Wroxton College: A Look, Four Years Later

Four years ago today, I first stepped foot in that magnificent abbey so many have been fortunate enough to call home (however briefly). It was fall 2008, an election year, like this one, but the thoughts of my fellow students were not about politics or candidates or even America, really. No, they were the excited thoughts of wonder that fill the heads of students eager for knowledge, adventure and a good night in a pub.

Airports are a no man’s land. They are all the same, even if they are all different. You aren’t really in a new country untilyou first step outside. And once you do—it’s a whole new world.

The first thing was the roads and the bus and how it was all backwards. The driver was on the wrong side of the bus and the bus was on the wrong side of the road. But then, exhausted from eight hours on a plane, the students drifted off to sleep as the bus rolled gently along the M40, peaceful green and yellow pastures flowing past our windows like the perfect backdrop of a lullaby.

As the bus slowed and carefully navigated its way through several roundabouts and the narrow streets Banbury, everyone woke up, pointing at and admiring the quaint thatched roofs of an English village.

We will never forget that first impression of Wroxton Abbey, the way everyone held their breath as the bus squeezed through the narrow arches of the gate, the way the trees blocked our view until suddenly the path curved, and the four-and-a-half story abbey towered above the vast, open lawn and then our breath came out in a sudden gasp.

Wroxton.

Gathering our bags from the bus, milling around on the steps, eager to just get inside the building already—everything was ahead of us, everything was a discovery waiting just around the corner. Finally, finally, we went through that large, heavy wooden door, we flipped our fire cards for the first time and stood in the Great Hall in disbelief.

“I’m here,” I thought. “I’m finally here.”

Why I Like the Newsroom... and Aaron Sorkin

Yes, it’s true, Aaron Sorkin can be preachy. Yes, he repurposes his past work. Yes, he’s unabashedly liberal.

But he’s a brilliant writer.

I love his writing because the characters are compelling and passionate and above all flawed.

I love it because it reminds me why I love to write.

I love it because it makes me proud to be an American. The American President, The West Wing and The Newsroom inspire a passion in me for history and government, which are so frequently made stuffy and boring, when they so much aren’t. 

Sorkin’s gift is writing. He should be a speech writer—(Is there room on Obama’s staff, because the two would be unstoppable)—because Michael Douglas’ speech at the end of The American President is one of the most motivating and succinct summaries of what it means to be American that I have heard. He’s so good that an Australianpolitician repurposed his speech this past year.

America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the "land of the free".

Maybe he does preach in his speech, but his writing drives home a greater point that needs to be said, and he’s tackling complex issues that need to be discussed and are hard to boil in a ten-word sound bite. He even wrote an episode about that in The West Wing.

In fact, in The West Wing, some of my favorite scenes are those between Toby and Sam, whether they are drafting the State of the Union or niggling over the precise wording of a Happy Birthday message.  In these scenes, Sorkin teaches us just how important one word can be, how rhythm and cadence can be used to bring home a message, and how beautiful the language of Shakespeare truly is.

But writing isn't just about the prose; it's also about developing characters and telling a story that's rich and engaging and human. Will, Mackenzie, Maggie, Jim, Don, Sloan... they are all characters with quirks and flaws that make them loveable and real. Yes, they can drive us crazy, just like people do in real life, and yes, they can remind us why we care about each other despite that. They remind us why we are great to begin with.

People will acknowledge his adeptness with the written word, with dialogue and with speeches, sure. But they will criticize Sorkin for the way he conveys his message through the mouths of upper middle class white males.

Critics claim that Sorkin is sexist, but as a woman I fail to see it. CJ, one of my favorite characters (you know, along with Charlie and Danny and Sam and President Bartlett and Abby and … oh you know, all of them), is such a brilliant strong force on the show. While I have not finished all the episodes of The West Wing, my boyfriend says the best examples are yet to come. But let’s point to the fact that when Josh and Toby—the Communications Director—attempt to do her job, they are so completely incompetent at it. CJ is a force to be reckoned with, and if she messes up now and then (like they all do), it’s not a sign of sexism, it’s a sign of good character development (because, you know, it’s normal for people to mess up now and then).

The fact of the matter is that there aren’t as many woman in government as men. There are not as many African Americans in government as white Americans. That does not make Sorkin racist. Sorkin is merely an artist who paints the society in which lives. People claim that the absence of a diverse cast is proof of racism, but maybe it’s just a reflection of society.

But if it is a reflection of what society is like today, it is also a reflection of the hope of what society could be. In The Newsroom, Sorkin envisions a news show that actually informs viewers instead of giving them watered-down drivel about pseudo-controversies or ultra-biased op-eds in disguise as objective news. He makes no mistake that their show is new and it stumbles sometimes and they don't always necessarily meet their goal of objectivity, but at least that is their goal. 

I know that Sorkin has flaws. Sometimes he’s over the top. He’s over dramatic. But hey, he’s in show business. His job is to provide entertainment, and his version of entertainment at least sparks a conversation on serious issues. That’s something that many other TV shows fail to do. I’d rather see CJ Cregg battle her way through a male-dominated profession and succeed than watch Snookie stumble over the boardwalk. Yes, we all have out guilty pleasures, and we all like to watch something light that doesn’t require us to think too hard.

But at the end of the day, I think we all really do want to be inspired. I think we all really do care about what happens to our country. And I thank Aaron Sorkin for trying to remind us that politics doesn’t just need to be for the history geeks like my boyfriend or for stuffy old white guys mumbling on a podium in Congress on C-SPAN. It doesn’t need to be Sorkin or The Newsroom, but for at least for one hour on one night, we should find something that inspires us.