A guy walks down Locust Walk and is greeted by two Jehovah's Witnesses, five Muslims and one "Jew for Jesus" -- sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, doesn't it? I thought so also, but it turned out to the story of the beginning of my week.
It started as I was on my way to class. As I entered campus at 40th and Locust I encountered two well-dressed elderly black women sitting on one of the benches that line Locust Walk. As I approached, one of them smiled at me from underneath her bright, broad-brimmed yellow hat. Despite my groggy disposition that morning, we made eye contact. She said "hello" and offered me some literature.
Though somewhat disheveled, and confused at first, I recognized her booklet, The Watchtower, as a publication put out by Jehovah's Witnesses. I also vaguely recalled meeting these same women before. For as long as I could remember there have always been Jehovah's Witnesses sitting there, along Locust Walk, proselytizing to Penn students. Sometimes I try to avoid them, but this morning I had forgotten about them. I paused, probably even frowned, accepted their literature and walked on.
About halfway down the Walk, I saw five Muslim students. Each of them had fists full of yellow balloons labeled "Islam Awareness Week." They busily worked to line the Walk, creating a brightly-colored corridor which my sleepy eyes had trouble adjusting to. Occasionally they would step back to admire their helium handiwork. As I walked by, one of them caught my squinting gaze, and proudly smiled as our eyes met.
By the time I reached 36th Street I was greeted by yet a third smile, this one belonging to a middle-aged woman. She handed me a bright yellow pamphlet with a cartoon of a man in a robe accompanied by the words "Moses for Jesus." I accepted it, not really knowing what it was at first and secretly cursing the color yellow, which seemed to be particularly garish that morning, mocking me everywhere.
At the time, I wasn't too interested in free speech. In fact, I was annoyed by it. I had become irritated by the sequence of events that morning. I felt that my privacy had been invaded and that these people intentionally wanted to annoy me.
Looking back on the situation now, I'm a little embarrassed by my attitude that morning. Having your mind stimulated is not such a bad thing, even in the morning, and I'm pretty sure that none of the people who were "witnessing" on the Walk were trying to make my life difficult, as I wrongly assumed. It's true that they probably all had their own agenda, but it mainly involved educating me (which isn't such an ignoble goal, really).
Too often I am irritated for the wrong reasons: someone is inconveniencing me, or they are trying to get me to think when I would rather be zoning out or I foolishly think they have nothing worth listening to.
Even though I don't always feel like listening to the ideas of the people around me, I think that if I do take them seriously and ask questions I will probably end up learning something.
It's a good thing that I picked up The Watchtower because now, as I look over it, I am better equipped to speak intelligently and ask informed questions the next time I see those women on the bench by 40th Street. I may not agree with their views, but I should be willing to think and talk about the ideas that they are presenting and be prepared to reason intelligently about them.
In the same way, we should not be offended when students of the Islamic faith attempt to educate us about their beliefs. Rather, we should take advantage of the opportunity to learn. And when Jewish people tell us that they are "for Jesus," which, for some people, may seem oxymoronic and absurd, we should try to understand what they mean and where they are coming from before becoming annoyed that they are trying to change our minds.
We should value free speech not only as the privilege to speak our minds, which it is, but also as an opportunity to listen. Who knows -- in our conversations with one another, we may even learn a few good jokes.Andrew Rennekamp is a first-year Biomedical Ph.D. student from East Stroudsburg, Pa. Any Ice Today Lady? appears on Tuesdays.
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