things get heated up on the hill

i was up doing the lobbying thing and had the "pleasure" of speaking with senator roraback from goshen. first, he asked didn't we already have health insurance. i was very confused, since holding captive audience meetings really has nothing to do with healthcare, although there are probably at least a few graduate students who do feel like they are being held captive by the "death plan". then he wanted us to name names of the faculty members who were intimidating us, since we were apparently calling them liars for saying that a graduate student union would hurt their ability to get grants. now, clearly the truthfulness of that statement is not the issue in a captive audience meeting, it is more the delivery of that statement in a mandatory meeting that is the issue.

i only bring this up to mention the lame-ass attempt to apologize an hour or so later, where senator roraback said that he didn't meant to be rude (good), but we should be careful not to "lobby irresponsibly". i said that we were new at this. thanks for the tip buddy. giving your personal experience as a graduate student is not terribly irresponsible. take it with a grain of salt if you don't believe us. that was probably one of the worst non-apologies i have ever received. like my mom told me- if you can't say it nicely, you probably shouldn't say it at all.