In the HBO mini-series “Band of Brothers”, the men of the 101st Airborne Division trained with the Cherokee term ‘currahee’, roughly translated to “stand alone,” as their motto. The mini-series turned the phrase into “stand alone together,” and at this point in our nation’s history, that phrase is more important now than it ever was. It’s important to stand together during times of strife and trouble, but to get rid of differing thoughts because they do not line up with a certain ideology is more dangerous than any physical enemy.
In an age where differing opinions are looked down upon from all sides and where “group think” threatens free thought, it’s important for individualism to stand tall in the face of adversity. There are a number of people and groups who have banded together to go against the grain of society, both liberal and conservative in their ideologies, they fight back against the collective society to make sure their thoughts are heard.
“Group think” has become prevalent on college campuses, not because professors are molding the minds of their students, but because students are molding the minds of their peers. For the most part, this is not a bad thing- until tolerance becomes “tolerant… as long as you agree with me.” Then it becomes the ignorance they were fighting against in the first place. That’s part of the reason why I started writing for the Odyssey Online- I saw a lot of my friends post about some more conservative articles from the website and I read them and thoroughly enjoyed them. The Odyssey was against the grain for sure- especially when some of my friends proposed boycotting the website for some authors’ more individualized-styled articles. Since becoming a contributor, I have seen my fellow writers have several different ideas on similar topics. From opinions on the classic Chicago baseball rivalry to differences on the Black/Blue Lives Matter movements, there is a world of different opinions, and most are written with the utmost respect to both sides (except for the Cubs versus White Sox, but that’s just because Chicago fans get intense). I wrote a piece on why I could not vote for Mrs. Clinton for President, while I saw another article titled “Why I Cannot Vote for Donald Trump,” with some excellent arguments in it. The other author and I aren’t adversaries in any way, but I cannot help but imagine a mutual respect between my arguments and their respective opinions. In a world where one can be attacked for their posts on social media, what they say in public, or even just something they “liked” on Facebook, it was refreshing to have a platform where someone could write about pretty much whatever they wanted and have people discuss the piece without the author’s fear of retribution.
Even showing love of country (which is neither a conservative nor liberal ideal) has become divisive. Hampshire College students decided to take down the American flags at the center of campus, citing that it was a “symbol of racist rhetoric” after the election of Donald Trump (as a side note, on Veteran’s Day the flag was removed completely and burned by unknown persons). After the incidents, the president of the college determined flying the flag while having a discussion with students about “racist, misogynistic, Islamophobic, anti-immigrant, and anti-Semitic acts,” was not wise. If you were to ask my opinion, to not fly the flag because you’re afraid of insulting or hurting people is harmful for everyone. “Dirty Jobs” host Mike Rowe saw this and decided to speak out on such a divisive matter. Rowe wrote: “[...] I was curious to know if [Hampshire College] President Jonathan Lash believed removing our flag is a better way to assuage the fears of his frightened students, than simply educating them about the undeniable fact that no country on this planet affords its citizens more liberty than this one?”
To end today’s talk, I say that we stand together, united to protect each other’s freedom of thought. We don’t risk losing it from the federal government or a foreign power, but from ourselves in a quest to become more tolerant. We don’t need safe spaces or safety pins to be united against the world’s problems; what will solve the world’s problems is solutions, and we need to hear everyone’s solutions in order to have an effective one. We can stand alone in our ideas, but if we don’t stand together… then we shouldn’t bother standing at all.
Currahee- DB
