Young Americans for Liberty – Ole Miss Chapter

“Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may.  If you alone of all the nation shall decide on way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country–hold up your head.  You have nothing to be ashamed of”

-Mark Twain

Ole Miss witnessed a political event this weekend that would make the founders of our nation proud. The stars and stripes of liberty that so many generations of Americans have fought and died to defend glistened in the warm Mississippi night, casting light upon the civilian duty to defend freedom against tyranny. America’s enduring soul pried open a window to the past, when the spirit of freedom pumped so fervently through the hearts of Americans that when Patrick Henry cried “Give me liberty or give me death!” he was merely representing the convictions of his fellow countrymen. This momentous occurrence was not the hosting of the Presidential Debate, but the audacious act of one young woman leaving her seat vacant at the most anticipated national spectacle her college campus had seen in generations.

It couldn’t have been an easy choice for eighteen year old Asma Al-Sherri, a political science and pre law freshman at Ole Miss. The 150 student tickets were highly contested, most of which were distributed through a lottery in which tickets had to be earned by attending debate-related events. Thousands of students made efforts to win the tickets, to experience an historical exhibition through their own eyes. Most of the lottery winners were overflowing with excitement when their names were called, wasting no time to call their parents and friends to tell them “I won! Look for me on TV!” Most of the ticket winners were thrilled with the prospect of seeing the next president on their own campus. But not Asma. Asma had already made her decision not to attend and never faltered when the opportunity came to light.

What could compel a young woman who defines herself as “extremely patriotic” and fascinated with politics to refuse such an opportunity? For Asma, patriotism required such a refusal. She does not believe that either candidate in Friday night’s debate represents the principles of what it means to be an American. These virtues have been abandoned by the two major parties today, she contends, and she would not honor the two politicians competing for the presidency with her presence. “I was thinking about the jeopardy of my civil liberties and how they have been stepped upon… Obama and McCain have both voted for legislation that has denied us certain civil liberties that are protected in the Constitution,” she writes in a Facebook note, “I refuse to have to worry about choosing the lesser of two evils.” Asma’s patriotism resides not in the glorified battle between corporate candidates, but in the freedoms authorized in the Constitution and Bill of Rights, the documents that define America’s devotion to liberty. She spent the entire day with her student group the “UM Constitutionalists,” talking to community members about the breaches of their civil liberties and the afflictions of an interventionist foreign policy. “This is more important,” she told me with an extraordinary sense of humility.

Asma’s vacant seat is reminiscent of other actions of noncompliance in American history that we have come to know as the most courageous deeds of our past: the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the schemes of the slave abolitionists, and the nonviolent protests of the Civil Rights Movement to name a few. But as in the case of these great Americans, Asma was not concerned with her own historical legacy. She left her seat unoccupied “in the name of liberty;” for a cause she believes is in the best interest of the entire nation.

America would be a better place if we all stood up for our convictions as steadfastly as this courageous young patriot. Asma has bestowed a symbol of inspiration for freedom lovers everywhere, reminding us that our duty as citizens is to defend liberty against its enemies, especially during times when the enemy is concealed beneath the prevailing rhetoric of our political institutions.

-Dan Blazo