USD Magazine, Fall 1992

Anyone driving through the USD campus between Sept. 20 and Oct. 11 couldn't have missed it- a wall of words eight feet tall and 140 feet long, stretching across the front of Maher H all like a graffiti artist's dream. It was, in fact, "The Mural of Hope," conceived as part of the university's involvement with the 1992 presidential debates, one of which was scheduled to be held at USD. The idea, proposed by a student committee and approved by student vote, was to provide a forum-literally, a wall-for students to communicate their feelings about politics and their own futures to the two (or three) presidential candi– dates, the thousands of journalists and up to a billion debate viewers worldwide. The USD debate never happened (see our cover story on page 14 for the details), but the mural went up as planned-and stayed up until after the first Bush-Clinton– Perot debate was held on Oct. 11. What did the students have to say? Well, out of around 600 messages, the most popular topics were: •The candidates themselves ("Clinton didn't inhale; Bush didn't show up," or "Be smart! Vote out Congress and keep the President in!" or even "Nixon in '92"); • Politics in general ("I love my country; I fear my government"); • Education ("If you thought the cost of education was expensive, consider the cost of ignorance"); •The environment ("Make the environment green again"); and •World peace ("In a hostile world we must be the initia– tors of peace; war is ultimate failure"). Many students, taking the USD administration at its word that the debate experience was to be a learning experi– ence, began diligently studying their Bartlett's Quotations in search of meaningful quotes. Thus, the words of Thomas Hardy, Dylan Thomas and William Shakespeare made an appearance alongside Albert Einstein, John F. Kennedy and such musical luminaries as John Lennon, Elvis Costello and Sting. And, finally, there was the disputed quote, written in two places but credited once to Andrew Jackson and once to "Tommy" Jefferson: "One man with courage makes a majority." It was "Tommy" who said it, by the way.

From The Editor

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Suzanne Johnson

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USO MAliAZINE

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