OPINION: Protesting a justice misses the point of education

Recently, the Santa Fe New Mexican ran an article about the upcoming visit of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett on Sunday at the Lensic Performing Arts Center in Santa Fe. The article focused on planned protests instead of the educational benefits for the broader Santa Fe community — including students from St. John’s College and the University of New Mexico School of Law — of hearing from a member of the Supreme Court. One potential protester was quoted saying if she was an alumnus of either the college or the law school that she would be writing strongly worded letters to those institutions. As one of the very few alumni of both St. John’s College and UNM School of Law, I feel compelled to respond.

A core tenant of St. John’s College is dialogue. The very first seminar at the college is not on the Iliad or Plato, it is on a text called “Notes on Dialogue” by Stringfellow Barr. Barr was one of the founders of the Great Books program at St. John’s. At the end of “Notes on Dialogue,” Barr remarks “that the chief reason that conversations deteriorate is that the mind’s ear fails.” He reminds us that when we stop listening to each other, conversations deteriorate. It is undeniable that we have stopped listening to each other in America.

Over the course of the four-year program at the college, students encounter some of the most important and challenging texts ever written. The ideas contained in those texts challenge not only one’s political beliefs but also one’s notions of how to live a good life. The hope is that by reading these texts and discussing them that “we will free ourselves from wantonness of prejudice and the narrowness of beaten paths.” Seeking freedom from prejudice and the narrowness of one’s preconceived notions is the core pursuit of a true education; this pursuit takes courage.

As a student at St. John’s College, I had the opportunity to meet and speak with both Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor. Their visits and speeches helped me clarify my own thoughts and beliefs. Today, I often think of what they told us students while practicing law here in Santa Fe. The time I spent with them has made me a better lawyer, thinker and person, and I have no doubt that the same will be true for those of us who go to listen to Justice Barrett. For those who choose not to listen, I recommend that you go up to St. John’s College one Monday or Thursday evening, before the 7 p.m. seminar, and walk around. You will see students from all walks of life and all political persuasions courageously engaging with ideas that challenge their preconceived notions and prejudices.

Billy Trabaudo is graduate of St. John’s College and of the University of New Mexico School of Law. He is a partner at Bardacke Allison Miller LLP in Santa Fe, New Mexico.