Joe’s a newspaper man

My baby brother (note how that introduction elevates his competency and acknowledges his adult-ness) has written a couple articles for his college newspaper, the Bowdoin Orient.  The most recent article was just published on Friday.

Here’s an opening excerpt from his article.

In the debate about guns, as in so many others, neither side is willing to acknowledge the salient points and reasonable objections of their ideological opponent. Pro-gun enthusiasts believe that gun regulation is a fundamental violation of the right to self-defense and simply another case of government intrusion. Those who want more gun regulation want to prevent guns from getting into schools and the hands of criminals. read more

And here’s an excerpt from his first article.

As the August recess comes to a close on Capitol Hill, most political speculation concerns what will happen next to health care reform. With angry constituents at volatile town halls as one of the most well covered news stories of the last month, Congress is filled with anxiety about what the next steps might be. read more

Now I’m proud of him just for being his cool self and for having the motivation and writing skills to articulate well-reasoned and readable articles.  But even more than that, I’m proud of him for making statements.

Over the past five years or so, Joe has been increasingly interested in politics and philosophy, and while he’s always been great (OK, sometimes a little annoying) at making philosophical arguments, from my perspective, it’s been very arm’s length and academic.  He’s argued points, but (as I’ve seen it) he’s often detached himself from the situation, and it hasn’t been clear what his actual opinion was.

In fact, (Joe, sorry to be dissecting you here on my blog), I think that when it came to political or public issues, he looked so much at how the debate was occurring that he didn’t let on how he felt about it.

Not that any of us Babler kids do much public pontificating about our political or religious views.  I think we’re gun shy.

So kudos to you, Joe, for defining an opinion and putting it to words.  I am always so proud of you.

xoxo

~Althea