Column: Agreeing with Senator Avard

by Evelyn Cutting

Tensions were high with the Presidency and the Press program’s 14 students on Wednesday afternoon after a discussion with N.H. State Senator Kevin Avard.

We’ve all been there. A heated political debate with family or friends after some news about the most recent political issues comes out. Constant back and forth opinions, no one getting anywhere, eventually devolving into chaos.

But Avard had different ideas for dealing with these situations, many of which the students had strong opinions about. I had very in-depth debates with fellow students afterwards and we came to a consensus; for the most part, we liked his positivity and messages, but don’t think he was as straightforward as he could have been.

I interviewed almost half the participants about what they came away with from the presentation.

Many agreed with some of his ideas, but took issue with his positions on certain topics.

The majority of the students agreed with his belief that there is bias in the media and plenty of inequality. “I agree that you can’t put words in people’s mouths, because it damages credibility for both sides. No one wins in the long term,” said Paul Lambert, a

freshman at Franklin Pierce University. 

Other students, like Kathryn Anderson, a junior from Hookset, wanted to know why he couldn’t answer most of the questions the students asked. She said, “[Avard] was definitely a very positive person, but I wanted to hear him answer more questions.”

Katherine Desmond, a junior from Hampton,  thought Avard was not completely truthful. She said, “He knew how to say the right things, knew what to say for everyone.”

Most students found that they liked his positivity and messages about equality, but didn’t politically stand where he did.

Autumn Braley, a sophomore from Alexandria, said, “I personally did agree with what the senator said. We have many of the same beliefs. He was a change from most of the politicians I’ve ever met.”

I agree with her last statement. Avard was open and had ideas for how to get people to work together.

Avard said during his presentation, “I am a human being first. If you lose sight of that because you have an agenda, just step back. Don’t lose your humanity in the process of doing your job.”

I agree with Avard the most in that statement. No matter where we all stand in politics, we need to be humane to each other first. We need to be able to not see each other as the enemy all the time because if we do that, we put them into categories and are far less likely to listen to them.

With journalism it is so important to not be biased, to show all truths and all sides, and even if we didn’t all agree with Avard in the end, we as journalists need to agree that we can’t lose our humanity.

It doesn’t matter who you are, what you believe, what age you are, what race you are or what religion you believe in, we are people first. And we need to help each other, not hurt. The last, and maybe most important message Avard had for us was this:

“How can you help people? Listen.”