Editorials | Opinion

Editorial: Carson’s web of incompetence hints at tragic end

Posted on Feb. 24, 2011, at 12:10 a.m.

In a business where effects hinge on percentage, diplomacy is very much a vocation of numbers. When all of the numbers are heaping up against you on the senate floor, the most important unit becomes one.

Following Tuesday evening’s meeting of General Student Senate at the University of Maine, there are few others looking out for No. 1 more right now than Student Body President Nelson Carson.

With what is sure to become an excuse to rival the Twinkie defense, Carson presented himself before his fellow collegiate politicians to defend a horrendous shortcoming on his part in regard to the absence of content — the crux of his promised website for the organization.

Allegiances have been severed, student funds have been squandered and progression has been derailed all because someone who committed to the highest standard of leadership couldn’t work up the effort to perform the job he pledged to complete.

Luckily, Ryan Gavin, a former senator, is building the website and has no plans to run away with over $900, which he could contractually do.

When you hold the title of president, oversights like this are just plain intolerable. If Carson were paying a professional a market rate, students could have tossed over $4,000 into a black hole of incompetence.

On the senate floor Tuesday night, Carson referenced The Maine Campus numerous times, even saying we were “angry” with him.

We’re not angry — we report news.

The headlines could not be clearer. They are impossible to sensationalize. Content is needed for any website to launch.

Prior to yesterday, Carson didn’t communicate to Gavin or any senators any sort of coherent plan to fully launch the website, contradicting his intentions for the site’s launch prior to the meeting and on the senate floor.

The full launch of the website, expected Tuesday afternoon, has been moved back to March 15 per Carson’s orders. When senators questioned him critically, he further contradicted himself in roundabout answers to simple, pointed questions.

To make matters worse, he even brought up the availability of an impeachment trial on multiple occasions, effectively showing the senate and the student body that he is incapable of shouldering leadership under fire.

The president is known campus-wide as a congenial man genuinely concerned about student input. Yet, on the senate floor, he also referenced the fact that he didn’t want to ask “his friends” to do work he didn’t mind doing himself.

His sensitivity and desire to be liked are reminiscent of the tragic Willy Loman from Arthur Miller’s award-winning play “Death of a Salesman.”

The play revolves around the last days in the life of Loman, a man obsessed with greatness and doomed by his bizarre belief that greatness comes from being popular.

Loman’s demise was exacerbated by these beliefs. We predict the same for Carson in office.

Using terms like “my friends” can only go so far in office if not backed up by concrete action. We haven’t seen any such thing from Carson.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 24th, 2011, 12:10 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.