There’s been quite a bit written about the Newt Gingrich incident last week.
Maybe you believe that nothing new can be said. But as the prolific Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “Detached reflection cannot be demanded in the presence of an uplifted knife.”
In the snap judgments that are made in high-profile incidents like this, it’s difficult to remove emotion from our reactions.
In the initial discussion, there was very little said about what we can take away from what happened and how we can move forward.
The statement that College sophomore and Penn Democrats President Isabel Friedman made during Gingrich’s talk was inappropriate. It was phrased in a hostile manner. And bringing up the personal life of a guest on Penn’s campus is wrong. In many ways, it wasn’t really a question.
What has also been lost is the content of the speech made by the former Speaker of the House. Gingrich spoke about the power of individual initiative and the way that government bureaucracies inevitably stifle it. His answer was for us to focus on research and development. It was a positive speech, keeping in line with his message as head of the think-tank American Solutions.
In other words, the content of the speech did not warrant Friedman’s question.
But despite this mistake and the negative publicity she received, Friedman is a good person and a good friend of mine. I’m not willing to change the opinion I’ve built about her over time based on a single incident, even though I was dissappointed by it.
She is willing to take responsibility for her actions. “I own my words,” she said. “You should be prepared to stand by what you say.”
Last semester, she was the most willing person on the Penn Dems board to work with the College Republicans to have a debate before the midterm election. While working with her on it, I was always impressed at the way she was able to detach herself from her activism and work with someone from a different viewpoint.
Last week, her guest column in The Daily Pennsylvanian indicated a certain level of remorse about the phrasing of her question. And the fact that she refused to enter the media circus by appearing on MSNBC demonstrates that she does not want to proceed into the world of ad hominem, unconstructive political hatred that was started by Keith Olbermann and is now being continued by his successors.
“The media plays one role — they’re not interested in what I have to say,” Friedman said. “They just want a sensational story.”
It would be an easy path for Republicans to take last week’s event as a sign that political dialogue with the other side on campus is hopeless. After all, in some ways, last week’s media attention may make it even harder to attract Republican speakers to Penn.
On this path, we’d retreat into our political corners and have very little to do with the Penn Dems.
But as is usually true in life, the easy path is not the right one.
Friedman has said that she would like to include Republicans in the annual Penn Dems issue advocacy week, which will be centered around education this year.
Fellow Republicans, and Penn students in general, should take her up on this offer.
Gingrich himself received a great deal of recognition when he collaborated with Al Sharpton in 2009 to work on educational policy. That work began in Philadelphia. Even though Sharpton and Gingrich were previously political opponents, they agreed that the education system needs to be improved.
By emulating Gingrich’s commitment to the issues, there is a real opportunity for us to reveal the power of substance over raw emotion.
Taking advantage of this opportunity would best demonstrate why last Tuesday’s question was unnecessary — better than any words can.
Charles Gray is a Wharton and College junior from Casper, Wyo. His e-mail address is gray@theDP.com. The Gray Area appears every Tuesday.
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