So, here I am. I'm sitting in my first public policy class. To begin with, you should know my political ideals. I lean towards the libertarian side, with a slight republican focus.

Here I am, sitting in the middle of 29 people that hate me. I'm
sitting in the middle of 29 people that think that I'm a religious
radical, anti-civil rights,pro-life douchebag.

I'm none of those. Never go to church, and extraordinarily oriented towards civil rights and the pro-choice viewpoint.

Quoted from Trinity's Mission Statement:
"Trinity College is a community united in a quest for excellence in
liberal arts education. Our purpose is to foster critical thinking,
free the mind of parochialism and prejudice, and prepare students to
lead examined lives that are personally satisfying, civically
responsible, and socially useful."

Yeah... sure. Free the mind of prejudice.

Oh, wait. Prejudice, according to liberal arts colleges, is just hate
against gays, blacks and minorities.

Free exchange of ideas means "Free exchange of ideas that liberals support".

Yeah, Republicans are closed-minded. I'm getting a balanced education.

An alumnus of the college wrote a letter to the editor explaining the feelings of non-liberals on the campus. He tried to explain how the sentiments of the teachers, and to a certain extent, the outspoken liberal students, affected clas atmospheres, describing how, when you walk into a class, your teacher has your grade in his hand. He was widely decried as an idiot, as over-reacting. As not knowing what he was talking about.

Who said this? The liberals, who claimed that they were entirely happy
with the education that they were receiving, and claimed that they saw
no bias or prejudice whatsoever. They're claiming that those that lie
further to the right than Lenin should be perfectly happy with the way
that our education is being carried out.

I personally experienced this phenomenon several years ago in a course that was more activist than it should have been, by any account. I feel that my grade suffered based on the fact that I was unable to speak my mind, and that when I did "speak" I was viewed as being "argumentative".

I like to think that I'm not prejudiced, and I have no idea what it's like living as a woman, gay, black, jew, whatever. Why can the ultraliberals (to liberals as ultraviolence is to violence) claim that they know what it's like being in a bit more of a minority as far as political preferences are concerned.

Let's go back to the scene with which we started. I'm sitting here, in
my class, afraid to speak my mind, because it will cause 29 other
people to turn around and start shouting at me.

29 people who will ad-hominemize me, vilify me, and spout arguments that usually come out as being the equivalent of "Everything that's happened in the past 6 years is bad, without exception" or "The republican party agrees with it? It must be awful!"

I just got out of a group project for this class where, without exception, everything I happened to ask, contribute, try to clarify was summarily rejected. Whether it was because the others were poly-sci and/or pre-law majors, or whether it was because they were much further left than I am, I'll never know.

    Vindication does not, in fact, soothe anger or feelings of mistreatment. Every suggestion that I made was suggested by the teacher at the end of our presentation as a possible improvement. Every criticism that I'd had of the way our presentation was being carried out was shared, vocally, by the teacher.

    I'm not going to get an apology, or a "You were right, John". And, in fact, I would be an asshole if I were to demand one. I still feel, however, that I deserve one.

     I must say this much: I fear for our country if the people running our politics and our legal system never look at primary documents, or in this case, the actual laws in question, rather than merely biased activist secondary sources that happen to agree with the view that they already believe.

This is the cornerstone of the liberal arts education. This is what it means to have you world-view challenged. Your world-view is strongly challenged only if you happen to be WASP, male, straight, conservative.

Otherwise?

Well "you're right anyway, you agree with the professors and the most out-spoken other students, so why challenge the 'truth'".

Liberal arts education indeed.