Good Friends Part I

I have lovely friends. Especially Jackson, one of the most intriguing and wonderful people that I've ever had the pleasure to meet.

So early last week, I decide that I'm going to run for the WLU Senate, the academic governing body of the school, and do this place some good. But as of right now, it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to do this place any good, at least not through Senate. Yesterday evening, I checked my e-mail to discover that I got disqualified from the election just an hour before polls closed. I found out through e-mails because the people on the Elections Committee refused to tell me what was going on. How nice of them. The EC had found a bunch of posters with my name on them all over the school which violated all sorts of policy (we have a very strict poster policy here) which resulted in 4 fines which is over the 3 fine limit and ta-da, I'm no longer allowed to sit on Senate. Here's the rub: I didn't know about the posters. I didn't make them, approve them, nor did I put them up. I know it sounds hard to believe, and lots of people all over the school already don't believe me, which I hate by the by. But you know what? It's the truth. Jackson, being the lovely friend that he is, made posters for me to help me with my campaign and wanted to surprise me. He's nice. I'm nice. Leave us alone.

So to make a long story short, I got DQ'ed because someone did me a favour, wanted to surprise me and didn't let me know about it. I cannot for the life of me understand how they can hold me accountable for someone else's actions, someone who is not me. I know the posters broke policy, and I'm sorry, but Jackson doesn't know about crap like that. He doesn't like politics and stays away from it, maybe I should too. In conjunction with my experience in high school elections, this is enough to make me say I'm never running in another election again. I feel like I'm caught in the middle of this stupid teenage soap opera, where people are too caught up in power trips to care about others. And I know that there are rules to live and campaign by, but is there no compassion for an honest mistake? Is this what happens to people who are involved in politics for too long? You lose your soul? I thought that was a business thing. Ha ha. They just don't seem to believe in the good ol' doctrine, 'innocent before proven guilty'. Or as things have been going so far, they don't believe in innocence at all. It's not like I'm trying to put the blame on someone else, the people who are responsible for the posters have admitted to it, written letters and are willing to testify!

I'm tired. I spent more time than I should have trying to speak to people who wouldn't listen, writing appeals letters that may not be read, dealing with a situation I never thought I'd find myself in. I'm pretty docile, I don't get into the middle of messes like this. But you know what, I may be in 1st year, I may the underdog, easy prey, whatever, but I'm not taking this sitting down. I have people who support me, are willing to go on hunger strikes for me, willing to make lots of noise, create lots of stink, I have the truth behind me. These big scary people can be mean, make me cry and say nasty things on open forums, but I am going to fight the good fight. I may not win, but it's the principle that matters! And after this, no more politics.

"A law that has the potential to convict a person who has not really done anything wrong offends the principles of fundamental justice..."

2:46 am