COM 117

The other day I had the opportunity to go to the Tully Award for Free Speech Ceremony. This year’s award was presented to Idrak Abbasov, a reporter from the small nation of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is a nation of approximately nine million people and is located in the Caucasus region of the Middle East that straddles the boundaries of Europe and Asia. The nation is a former Soviet Bloc country and today suffers from corrupt leadership in the form of rigged elections and bribes for criminals and workers, as well as its main issue: poor first amendment rights. The country is extremely limited on free speech, press rights and the ability to socialize through the Internet. It also does not help that few Newspapers, radio or TV stations or any communication media are privately owned. The majority are state owned and thus are subjected to the will of the government and not the people or a private entity. This problem of identity and free speech is what nearly cost Idrak his life in April 2012.

Idrak was severely beaten for speaking out against the government and for “what was right”. In today’s day it is hard to imagine life without free speech or press, let alone the ability to speak your mind. In Azerbaijan this issue has gotten out of hand. Homes have been destroyed, criminals have got away with murder, and people are beaten every day for telling their side of a story. Idrak suffered two broken ribs, a nearly blind eye and kidney damage that still haunts him today, as the cold weather in Syracuse that night had led to massive discomfort. With that said, they also destroyed his car, his camera, and took away his footage. This man is the definition of a true journalist: a person who risks everything to tell a story and inform the public of wrongdoings. I learned what it takes to be a great journalist, even if it was through an interpreter, and learned that life is not always easy for anyone, especially if their opinions can cost them their life. It cost Idrak’s friend his life and still haunts him to this day. With that said I am very happy I was able to attend this event.

When asked if the situation in Azerbaijan would get better, Idrak said, “No, it will get worse.” Lets hope this is not the case as stories and truth are necessary components to daily life. Journalists’’ prison sentences should be an after thought in today’s day in age.

Last Monday, I was fortunate to attend a lecture by John Stossel, an investigative journalist most prominently known for his libertarian views. For the short time I have lived on campus, I have observed that a majority of students and many professors strongly identify with the democratic party and liberal views (a fact Stossel actually pointed out). While I agree with many socially liberal views, I have found I am in the minority in most other aspects of politics. Conservative views are not widely popular here. Listening to Stossel was a pleasant change from other speakers I have heard, most recently Richard Wolfe, a strong critic of capitalism.

In his address, Stossel discussed some of the misconceptions about capitalism. However, what I found more interesting was how he addressed misconceptions about government regulation on business. According to Stossel, regulation hasn’t made any real difference. For example the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA, passed a series of workplace safety laws which set out to decrease workplace fatalities. According to data Stossel presented, these regulations, at first, appeared successful. However, he pointed out how OSHA, like many federal agencies, manipulate data and take it out of context to suit their needs. In this example the broader data showed that workplace fatalities were already on the decline for reasons that had nothing to do with governmental regulation. Stossel concluded that the laws passed by OSHA did little or nothing to actually improve workplace safety.

Stossel also explained that no one is forcing people to purchase products from any businesses. Companies become successful and prosperous because they serve their customers well and provide a product that people want. It is misdirect to feel animosity toward businesses that deliver products and services that make our lives better. According to Stossel, many anti-capitalists interpret someone’s gain as someone else’s loss. But as stated earlier, capitalism and the free market do not operate this way. Everything in a free market is voluntary. In other words, we freely choose to give a company money in exchange for a product or service we desire.

Unlike Wolfe, Stossel never became emotionally whipped up while discussing his economic stance. He calmly stated his opinion, and the facts that supported it, allowing people to take it how they chose. Stossel himself was unsure of a solution for our current economic problems. He believes we must simply experiment until we get it right. His only certainty was that government was not the solution. And while most were eager to applaud Stossel and what he was saying, even those not completely convinced by his views could not denounce his ability to capture the audience. Overall, I greatly enjoyed Stossel in every regard.

