used as safe-havens for what are, in essence, secular views. This can be disheartening at times, but it is not the whole story. There are many within the ranks of our religious institutions who see the need to provide a voice to those who are oppressed instead of simply helping themselves. It’s easy to ignore in a you-tube society, but it is there.

I would encourage you to explore what your core values are. What is important to you? Is it promoting your own status in society, or making a truly positive, lasting impact on society that will leave it better than you found it. Wrestle with the question, because if no one does, we could be in real trouble.

Philip Gibson

Columnist

philagan@gmail.com

I am hoping that most of you watched Thursday night’s Vice Presidential Debates with as much interest as I did. I must admit that I have already chosen the candidate I will be voting for come November but as a journalism student I have some kind of strange fetish for political events such as conventions, debates, etc. OK, so maybe you didn’t watch with quite as much interest as I did but that’s OK you are probably healthier for it. I also must admit that I was kind of rooting for Biden and that I was curious in a slightly malevolent way as to how Governor Palin would handle herself. I have to say that she defied my expectations and did very well.

We learned some interesting things about both VP hopefuls such as Biden’s penchant for referring to himself in the third person and Palin’s fun accent and tendency to use phrases like ‘darn it’ and ‘heck’. Anyway comedic moments aside I thought both candidates performed well and much like the first presidential debates there was no clear winner. I’m sure by the time anyone reads this that someone somewhere will have claimed that both candidates won in different ways and that every media outlet has a different opinion on who it was.

As for myself I got exactly what I expected from Joe Biden and more than I expected from Sarah Palin. Let’s face it, she has not been impressive in any of her recent interviews and so it was hard to expect much out of her. Add to the fact that she was up against someone as fiery and experienced and Joe Biden and I just assumed she would play defense all night. She did seem to be on the defensive several times but she also seemed to have a pretty good handle on the situation and the knowledge of what she was debating.

As expected both Biden and Palin stuck to their guns and slogans. Obama and Biden stand for change and McCain and Palin are mavericks. Palin was still unable to convince me to change my vote, not even close, but she did manage to convince to at least give her some respect. This is probably an opinion that many will have and I it is something that the Republican ticket needed. Now all that’s left to be seen is how it all reflects in the polls.

For this post, I’m going to leave the argument about whether or not religion should play a part in politics alone. Whether or not it should happen, a person’s faith will always end up playing a part in their politics, I believe, because our beliefs are fundamentally tied to our priorities and ethics.

What I will say is that the way faith interacts with politics is largely misconstrued, both in our society at large and within the UAB community. I think people often align the Christian vote with the right, and I’m not so certain that is always accurate.

Take a look at what is happening in the evangelical community in our country. Such individuals as Rick Warren (Purpose Driven Life) and Jim Wallis (God’s Politics: Why the Right is Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It) have discussed the ways that different Christian values are represented in each of the major political parties in the United States. While Republicans may have a lock on the Pro-Life vote, many Christians are drawn to aiding the poor in our country, something that causes many Christians to resonate with the Democratic platform.

I don’t think there is one right and one wrong answer when it comes to faith and politics. I know many Christians whose views I respect that have valid reasons for voting conservative. On the other hand, I know many devout Christians who, due to their faith, feel compelled towards a more liberal point of view.

The problem comes when we brand all liberals as God hating baby killers and all conservatives as closeminded biblethumpers. Stereotyping can never lead to at true dialogue about the important issues facing this country. It takes an open ear and a willingness to understand that faith takes many shapes and forms in different people to make progress in solving our problems together.

I’ll keep things short this week, but I want to invite the student body to discuss the role faith, whether it be Christianity, Islam, Atheist, or anything inbetween, plays in politics. Keep things civil, and have an open ear to your neighbor.