Next Thursday, March 10, our school will be graced with the presence of two women who are very adamant about the politics that they believe in. Yes, if you haven’t heard, I’m referring to the night of Janet Reno vs. Anne Coulter. It should be a sight for all to see. Not because of the heated debate that the two will be having, but because it will be a good chance for a great deal of college students to wake up and realize that, for the most part (Coulter’s especially), political pundits A) don’t know what they are talking about, and, consequently, B) should keep their mouths shut.

Now, before I am lumped into the same group as people like Coulter and talk show host Bill O’Reilly, let me defend myself. I am not telling these people to shut up (as they so often like to do with people who don’t agree with their views), I am telling them to actually think about what they say before they vomit their meandering waffle all over the United States of America.

See, I love this country for the same reason that I love to watch a good science experiment (not the way too complex for me to understand kind, but the Mr. Wizard kind): I want to see if it is all going to work. After all, America is nothing but a grand experiment in seeing if a fledgling nation can indeed run itself successfully after breaking away from an oppressive ruling nation. People have forgotten that we were not founded on equality (actual equality, mind you, not just the abstract notion of it) like Dubya likes to say, but on some basic principles: free speech, freedom for religion, and a bunch of other good ideas. Recently, America has lost track of this fact.

John Barth once wrote: “More history is made by secret handshakes than by battles, bills and proclamations.” This true. Only today, many people don’t even seem to care that this problem exists. When someone asks a question about the way things are in the nation, we have people like Coulter who love to step up and call us the dreaded “liberal,” which in her books seems to stand for “un-American” (see: How to talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Anne Coulter or Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism). Now, I have a little dictionary someone once gave me because I have a tendency to make up words (example: obsane), and here’s what it says about “liberal”: generous, not strict, favoring reform, tolerant. Tolerant, hmm, I likes me the sound of that. Respecting other people for what they believe in.

Now, see, if I was talking to Coulter, I would be screamed at about how I hate America because I want to hear what others’ opinions are. This is what she loves to do. It’s the classic “I’m right, you’re wrong” scenario that everyone from idiots to bullies to know-it-alls love to implement in a debate. And that’s the thing, Coulter is someone who claims that political debate in this country has gone the way of the dodo. But, let me ask you this: how is it possible to debate a woman who says things along the lines of: we should invade their countries, kill them all and convert the rest to Christianity, and if you don’t agree, you aren’t an American. Frightening part is this: I didn’t inflate that at all. This is the type of thing Coulter will and has said. I’m just a humble college student, but let me tell you: that sort of talk is insanity. To be an American is to want what is best for everyone not just those deemed fit. People caring about people. Sounds pretty cool, huh? Equality man, yeah.

But, thanks to the media today, and people like Coulter, free thought like the above has been dubbed, as George Orwell put it, thoughtcrimes. We can no longer question, we can no longer think what we want, we are informed by political commentators who don’t know any more, if not less, than the average political science graduate student.

But, needless to say, I urge everyone to go see these two women face off. Reno, someone who actually was in politics, doesn’t seem the type to back down to Coulter. Perhaps you may even learn something. Namely, how most people don’t know what they are talking about, which is cool, but if so, your complaints should be kept to quiet grumbling (I’m practically inviting letters here you conservative nutters).

So, next Thursday, go and see Reno and Coulter throw down. Perhaps Reno will say the real reason why we sent Elian Gonzales home, or Coulter will complain about Canada and lie again about how they sent troops to Vietnam (as she did on a recent episode of The Fifth Estate on CBC). Or, maybe you’ll see why you should really all be watching The Daily Show. As for me, I won’t be there. I mean, I’d love to go, don’t doubt that. But, I have found a better way to slap a crazy like Anne Coulter in the face instead of attending the debate, something far more apt. Yes, that’s right: Thursday the tenth, I leave for France. Really. Vive la révolution!