Activism Making Everything an Issue
Joe Tarzi
Issue date: 11/7/06 Section: Opinions
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Sometimes I look around this campus and feel like I am the only person who hasn't completely lost his mind. All of a sudden everything seems to be becoming about issues; the gay (sorry, GLBT … umm … Z?) issue, the minority issue, the local food issue, the woman issue and so forth. In the past several weeks I have been informed that this campus is chauvinistic, not a haven for minorities, not a queer-friendly campus, and unfair to local dairy farmers -- among other complaints. Suddenly everyone is an activist, and, worse yet, suddenly we're the new Wesleyan!
I really had to think long and hard about why this bothered me before I could realize the reason: I don't like being preached to (which is why I haven't been back to church since making confirmation) -- especially about something I already subscribe to. It makes me hate whatever is being preached out of spite, like when you watch one of those Truth commercials and just want to go out and buy a pack of Marlboros. That's what it seems like all this tolerance talk is doing: preaching to the choir.
To me it seems that it all started with that library protest last semester. (I know it's getting old, but seriously, it was a bunch of people just looking for a random reason to fight the establishment.) And from there it has been downhill all the way. Activists are taking over this campus. You've probably seen them; they're the people who believe that telling jokes containing the words "Nazi" and "fried chicken" constitute Holocaust denial.
Today's activists are trying to recreate the actions of students in the 1960s without actually having the same spirit. When students marched at schools in the 1960s, it was because blacks were being lynched, often only a few miles away. Now when you march it's because some drunk scribbled a racial slur. One does not march because of the drunken actions of some schmuck; one simply finds said schmuck with several friends and kicks his ass!
Overreaction is the flavor of the day, folks. It was different in the '60s when everyone and their mother was a racist, but today we have to be just as outraged as our hippie ancestors were even though only a fraction of racists remain. That is why I was so pissed when my dinner was so rudely interrupted the other night when a large group proceeded to shut off the lights in Mather Dining Hall and make a speech about how we have to get the administration to combat intolerance on campus. No we don't! Seriously, what the hell are you going to do about the schmuck who wrote "nigger" on that girl's door - find him and send him to sensitivity training or Diversity Day? There is nothing that you can do that will make the drunken ass who wrote on that girl's door any more tolerant -- least of all a pointless demonstration. If you do find him, you kick his ass, that's what you do, and if you don't want to, I will - it was a horrible thing that he did. What you don't do is find ways to blame the administration, or Trinity as an entity, for the actions of one or a few morons.
I really had to think long and hard about why this bothered me before I could realize the reason: I don't like being preached to (which is why I haven't been back to church since making confirmation) -- especially about something I already subscribe to. It makes me hate whatever is being preached out of spite, like when you watch one of those Truth commercials and just want to go out and buy a pack of Marlboros. That's what it seems like all this tolerance talk is doing: preaching to the choir.
To me it seems that it all started with that library protest last semester. (I know it's getting old, but seriously, it was a bunch of people just looking for a random reason to fight the establishment.) And from there it has been downhill all the way. Activists are taking over this campus. You've probably seen them; they're the people who believe that telling jokes containing the words "Nazi" and "fried chicken" constitute Holocaust denial.
Today's activists are trying to recreate the actions of students in the 1960s without actually having the same spirit. When students marched at schools in the 1960s, it was because blacks were being lynched, often only a few miles away. Now when you march it's because some drunk scribbled a racial slur. One does not march because of the drunken actions of some schmuck; one simply finds said schmuck with several friends and kicks his ass!
Overreaction is the flavor of the day, folks. It was different in the '60s when everyone and their mother was a racist, but today we have to be just as outraged as our hippie ancestors were even though only a fraction of racists remain. That is why I was so pissed when my dinner was so rudely interrupted the other night when a large group proceeded to shut off the lights in Mather Dining Hall and make a speech about how we have to get the administration to combat intolerance on campus. No we don't! Seriously, what the hell are you going to do about the schmuck who wrote "nigger" on that girl's door - find him and send him to sensitivity training or Diversity Day? There is nothing that you can do that will make the drunken ass who wrote on that girl's door any more tolerant -- least of all a pointless demonstration. If you do find him, you kick his ass, that's what you do, and if you don't want to, I will - it was a horrible thing that he did. What you don't do is find ways to blame the administration, or Trinity as an entity, for the actions of one or a few morons.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Zee
posted 11/07/06 @ 3:59 PM EST
I am very disappointed with Joe tarzi's article because he fails to realize that everyone does not think the way he does. If we (those who participated in the demonstration) truly preaching to the choir the racial slurs that were written on a fellow students white board would not have been written. (Continued…)
rrivera7799
Rachel
posted 11/08/06 @ 10:34 AM EST
What you are failing to realize, Mr. Tarzi, is that there is a very real reason to be afraid. Trinity is a CEO factory, 90% of the students who graduate from Trinity will be in high powered positions within 10-15 years of graduation. (Continued…)
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