When running for positions on
executive board in the Evans house here at Illinois, it is a long arduous
process consisting of giving a speech, waiting for your opponents to give
speeches, then waiting for the house to say positives and negatives about you
and the people you are running, and finally the vote. During the speech you are
allowed to talk about anything you would like, including your candidates
mishaps over the years. The day before elections, someone came home drunk from
the bar and threw all the trashcans down the stairwell, something the house
doesn’t like to deal with, as it is hard to clean up. That person, we shall
call him “Martin,” was also running for secretary. Only three people knew
Martin threw the trashcan, him, his opponent we shall call her “Nadia,” and myself.
In her speech, Nadia could have told the house that Martin had thrown the cans,
and in turn won the election by a landslide. However, she withheld that
information and did not act opportunistically.
Speculating as to why, I
believe Nadia wanted to win the position on her own merit. There is a lot of
pride that comes with representing your house on the executive board, and I do
not believe she wanted to win in a “dirty” fashion, I believe she wanted to win
because people thought of her as truly the best candidate. Another possibility
would be that she was a friend with Martin and she did not want to tarnish his
reputation amongst the house. I believe these two things are rather different
and do not amount to the same thing. When Nadia did not mention this in her
speech, she was acting honorably, trying to win on her own merit, however in
the other scenario, she was acting out of what I believed to be pity.
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