The Tripod

You know it's going to be an exciting week when George Will comes to town. George Will '62, highly regarded conservative columnist, Washington-insider, and, most importantly, buddy of all-around great guys Jack Chatfield '65 and J. Ronald Spencer '64, was on our campus on Monday, December 3, 2007. Will, as you can read on page 8, was not only a Trinity grad, but holds a special place in the hearts of the Tripod staff as one of our former Editors-in-Chief. In fact, as I write this, his picture, along with those of Pulitzer Prize alums Jim Murray '43 and William K. Marimow '69, is hanging above my desk.

Will, through Chatfield and Spencer, invited several students, including five members of the Tripod staff, for an hour-long round table discussion before his untitled lecture in Cinestudio at 7 p.m. the same night. During the discussion, Will proved himself to be thoughtful, highly intelligent, and, as one would expect, well versed in current affairs. However, I did not find Will to be particularly engaging at the discussion, he was rather soft-spoken and seemed to be modest and almost shy, as other participants observed. So I thought to myself, "This is the great George Will? Perhaps he has some indigestion or something?" As anyone who has read my column before will have noted, I have very little interest in national current events, tending to focus more on local issues. As such, I had never seen Will on television and had no basis for comparison. The only George Will I knew was the thoughtful, intelligent, yet shy, man I encountered briefly in the Smith House.

Based on this experience, I expected to be educated, rather than amazed at his Cinestudio lecture - I was very wrong. Will was one of the most engaging and interesting speakers I have seen at Trinity. Never once taking to the podium he danced across the stage and tackled his topic like a master of improv. He tackled multiple issues which I won't spend too much time on - you should have been at the lecture! Not to say that I agreed with everything he said but the confidence he said it with made you want to believe. I began to think to myself, "This is the great George Will! He must have gotten over that indigestion." Will discussed, among other topics, the crises of social security and Medicare - topics one might think students would have little interest in but the audience ate it up.

Beth Frazier '08, who I surmised from what she told me, grew up in a household where the Holy Trinity consisted of The Father, The Son, and George Will, said that Will caused her to question the fundamentals of her political consciousness. Frazier, of course, had the benefit of a full day to speak with and observe Will. All that Steph Apstein '10, our Sports Editor, got out of the night was an offer by Will to secure her an internship with the Boston Red Sox.

So if the speech was great for people who didn't agree with Will's political philosophy, imagine how much fun it was for me. The fact is that Will spoke to me and to some things I've, in fact, already said. For instance, I wrote an article in this paper on the benefits of Wal-Mart and my confusion over its vilification in the progressive world. Will spoke on the same issue, of course, he argued, anyone can understand why unions hate Wal-Mart, but asked why consumers should, too? I also found myself agreeing with Will that the retirement age should be raised, though not as high as 74 as he so bluntly advocated. He also raised the blasphemous point that people living longer is costing this country dearly - this does not mean, as Will suggested in jest, that people should not live as long, but rather that the way we pay for healthcare has to be changed radically.

I've always considered myself a liberal leaning moderate and, although I did disagree with some of what Will said, I can see myself leaning to the other side if ideas like Will's dominated it. Alas though, in the real world, the right is not dominated by George Will but by another George - which has caused Will to become isolated from some Americans who currently call themselves conservatives. I can only hope that in the coming years the conservatives move away from the other George and back towards George Will.

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