On Tuesday, I was able to hear Jeff Chu speak here at Syracuse. Chu is a journalist and author of the book, Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God in America. Being a gay man raised in a southern Baptist family, Chu states that he wrote the book because it was the kind of book he wanted to read when he first came out. Many people, both conservatives and liberals, told him what he should do about the controversy from his religious upbringing, but nobody asked what he was experiencing. Chu seemed to be stuck in the middle, not wanting to abandon his family or faith but also not wanting to ignore his sexual orientation. Chu explained that keeping his emotions in check while he was reporting to create his book was one of the hardest parts. Many people tried to tell them how he should feel and what he should do but he said the pros of creating this book outweighed the cons. His favorite part was being invited into others’ homes and getting them to tell their stories and experiences. Chu said it was way easier to talk to groups like the Westboro Baptist Church because they are “media whores.” Whereas trying to find a closeted gay Christian was harder. What I personally thought was interesting was how Chu seemed to successfully report both sides of the topic equally well. He explained that many people are opposed to homosexuality because they don’t believe it’s right and they do it out of love. He also went in depth with the struggle gay people have with coming out and becoming accepted in their community and within their families. Chu came to an understanding through his reporting that people’s hate for homosexuality seems to be rooted from love, and the people who love him don’t want him to go to hell. Chu explained his book more thoroughly but he also talked about his journey as a journalist. Currently he is a writer at Beacon, which has a vision to tell stories that aren’t being told and to explore journalism. He explains that his jobs are nonstop, there is no time for him to stop being a journalist. In his experience as a journalist he found that humans have a tendency to see the things that happen in their own bubble and think they’re news, when the same thing happened years ago but in a different area. Chu also read a part of his book to his audience and had a Q&A session. In the end he answered the question, “Does Jesus really love me?” and according to Chu, “his” Jesus loves him. Chu gave an interesting and surprisingly unbiased, journalistic view on religion and homosexuality. His book is definitely on my list of books to read now.

Wednesday night I attended “The Girls of SNL” comic event. The night started with a stand up routine by a lesser-known comic, Nick Vatterott. Nick started with some slightly edgy jokes that were not necessarily funny enough to warrant their controversial content. This immediately turned the audience off, with minimal laughter and scattered applause. But Nick surprised me, he may have used the cheap trick of shock value to grab the audience’s attention initially but, he worked his way into hilarious content. The only issue I take with his story telling ability is that his routine was made up of disjointed and fairly isolated jokes as oppose to being a well-integrated story that flowed from one joke into the other. A good comedian makes you forget that you’re listening to individual jokes and that they have written all their material beforehand. A truly talented comedian should sound like he’s just telling you a story that happens to be incredibly hilarious.
Kate McKinnon is an excellent stand up comedian. Everything that Nick did wrong, she did right. Her routine was personal, fluid, and was well composed. She entered to the sounds of Britney Spear’s “Work B****” and danced with reckless abandon, told highly personal and embarrassing stories from her own college experience, and did an intelligent bit parodying the names of Senior Theses.
Vanessa Bayer, however, never stopped reminding me that she is a sketch comedian, not a stand up comedian. She did humorous individual bits, where she used character’s that have been featured on Saturday Night Live that were packaged slightly different so that they fit the context better. She even exposed an embarrassing experience. But, she lacked flow and I never forgot that she was telling individual jokes as oppose to a humorous story that flowed from one topic to the next. Although, I did not have a positive feeling towards her stand up and storytelling ability as a whole, I must give a nod to her impersonations of ALL SIX of the main cast of “Friends.” That bit in itself was well done enough to make me forget the fact that she awkwardly made her way through the entire rest of her routine.
Kate and Vanessa closed with an improvisation routine in which they interviewed a young couple while taking on the persona of mom’s that are trying to “be cool” while they talk to college kids but who are also constantly trying to offer motherly wisdom and advice. It was a great way to close out the show and to finish out a hilarious night.

