Ben Finkelstein is a quirky Pitt student who runs the literary and political journal The… Ben Finkelstein is a quirky Pitt student who runs the literary and political journal The Peachy Compass. Copies of the most recent issue can be found at various local businesses, including Kiva Han, which is where we sat down to talk about his journal, voting and the California recall election.

On The Peachy Compass:

Why The Peachy Compass? What is the origin of that name?

Well, it’s a silly name. I guess we are rich with juicy fruit and we try and show people the way. But, um, don’t take it too seriously.

Why do you have creative writing in your magazine as well as political essays? Because it seems like politics is your main focus.

The whole publication is about bringing people together and bringing together ideas, and it’s not supposed to just be political, it’s supposed to be cultural, social.

Do you feel that certain kinds of writing don’t get published in the other literary magazines on campus? Is that one of the reasons you wanted creative writing in The Peachy Compass?

Yeah, I think that there’s a real dearth of really creative writing in the mainstream at Pitt. And there are a lot of ideas that don’t get presented; they’re not read and they’re not understood, and that’s what this is about, trying to further understanding.

On voting:

You wrote, in the last essay you published about student apathy, that people our age are not voting and not registering to vote, so could you talk a little about that?

How do you call it a democracy when hardly half of the people who are eligible to vote, vote? These are supposed to be decisions that affect our lives directly and, what, people just don’t care about their lives? So I’m asking why, because people do care about their lives. And, you know, [only] 3 percent of all eligible students vote because politicians don’t talk to them, politicians don’t say ‘We’re going to do things to make education in America better, we’re going to do things to create jobs for young people, we’re going to do things to help further people’s creative interests’ – the government doesn’t say things like that. So, students don’t care because they feel disenfranchised by the political system.

So you think it’s up to us?

I think it’s up to us to sort of realize our power and say, ‘This is about our lives, it’s going to make a difference in our lives and future lives.’ We need to harness our power and get out and vote out these crap-shitters that are currently in office.

On the California recall election:

Maria Shriver scares me, that’s all I have to say.

You know, Larry Flynt, he’s going to win it.

This whole thing is just so ridiculous

It is; it’s so off-the-wall. And it’s such a flip-flop of what democracy is supposed to be.

I used to live in California, actually.

Really? Who would you be voting for? Would you vote no on the recall?

Yeah, I would. I think it’s totally fabricated; it’s not what the people really wanted.

The whole thing was just put together by rich people to further their political ambitions.