Life, Liberty and Love.

You’ve heard many of the sayings conceptually tying the Ls together. “Give me liberty or give me death,” “A life without love is no life at all,” etc. I believe it is rightfully so. Each one has a distinct identifiable characteristic, yet to separate one from the others makes the remaining empty.

Those who choose to believe in the Christian doctrine of the trinity already have a basic understanding of such a phenomenon – Three ‘personalities’ or ‘identities’ yet united as inseparable and identical to one another. Life, liberty and love have such a quality to them.

When understood this way, it seems that happiness in life is not only well within reach but in America, where two of the three are stated in its Declaration of Independence, it should be spontaneous with obtaining U.S. citizenship. Then why is it that, according to RTI International, depression is the leading cause of disability in America?

To quote Meatloaf and his hit song, “Two out of three ain’t bad.” But there just has to be love. There is no doubt in my mind about how much Americans love the sound of life. How else would you enjoy freedom? Americans undoubtedly love the sound of freedom and liberty. However, therein lies the problem. We define things by the way they sound.

Liberty sounds like the ability to do whatever the hell I feel like. Such a sense of liberty is inseparable from a hefty income because doing whatever you feel like is often expensive. I don’t believe this to be the kind of “liberty” that befits its true meaning.

Life sounds like it has a biological definition. For humans, maybe that means a heartbeat and specific brainwave patterns. In strictly a biological sense, life doesn’t seem all that important. From the view of religion, it definitely leaves no room for life after death. It definitely does not assure me giggination (which means dancing for all you two-left-feet people).

Finally, love. Well, it sounds like an emotion or a feeling. I’m sure celebrities like Jessica Alba have all kinds of guys that “love” them. But I wonder how it can be possible that two people who are totally angry at each other can still love one another. Love also sounds like it only happens in a romantic relationship. Where does a mother’s love fit in with all this, much less the love from or for strangers? (Of course, I’m talking about stranger-love in the sense like, “Hey, do you need help changing out your flat?” not the creepy “hey, lemme rotate your tires.”

As people finding ourselves in an institute of learning, we not only have to define and discover new things, but we need to rediscover and redefine things we thought we knew. When open to such possibilities, the “love” we once thought was non-existent or unimportant was a misnomer, but love itself is much more important and doesn’t mean that I have to wear special underwear for my girlfriend if she asks me to.

So what is it to live, love and be free? Well, the following may sound circular to you, but its point gets across. All these things must – not should, but must – come under a single roof of definition or else we deny ourselves or one another a marvelous truth. While life is found in the liberty of love and love of liberty, liberty is found in a life of love and loving life, and love … well what better love is there than to offer another person a life of freedom and the freedom to live.

For all of the graduating seniors, I pray that you all find life, liberty and love in everything you partake in and lead America out of its great depression. And for all of you that will be remaining here for the next year, two or three, I’ll be praying extra hard that you find those things. You’ll definitely need it!

Feel free to drop a line to JEREMY MALLETT at jjmallett@ucdavis.edu to tell him how your L-word is going.

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Title: Gratitude

By REAGAN PARLAN

Life is not significant if it is not historic and momentous. I can say that my two-plus years at UC Davis have made my existence more meaningful and memorable. Being my last column for this illustrious publication before I graduate from this great institution, I would like to use this space to thank UC Davis and The California Aggie for opening my mind to the important lessons of reality.

I thank UC Davis for instilling me with the traits that are not only useful to survive college but also to go on with life. Through 10-page papers, cruel and monotonous professors and countless hours of cramming, I have mastered procrastination – that taking a break from the immense pressure of college work is desirable once in a while. But more than that, the constant struggle in college has developed my resilience and determination to keep my passion at a high level during times of hopelessness and uncertainty.

I thank UC Davis for showing me that a quality education comes with a high price. I am so fortunate to be educated in a world-class institution such as ours that is forged by the undying promise of California and its people. However, a top-notch education does not have to be expensive. Ten years ago, University of California students only needed a little over $4,000 for tuition. But after a decade, students need almost twice that amount to attend the UC. Is that the right tag for the “Best Public University System” seal in our transcripts? Where is the promise of affordable and accessible education? The UC must fulfill that promise.

I thank my brilliant and superior professors and lecturers for sharing the “food of the gods” to us. It is true that part of what we are depends on what we learn from our mentors. Their gifted minds have imbued me with pure knowledge and their unfathomable achievements have inspired me to keep traversing the path toward my goals and ambitions. I want to commend my exceptional man. econ. and IR professors whose bold, yet stirring challenges motivated what I want to do in my life.

