Political poster art in need of more facts, less ignorance

Students passing through the intersection of Bigelow Boulevard and Forbes Avenue yesterday… Students passing through the intersection of Bigelow Boulevard and Forbes Avenue yesterday afternoon no doubt noticed the work of Chris Kiaer, an unemployed carpenter on a mission to ensure the defeat of President George W. Bush in the upcoming election.

Seven of Kiaer’s signs protesting everything from Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to scathing indictments of the entire Republican party were taped to the sidewalk, many of which Kiaer himself saved from the refuse of the Republican National Convention.

Some pedestrians, seeing Kaier’s work, felt inspired to add their own magic-marker sentiments. One young girl paused, chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully, and wrote, “I (heart) John Kerry!” in a loopy script. Another beside her, idly chatting on her cell phone, scrawled “BUSH = NAZI.”

In one corner, someone had written “END WAR IN IRAK.”

Smug witticisms like “The only Bush I trust is my own” were smeared everywhere. All across the boards, people echoed the same hateful rhetoric.

From a distance, it may have looked inspiring. Dozens of college students, long stigmatized as politically apathetic, were freely expressing themselves in that moment with unrestrained bursts of pure, fiery emotion. Proof they cared.

With each step closer, however, that idyllic illusion faded into an increasingly hideous and unendurable spectacle. The ignorant bile that spewed forth from those markers yesterday afternoon was an embarrassment to all of us, to the ideals we supposedly hold sacred and true as students dedicated to the pursuit of higher education.

I scoured each square inch of the pavement for evidence of a single fact, one meager shred of reason or good sense, and I failed to find it.

It is no secret that this election is splitting our country in half. We may never see the real issues properly addressed, buried as they are beneath endless streams of insults and character bashing.

The candidates and their loyal coteries of media pundits and talking heads have appealed to our most basic instincts. They strive for the knee-jerk reflex in lieu of careful deliberation. Candidates may preach educational reform as a campaign cornerstone, but they never seem to mind a little ignorance when the ads hit the airwaves.

Ignorance is tantamount to the success of those ads.

Clinton advisor James Carville once said, “No one understands the power of the media in this country. I [believed] they were powerful. I didn’t know. The power they have is staggering … They claim the mantle of truth… Hell, truth is [that] they make initial snap judgments, and, after that, all of their time… is spent on nothing but validating their original judgment.”

Carville knows the power of the media. So does his wife Mary Matalin, an advisor to Bush Sr., who spoke of her love for ‘going negative’ with political ads because it “put everyone in a mischievously productive and creative mood.”

Enough is enough. The next time someone hands us a marker, we should use it to enlighten, not belittle. Attack our opponents with fact, not slander. We should approach them with an open mind, a willingness to change and a willingness to admit when we are wrong or when we simply don’t know.

Any class of third graders is capable of filling the walls of a gymnasium with nothing but vulgarities, ignorance and hate. But it takes only a single drop of reason to send those walls crumbling to the ground.

I have no doubt in my mind that Chris Kiaer has only our best intentions at heart. He truly believes that John Kerry represents the best choice for America in this year’s election, and so do I.

Now with all due respect, Chris, those posters were meant for the garbage.

Perhaps it’s time you return them.

Michael Darling is a CAS Senior. Send feedback to MDarling82@yahoo.com.