Last Thursday, I took my father to GOVT 3665: American Political Thought with Prof. Isaac Kramnick.  My dad was a history major who graduated college in 1978.  Luckily, nothing has changed about Orestes Brownson and Henry David Thoreau since then.  As I fiercely took notes and flipped from my anthology and notebook, hanging on Prof. Kramnick’s every word, I tried to glance over at my father every so often, I could see his facial expression which mimicked the way I feel every time I am in Prof. Kramnick’s lecture.  It’s a mixture of awe and reflection.  When you’re in Prof. Kramnick’s lecture, it doesn’t matter if you’ve read the documents before.  The way he lectures with such passion makes his lectures an almost spiritual experience.  I feel that way every time I go to class, and I could see that same feeling in my dad’s facial expression.  After class, my dad remarked how fantastic the lecture was and how attentive the students were.  Sometimes we all forget how lucky we are to attend a university with lectures like that, and the look on my father’s face and his reactions to the class reminded me of this.

Hallie Mitnick is the Secretary of the Cornell Democrats.