Marketplace of Ideas

This past week in issues we completed our marketplace of ideas projects. The event itself, I believe, had a very good turnout. Many people stopped by the various presentations to see what that person was “selling” on their poster.  I was surprised at the total number of people who actually stopped by the posters to take a look. Several of the sellers had petitions out for the people who “bought” their views to sign, if they agreed with the views presented.  I was expecting the majority of people to just look over the poster and sign without taking a closer look, but most people wanted to know more about the various issues. One issue I personally found very interesting was the Invisible Children Charity. This issue was presented by Ryan Kunzi who talked about the flaws discovered in the charity. I found this issue so interesting because our school raised and donated $100,000 to the charity. Ryan brought up a variety of points, but the most notable was how the founder of the charity said it must be run as a business. This was surprising because it implies that the founders of the charity are looking to make a profit based on the donations. If it were not for having the marketplace of ideas, many such issues would not have come to my attention. Focusing on my issue of alternative fuels, I found quite a number of people were surprised how far technologies for alternative sources had come. People were especially surprised by the fact that hydrogen cars are already being sold in California. To raise awareness, instead of having a petition for signatures, I handed out bumper stickers. This way while people are driving, one bumper sticker could reach an unlimited number of other drivers, thus spreading the word. As people look further into the use of alternative fuels, more and more of them will want to make the switch to using a more efficient fuel.