When I heard that Jeff Chu was coming to speak at Newhouse, I was immediately attracted to the session. Jeff Chu is the author of “Does Jesus really love me?: A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God in America.” His book explores the different attitudes varying sects and denominations of Christianity have towards homosexuality. Since this topic is rarely discussed in a cohesive and unbiased setting, I was excited to hear what an educated, journalist, gay, Asian American, man, raised in the south by southern Baptist parents would have to offer to the controversial discussion of what role homosexuality plays in the Christian faith.
Jeff started by giving an overview of what topics his book actually covers (from new insight into the motivations of The Westboro Baptist Church to a heart breaking coming out story from a gay teen growing up in an oppressively religious household), he told us personal information about himself (like the fact that his husband has never been invited to a family function), and he spoke about his methods of research and how to get as much information as possible out of an interviewee (play dumb and make them explain everything to you, even if you already know).
Next Jeff began the “story telling” portion of the night. He read a passage of his book, which contained stories from his trip to Topeka, Kansas to visit The Westboro Baptist Church. He frames the idea of the Westboro Baptist Church by saying, “When something is so obviously offensive to us we don’t bother asking ‘Why?’ because we think we already know.” That’s exactly what he attempted to avoid when visiting the church. The Westboro Baptist Church is a highly Controversial organization that identifies itself as a church, although they are best known for they’re highly volatile protests that involve the use of signs that feature such phrases as “God hates fags.” The interesting thing about Jeff’s visit to Topeka was that, unlike most people who interview Westboro, Jeff attempted to truly understand where the members of the church were coming from. One girl explained to him that they do what they do out of love (hard to believe, I know) she defended their message by saying, “what kind of neighbor are you if you do not tell your neighbor how to avoid going to hell?” They see there’s as a message of mercy, although the packaging of that message is offensive to most who hear it and often throws the majority of the American public into a rage, they consider this method a way to reach as many people as possible. If they upset people and cause outrage, more will hear their message. It is twisted logic, but logic none the less. Because Jeff was able to put aside his presuppositions about Westboro, he was afforded much more access to the truth and although there was no way he would ever agree with the church’s perspective, he was able to draw out the human aspects of the congregation.
The next story Jeff told was that of Gideon. Gideon is a young man that responded to Jeff’s tweet asking for stories from closeted Christians. At first their correspondence was very quite and hidden. But when it came time to publish, Gideon insisted that Jeff use his real name, “It’s important” he told Jeff. This was a major risk for him seeing as most of his family had no idea he was gay and they had made it clear that they would be far from accepting if he ever came out. His family was very open with their distaste for homosexuality. Gideon’s mother would disinfect the entire house with bleach anytime his uncle and his uncle’ partner came to visit. After the release of the book his family shunned him and although Jeff encouraged Gideon to move away from his hometown, he refused. Gideon, to this day, is determined to remain a presence in his hometown; he wants to open a bakery right in the center of town. Despite his attempts to reach out to his family (birthday cards, gifts on holidays, etc.) they refuse to respond.
Gideon’s story was a reminder that so many gay Americans risk so much just to live the only life they know how to live. Although, many of the stories Jeff told often implied that there was insurmountable division between Christians and gays he told a final story that shined a light in a dark and seemingly hopeless place. A few months earlier Jeff’s mother came to visit for the first time since he had moved away from home. He and his husband were unsure of how the visit would play out “Would she accept the offer to stay in their bedroom, or would she be disgusted by the prospect of sleeping in their bed? Would she want to meet any of their friends?” “My mother does not show her love verbally…she shows it through food. She told me to invite my friends over for dinner because she wanted to cook a big meal for them.” In addition to this gesture of love and acceptance, his mother also gave his husband a gift, “Every member of my family has a pair of antique, ivory chopsticks and while she was visiting, she gave my husband a set.”
He closed his session by answering the question “does Jesus really love me?” “I think if you ask 2,000 different Christians that question, you will get 2,000 different answers, but I believe my Jesus loves me.” Jeff Chu’s storytelling ability was enhanced by his commitment to finding truth as opposed to a biased, contorted version of the truth. He offered no concrete answers, merely experiences to allow the audience to construct their own conclusion. Through these experiences Jeff communicated a message of hope, understanding and finding the truth in both sides of the story.

To correct myself Shawn Green was on Monday.

On Tuesday I was fortunate to attend the interview of two-time All-Star Shawn Green. Green is a retired baseball player who spent fourteen years in the majors and even played for the Syracuse Chiefs, the local team located only a few miles away, from 1992-1994. Green clubbed 328 home runs including seven in a three-day span in 2002 and had 1078 RBIs with a career .282 batting average. However Green’s event focused more on his life story and the adversity he faced being a prominent Jewish athlete in a major metro area.

