Within the walls of Parker, students with diverse political beliefs are looking to gather, discuss, and listen. Sophomores Neel Malhotra and Noah Silverman have organized a space to do just that in the Parker Politics Club.
Until this year, there were two clubs – the Parker Democrats Club and the Parker Republicans Club – that were built-in spaces for students to discuss current events and politics with their respective parties.. Though, the Parker Democrats club was mainly active during election season, and the Parker Republicans club didn’t take after the seniors that founded it graduated. Ultimately, the two clubs had gone stale. Upon approaching Dean of Upper School Student life Joe Bruno “about starting up Parker Republicans,” said Upper School History Teacher, Department Co-Chair, and staff sponsor of the Parker Politics Club, Andrew Bigelow when recounting the time that Malhotra and Silverman wanted to reenact the club, “Mr. Bruno suggested to them, ‘Why don’t you combine with Parker Democrats and just call it Parker Republicans?’” This is what ultimately drove Malhotra and Silverman to make another space for respectful discourse and debate. Malhotra described this previous set up as “divided,” when in reality these two sophomores are hoping to bring people together.
Silverman noted the lack of debate on controversial topics at Parker and wanted to change that. “Learning how to have a conversation that’s respectful,” is one of the things that Silverman is personally hoping to accomplish within this space. “It’s okay to disagree with somebody and still just be their friend. You don’t have to agree with everybody on everything,” he added.
In addition to opening the door to less-than-comfortable conversations, Malhotra is hoping to focus on something a little different. “Noah and I felt that this school is very woke and liberal, maybe leans left a lot, and we felt that people that we would speak to about politics kind of didn’t form their own political views,” Malhotra said. “Maybe they pulled their opinions from the media, or from their friends, or from their family. We just wanted to encourage people to form their own political views and actually have a real sense of what’s going on in our world… we also wanted to encourage civil debates and discussions.”
Regardless of their goals, the two founders want to emphasize that everyone is welcome. “You can be libertarian, you can be authoritarian, communist, Democratic, socialist, populist… You could be moderate,” the two of them said. The club is not meant to be exclusive to just Democrats or Republicans – it is a space for all perspectives to gather and share their opinions in a respectful manner. Not only are different beliefs welcome, but they are encouraged. “We really want people from both sides politically…we want different perspectives from all types of people,” Malhotra said.
Recent events and the current political climate were, in their eyes, even more reason to form this club. “I feel like it was just getting worse and worse with the election year,” Malhotra said, “we don’t want it to be so divided.”
In terms of activities that the two heads are thinking about facilitating in this club, they both have ideas of their own and are open to those suggested by club members. One of the things that they were thinking of is bringing in a guest speaker. “A conservative speaker hasn’t come to Parker in over 12 years. And I think that, you know, we’ve had so many speakers come to MX’s on one side,” said Malhotra said.
Aside from what these two sophomores are hoping to accomplish, they are also anticipating some conflict considering many personal topics will be discussed. When asked about how they’d handle a situation where a person began to lose their decorum, Silverman replied by saying that he’d say “you can leave, and then come back if you feel like you’re ready to discuss [the topic]. If you can’t handle it, you shouldn’t be in the club.”
“It’s OK to have emotions, right, but if you’re going to display them in a disrespectful way, then it just goes against [the whole purpose] of the club,” added Malhotra. “We’re trying to have people debate respectfully.”
Moreover, the student leaders of this club aren’t the only ones preparing for possible friction. In terms of how these situations are to be handled and prevented, “I told them what I hoped for, and that was to come up with a protocol for each meeting,” said Bigelow. “You know, a structure that [ensures] that all voices are heard, and everyone feels welcome.”
Additionally, the two heads are hoping to foster a space where people have the opportunity to express if they’re offended and work through it. “If somebody says something, you can’t just say, ‘Oh that’s racist you can’t say that.’ You have to say why,” said Silverman. “If somebody is criticizing Israel, that doesn’t make you antisemitic, but I can disagree with you on it. If I think it is (antisemitic), I can tell you why, not ‘You can’t say that.’”
In hopes of cultivating a club with fruitful conversations and a diverse group of people and backgrounds, the two heads would like to add that you should, “stop by, come in, and see if it’s for you or not. You don’t have to speak, you can always listen. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to come back the next time. I would encourage you to just try it because you never know.”
