On my campus radio show last week, a caller presented me with a striking question: He asked me to address the "fear" that some Regis students have expressed in the aftermath of the election. Fear of an Obama presidency. This was not the first time I had heard of Regis students expressing abject fear about President-elect Obama taking office.
Have you ever thought about the people who have grown, transported, or made what you buy? This is an important question to consider, particularly as a person of faith. We just finished the election season where, hopefully, people took great time and care in deciding how to vote.
Take a trip to the beautiful Trinity Mountain Ranch Retreat House in Golden Gate State Park, about 30 miles northwest of Denver. Once you are there, imagine a mansion in the heart of the mountains where iconic religious statues juxtaposed by eerie clowns, Porsche advertisements from the eighties that hang next to landscapes of colossal mountains, and a ridiculous amount of enormous mirrors hanging in close proximity to an equally ridiculous amount of off-colored grandfather clocks.
Every time Catholics recite the Apostles' Creed, following a confession of "I believe in the holy Catholic Church," they declare "the communion of saints." The phrase must be relatively important if it surfaces in the Church's statement of belief, right? As a matter of fact, the term "communion of saints" is a major constituent in the Christian faith,?so much so that it is worth mentioning, as a continuing reminder, not only for the month of November, but as a stepping stone as the Church transitions into the next liturgical year beginning next Sunday.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. - That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, - That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it… We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Outside of the university, advertising can sell and say whatever it wants in any way it deems appropriate, within the confines of the law. However, I believe there ought to be higher standards for on-campus advertising, especially in this newspaper and on the website.