Green first became interested in baseball when he moved to California and practiced in his backyard with a pitching machine. He idolized prominent left-handed hitters such as Wade Boggs and Rod Carew and was a switch hitter until he was fourteen. After attending Tustin High School Green attended Stanford and played for their nationally ranked program. However, Green never graduated from Stanford, instead opting to sign a major league contract with the Toronto Blue Jays when he was a junior. Surprisingly, Green’s coach at Stanford did not want him to sign, but after consulting a star athlete Green realized his signing was a great idea.

Green’s first month as a pro was anything short of a success as he batted a measly .091. This sent him to the minors where he grew as a person and athlete and hit .344, all while making friends with star athlete Carlos Delgado. He even took Delgado’s apartment and Car for his great contributions. However, Green would be traded to the powerhouse Dodgers where his career and heritage would soar to new heights. Green made headlines when he took Yom Kippur off during a heated Postseason push in 2001 and after leaving LA he would be booed. Green was loved in LA and would even throw his batting gloves into the stands during every home game. However, he did not like Frank Mccourt and admitted that he was more sensitive than most players and took the boos to heart. He wished that the fanbase would understand his situation.

Green realized he was in the majors when he faced the Oakland A’s in 1995 and faced off against Ricky Henderson, another one of his childhood idols. Later that year he faced Roger Clemens and realized he was truly in the big leagues.

Green made headlines again when he coached the Israeli National team in order put baseball on the map in the Mid-East. His Jewish heritage runs deep within him and even though he is not religious, takes pride in his heritage and continues to support Jewish organizations. Most importantly he wishes that the MLB would be more complient with Jewish holidays like the NFL. With all of this said I learned a lot about someone who I grew up watching and even got some insight into the life of a major leaguer who at one time heard seven different languages in the locker room. I’m glad I almost skipped dinner to go to this great event.

On Monday night, libertarian John Stossel bravely came to Syracuse to speak on what he believed freedom to be.  He covered topics such as big government, world relations, and free markets.  Stossel was undoubtedly clever and concise in his approach.

He began his lecture by briefly describing how his life had brought him to where he was. Stossel, while in college, considered himself to be a Liberal.  “It just made sense”, he noted.  Upon graduation Stossel worked for some time as a reporter.  In his early jobs he found himself working for several liberal companies.  Unable to have true freedom of opinion, he left and began reporting on 20/20.  He now works for FOX news, and on his own show entitled “The Stossel Show.”  All in this time, he won 19 Emmy’s.

After that short history, Stossel touched on the title of his lecture:  Freedom and its enemies.  What and who are our enemies?  Big government.  He talked about the Free Market and how beneficial it can be. He stated that the Free Market does not necessarily exploit workers. As companies build upon it’s resources, the more expertise it gains and the more improved the quality of life becomes within that industry.

Stossel talked of Adam Smith and the invisible hand theory.  That to believe the market will correct and work within itself is not intuitive for one to believe.  It is much easier to conclude that we need the government to catch us when we fall.  But falling (and getting up) is the beauty of Capitalism.

Stossel then asked the question “Why is America Prosperous?” He answered himself: “Rule of Law and Economic Freedom.”  When the government tries to control too much, as seen by the government shutdown, it becomes cost too much to afford.  Government fails, but individuals succeed.  When given the freedom, individuals find the most efficient and inexpensive way to produce.  It is how capitalism works.

It’s hard to have any type of free market with the abundance of regulations that exist today.  This was one of Stossel’s main arguments.  Stossel did note, however, that this doesn’t mean we don’t need some regulation.  Environmental and Food regulation helps to keep us safe.

People’s instinct, he reiterated, is to rely on a central party.  But Economic Freedom is very much a moral objection of people.  When the government gives us less control of our lives — this makes us smaller.  But in the private sector, we have freedom, and things happen.

The last thing I’ll touch on about the Stossel lecture is his thoughts on America’s governments role in the world.  To trade and inspire.  “I want music and youtube to pollute the minds of kids all over the world”, “I don’t want to police the world.  I want to be known as the people who have a better idea.”  He concluded by suggesting to do this we need a disciplined market without bailouts, or privilege.

This is already pretty long, but I could go on about John Stossel’s ideas.  He did not talk about politics in his lecture, but economic logistics.  As a libertarian myself, I believe he encompassed many of my similar thoughts.  It was an extremely interesting lecture.