Let’s have truth, now.

I have a hard time walking around campus right now.

It’s not the weather, but the sidewalks – they drive me crazy. Everywhere I look, I see “9/11 Truth Now” or “9/11 was an inside job.”

I’m disappointed in IU.

Don’t get me wrong, students should have every right to chalk the sidewalks, but the fact that so many of our students still believe in this conspiracy theory after seven years is saddening.

Worse yet, this comes at a time in the year when high school students are checking out IU with their parents and sizing it up.

I remember when I was in high school, my father and I visited the University of Chicago. When we walked around that campus, we saw chalking, too. Only in Chicago, it spelled out, “Save Darfur.” Keep in mind, this was a year before George Clooney and other actors made wearing Darfur T-shirts cool.

My father and I were very impressed with the school’s students and their obvious political awareness, even if they were a little socially awkward. So I’m saddened to see the opposite here. I can only wonder what some parents must be thinking: “I’m working how hard to send my kid here?”

I believe every theory should have a chance to be heard. And the Truth Now movement has received that ear, and yet they still exist. Well, I gave them my ear when I watched the highly recommended and lauded DVD among conspirators, Loose Change.

Made by three kids with absolutely no credentials in engineering, architecture or aerospace science, this movie set out to refute evidence whose legitimacy was authored by a multitude of government consultants, all of whom had degrees in their respective fields.

For some reason – call it the inner conspirator in me – I finished out the movie even after hearing this. But, unlike those in the movement, afterward I looked for criticisms of the movie or explanations that refute the proposed theory of the movement. The History Channel showed a special on its validity (I know right, the History Channel was playing something that didn’t involve Jesus, Nazis or the Civil War?).

Step by step, experts refuted every single argument with precise analysis that came as the result of magisterial research.

And yet this movement still exists. Are these people so stubborn and vain that they won’t retract their previous position? No, I’m convinced the reason they’re still around is not due to any credit of their argument or inadequacy in their character, but rather the fact that they are impervious to logic.

Last year, the small student group for Ron Paul wound up chalking virtually the entire campus with “Who is Ron Paul?” The group must not have had more than a dozen members, yet their efforts could have fooled me.

In this case, hopefully the Truth Now movement on campus is the same – not a representative portion of the Hoosier student body, just laden with free time.

If only they used some of that free time to educate themselves.