Thursday, April 20, 2006

My presidential speech

This evening I ran for president of the Spencer cluster. This is my speech.
My name is Diana Davis, class of 2007. I live on an island in Maine, I spent last semester at the Williams-Mystic program, and I am running for President on the platform of Mutiny.

What does the platform of mutiny mean?

It does not mean that we will fight actively against Anchor/Cluster/Neighborhood/Williams housing, because the past year has shown that fighting would never be successful.

Mutiny means that we will simply continue to exist, as though Anchor/Cluster/Neighborhood/Williams housing did not exist.

We will have parties. We will have IM soccer teams. We will have dinners with professors.

But if you support the platform of mutiny, our parties and IM soccer teams and dinners will be just that – parties and IM soccer teams and dinners. Anyone can come, even if they don't live in the Spencer Anchor/Cluster/Neighborhood/Williams house.

Remember that the question is not, “Will our protest make a difference?”

Instead, ask yourself, "Is Anchor/Cluster/Neighborhood/Williams housing good for Williams?" And if the answer is no, ask yourself what you can do about it.

If you believe that Anchor/Cluster/Neighborhood/Williams housing is good for the college, please vote for a candidate who embraces the system.

But if you do not believe that Anchor/Cluster/Neighborhood/Williams housing is good for the college, vote for a candidate who has the same beliefs you do.

Remember, over 60% of Williams has consistently opposed Anchor/Cluster/Neighborhood/Williams housing, according to polls from the Record.

And yet the college put the system into place.

Why did you pick into an Anchor/Cluster/Neighborhood/Williams house?

Because if you didn't, you wouldn't have housing next year.

Why are you here tonight, to vote for Anchor/Cluster/Neighborhood/Williams housing representatives?

Because if you didn't come tonight, you couldn't have dinner; the dining halls are closed to all of us.

Williams has forced this system upon you, but it cannot force your vote.

If you believe that Williams would be better off without Anchor/Cluster/Neighborhood/Williams housing, vote for the platform of munity.

Thank you.
I didn't win, fortunately. I haven't the slightest idea what I would have done if I had. I suppose that being on the ballot would have made me get significantly more votes, but then I would have been more likely to win, and that would have been a bad thing, because I have no interest in planning parties, and I oppose purchasing alcohol for underage students (or for anyone, really), which, uh, might not have made me the best president for a lot of my consituency. Anyway, for the purpose, it was a pretty good speech, according to people who listened to it. And some people actually did vote for me, which is cool.

For more discussion, see Mutiny with me, a discussion on WSO.

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