I am the Judge and Judgee

Today, the United States Ambassador to Slovakia, Mr. Obsitnik, came to the Lyceum to talk to some students about this election year. Many of my students were excited about this presentation and I gave many of them information about our election process beforehand to prep them. About a hundred students were stuffed into our cafeteria to listen to the ambassador speak.

Today was my first meeting with the ambassador. He is new as of a few months ago. I did not get a chance to meet the ambassador before him.

Near the beginning of his speech, he said, "As an ambassador, I am supposed to stay unbiased." Then he neglected to give actual information about the candidates. He said absolutely nothing about anything the candidates stood for, but took time to point out that people think Clinton and Obama might lack experience while parading Republican experience. Still unbiased, Mr. Ambassador?

Later, he began talking about how Barack Obama could be the first African-American president of the United States. He then said, "Do you think African-Americans are intelligent?" We all looked at each other, thinking, "Did he just ask that?" Then he said, "Everyone in here is white, right?" Well, actually no. The Americans were pointed out beforehand and our librarian happens to be black. We could not believe what we were hearing. Though his point was that anyone can be intelligent (I think), I'm not quite sure why he was asking something like that. A few sentences later, he said something to the effect that everyone is on a level-playing field in the United States. Sorry, Mr. Ambassador, but that's not true. We're not all really equal.

Later, a student asked a question about problems in the economic and in the housing market. The ambassador answered his question by saying there's absolutely nothing wrong with the economy and if there is a problem in the housing market, we will fix it. "We will fix it," he said. "We always have and we always will."

At the end of his speech, a student gave him a bonquet and a bag of Lyceum attire. He looks into the bag, pulls out the t-shirt and says, "Oh great, another t-shirt I can add to the 200 I already have." I learned to be grateful when I was about 13 even for gifts that I didn't want.

A number of students spoke with him afterward about U.S. policies and the war and potential problems in the future. As the next class was about to begin, I make sure to thank him for coming (Me being grateful for gifts that I didn't necessarily want).

After a few of my classes, students who were at the presentation came up to me and asked me what I thought of the ambassador. I put the question on them. "Well, I don't really like him," said one student. "He was quite rude," said another. "I thought you did a better job explaining the candidates and the election, professor," said another.

I was quite proud of my students and our students in general. My students are interested students. If I don't tell them about something, they want to know about it. They wanted to know the difference between a caucus and a primary and everything about the candidates. My students are informed. They can speak at length about the reasons for the United States to leave Iraq and the reasons for the United States to stay in Iraq. They know about something that doesn't even directly concern them. How often can we say that about things happening in other countries?

Throughout the day, I did a good deal of thinking about how often something like this happens. How often does someone misrepresent the United States? How many people are influenced by misrepresentations? Many people will base their judgment on the entire country but just one encounter with one individual. The ambassador might have just had a bad day. We cannot know.

So, at the end of the day, I realized that we are all ambassadors. At each moment, we represent not only ourselves, but also our country, our beliefs, our families, and humanity.

Unfortunately, we make judgments. We try not to, but we do. We judge a person at first glance. As judgees, we must attempt to present ourselves always at our best. As judges, we must attempt to let people be dynamic, changing people.

If and when I see the ambassador again, I will try to give him a clean slate.