In
the beginning, I could not believe what I was seeing. I could not believe what
I was hearing. I was baffled, probably still shaking my head in sleep. But I
was also astonished. What I was experiencing all happened in a packed room,
where JDs and LLMs were nervously sitting, sometimes moaning, sometimes
laughing. More precisely, I experienced all this in room 107.
No. I do
not want to write about the presidential debate itself. There is enough
coverage on that. But it is worth writing not only about the unique debate, but
also about the unique ‘public viewing’ experience. Back in Germany, ‘public
viewing’ was invented for viewing sports (well, basically soccer) in crowds on
public places. Since the World Cup 2006, Soccer ‘fans’ and everybody else dress
up in their national jerseys drink overpriced beer and eat overpriced
Bratwurst, chant weird songs, cheer together, suffer together, and maybe
perhaps eventually also watch some scenes of the game. Standing or better
squeezing in front of a huge screen with huge speakers. Please excuse all the
details, but Wikipedia just thought me that ‘public viewing’ (even though an
English expression) seems to be a quite German thing.
Well,
after having written this detailed description, I just realize what happened
here in room 107, was more a ‘public viewing light’. No Trump or Clinton
T-shirts, no songs, no overpriced, but rather free beer, no Bratwurst (!), but rather
very American chips and candy. However, attentive listening and close watching,
debating, commenting, cheering for good arguments, grumbling if the debate turned
nasty and aimed below the belt, which however, if it grew too noisy, was
immediately interrupted by a loud ‘pssssssssst’. The atmosphere was great.
Tension was in the air – and here is a parallel: like in Germany v Italy, the crazy
penalty shot out – remember? A remarkable difference to German ‘public viewing’,
however: it happened in Room 107 Jerome Green. Student organizations arranged
everything (except for good speakers), and students came there. Why remarkably?
Because I believe it is just a unique and awesome feature of law schools in the
US, and LLM-programs in particular – their community life.
In
the beginning, I was bewildered and astonished. Astonished about the great
community life at law school. And bewildered
how (different) politics here in the US looks like.
Now,
three debates later, interestingly I am neither bewildered nor astonished. With
respect to the community life, I think it is wonderful. But with respect to politics,
I don’t know if it is a good or a bad thing.
But
in any event, it seems to mean: I have arrived in America. I have arrived at
Columbia Law School.
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