This week I was blessed with the opportunity to see both sides of an ideological spectrum that spanned from the most progressive to the most conservative. I would like to refer to it as the difference from fact and fiction, truth and deceit.

Tuesday, with the help of the SIUC student chapter of the Nation of Islam, I was extremely honored to attend a speech presented by Rev. James Luther Bevel, Civil Rights strategist and social activist. His words, which inspired the entire room, mapped out a frame of mind and a lifestyle that he urged should be adopted in order to conquer the personal and social ills that threaten to destroy our minds, body, and as he put it common property of the Earth.

To achieve this idea he stressed that education and atonement is necessary, which millions have already begun to do through the Million Man and Million Women marches and the Promise Keepers. Bevel mapped out this plan in such new and clear terms, integrating all social and personal institutions, that I am still working on digesting all that he had to say. Hearing him speak was one of the most enlightening experiences in my life, I walked away feeling a sense of strength and purpose that I never thought possible.

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In a disgusting show of irony I unfortunately attended Wednesday a speech by David Horowitz. Sponsored by the Department of History, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the Young American Foundation, Horowitz’s book promotion speech was filled with the most asinine and close-minded views I have ever had the displeasure of hearing. His rhetoric took the form of what most people involved remotely with politics do, and that is mudslinging.

A former leftist who converted to conservatism, Horowitz spoke about how oppression does not exist in America, and how America is the least racist country in the world. He implied police brutality is cops just doing their job and reacting off their fear, only coming steps away, in my opinion, from referring to minorities as animals in ghettos. Throughout his speech he constantly attacked the Black Panther Party with assumptions of fact and hearsay his rhetoric taking the form of a I was there so why shouldn’t you believe me tone.

In the long run Horowitz did what most conservatives do make excuses and avoid a stance. By the end of the book promotion I was left with a reminder that this sort of ignorant thought pattern still runs rampant in this society. Horowitz never took a clear stance or produced any type of solution to the problems he found in our society. The only thing he seemed to stress was that the left was bad and the right was good. From the reaction of the majority of the room many felt the same way I do about this man. I’ll probably just be dismissed by his supporters as another naysayer, which is once again just another easy excuse.

One look at our history can show what this country is all about and it isn’t the picture that Horowitz is painting. Bevel, who, I might add for all those conservatives fuming in their seats, is not a radical leftist, but a Republican and a man of God. Instead of whining about a battle that he lost he has devised a philosophy that can be seriously applied to any and all lives. I thank Allah for giving me the opportunity to experience both sides of the story this week. It reminded me of how far we have come but of also how so very far we have to go.