Clubs Day #1

Today was the beginning of Club Days at UBC, and I have to admit, I have been having a nice big mental countdown for it. The Yanks Anonymous (and unofficially UBC for Change) table was placed in the ballroom. We have been put in the 'political room' with a bunch of really cool neighbors. Right next to us is the Radical Beer Faction, which remind me of a wonderful hybrid of Reed College's quasi communist organization the Reed Kommunal Shit Kollective, and the nationalistic Beer Nation. Across from us (kind of) was the Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights group. I will be the first to admit that i do not agree with this group on many (any) things. I find that a large part of their message ignores many of the facts of the Israel/Palestine conflict. These disagreements aside, I would like to commend one of their members, my friend Omar Badi-us Zaman who is one of those rare people who is able to honestly listen to what another person is saying, even if he disagrees, a skill that I often wish I was stronger in. Next to them was the Spartacus student group, to UBC socialist/communist group aka a bunch of raging loonies. These are a group of people who among other things, support Iran's 'right' to nuclear weapons, criticize the Dhali Lama as an imperialist tool, and believe amnesty international is part of some international capitalist conspiracy. I realized while having a conversation with one of them how hard it is to have a discussion when you have absolutely no common ground to begin with. Also nearby were my friends at the Israel Awareness table. It takes a lot of guts for them to do what they do on a Canadian campus, I should know, I have spent the past two years of clubs days sitting there having to deal with the people who have issues with the state of Israel. It was nice to see Paul Curran, Freeman Poritz, and Corey Lerman kickin some tail in debates in many a forum.


The Yanks Anonymous table was pretty fun, as always there was a lot of enthusiasm for Barak Obama. Billy made some awesome new shirts that are going for 20 bucks (they are American apparel and really cool) and you should buy one NOW. I did get to have a wonderful conversation with two women from Washington about why they should vote for Obama. I found that they really didnt respond well to talking about how crazy Palin was, but instead liked they liked how I talked about the inspiration that the Obama campaign has given me, and that his administration will fail without us willing to make contributions to society.

Barack Obama released an amazing video today, and I encourage you all to watch it