Above all, I thank UC Davis for teaching me the lessons that are sometimes ignored within the four walls of the classrooms and lecture halls. Inside the classrooms, students are only educated with abstract theories about how to exist in perfection, which oftentimes obscures the actuality outside our comfort zones. Inequality, poverty, illiteracy, injustice and oppression still plague the world. I am so grateful that the economic, political and social theories from my courses have assisted me in opening my senses to these harsh realities and in comprehending the focal roles of young and educated people as part of the solution. This may sound too idealistic, but this is a very sensible and possible idea.

Lastly, I thank The California Aggie for believing in my ability to write and to continue what I always love to do. Being a columnist, I had the opportunity not only to shape public opinion, but also to stand for the things that I believe in even in the face of unforgiving criticisms and violent reactions. To the current and future columnists, continue to be critical and fearless of the issues that affect the students.

As Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” More than ever, we need more brave pioneers who will dare and use their education to create solutions to the profound problems our world faces today. As young intellectuals, we can either take the roads most traveled or create new paths. My utmost gratitude goes to UC Davis for the enlightening power it has bequeathed to me, which will surely arm me in my search for new trajectories. The Aggie blood will continue to flow in my veins as long as I am alive.

Keep the flame burning!

If you want to send REAGAN F. PARLAN comments for the last time, or some graduation gifts, e-mail him at rfparlan@ucdavis.edu.XXX

Over the past year of writing this column, I’ve had the opportunity to examine a wide variety of political and social injustices, as well as see the action or, in most cases, the lack of action that results. Seeing and experiencing all of these things has caused me to formulate a hypothesis describing this process, sort of a grand unifying political theory for the millennial generation, if you will. The theory itself revolves around a never-ending cycle of cynicism, and my aim in describing it here is to disenfranchise my readers to an extent that will make any and all political action seem as futile as it truly is.

The cycle of cynicism was set in motion long before anyone of our generation was even born. In my opinion, the cycle’s ambiguous, yet its defining origin can be placed somewhere between the beginning of Vietnam conflict of the late 1960s and the Watergate Scandal of the early 1970s. Both of these events served to shatter the American people’s faith in their government, and gave rise to an overall feeling of distrust and separation from our government and its institutions. American politics were no longer categorized by the idealism and cooperation present in the minds of our founding fathers, but rather by the perpetual conflict between “us,” the American people, and “them,” the political elite who are chosen to govern our great nation.

While neither of these events directly affected the individuals that make up our demographic, they established the political climate into which our generation was born. Our parents’ generation carried with them the political scars of Nixon and LBJ, and passed on their cynicism to their children. The cycle had begun.

As time passed, our cynicism and apathy caused us to take little interest in the politics of our time, and contributed to an overall feeling of helplessness and futility that has become synonymous with our method of political thought. In short, our generation feels as if politics are a distant and complex institution, in which the individual is completely incapable of achieving any kind of positive change. It is this type of thought that grants the cycle the potential energy it needs to maintain its perpetual motion. If politicians feel as if the general public has stopped paying attention, what stops them from making unethical or unpopular decisions in the future?

This very question sums up the idea of the cycle, illustrating its unstoppable and irreversible nature. If politicians are unchecked by the will of the American public, they will continue to make poor decisions and further alienate the citizens they have sworn to serve. This alienation only justifies the overall feeling of distrust already possessed by many Americans, and causes them to pay even less attention to the actions of their government.

This cycle of cynicism is not limited to American politics, but has infiltrated almost every governing institution we have come to encounter. For example, the UC Regents, who have been the unwilling target of a number of my columns, have alienated our student population to such an extent that we feel cooperation is no longer possible and therefore take little interest in the politics of the UC system. Our ASUCD senate is yet another example of officials who have betrayed our trust, and as a result been rewarded with a sense of apathy that ensures their actions will go unchecked.

The cycle is moving faster and stronger than ever before, and the ever-popular ideas of cynicism and apathy are slowly entering the hearts of our entire generation. At this time, you have probably come to expect some witty comment or redeeming statement about our political status, however I will afford you with neither. I too am a victim of the cycle, and fear that our generation’s cynicism has become too severe for even me to correct. This being my farewell column, you can be sure that my weekly ranting has come to a halt, but that the cycle will remain in motion.

JAMES NOONAN hates to be negative, and therefore will say nothing more. He can be reached at jjnoonan@ucdavis.edu