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Volume CXXXII, Number 17 |
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No time for idle chatter, this is war
To the Editors:
I just got home from the BSG meeting regarding the vote to take an official stance against a pre-emptive strike in Iraq. Actually, I got home a couple minutes ago, but I just finished cleaning the puke off of my shirt, and, with the words of many of my peers echoing in my head, I still feel a little nauseous.
I think we're either missing the point, or we're as slimy and underhanded as our Representatives in Washington. That petition is not about Bowdoin's constitution. It's not about the difference between a BSG vote and a school-wide referendum vote. It's about war, which is about life and death, which, if you haven't realized it, is a much larger issue than maintaining a strict construction of the student government charter of a small liberal arts college.
Listen to ourselves when we say that we voted for our representatives thinking they would be deciding on the number of quarters we put into washing machines and the price of our Superfan t-shirts. That's disgusting. The petition, and now the referendum, is our opportunity to potentially impact the world. We have a chance to stand up and say, "People's lives are more important than Domino's accepting polar points," but we're choosing instead to focus on shirking responsibility.
We're always talking about being trapped inside the "Bowdoin Bubble," and when we finally have an opportunity to pop the bubble and make ourselves known to our country, we reduce the issue to the question of the precedent we'll set for the BSG. A majority of our student body signed that petition because we believe that murdering people with a pre-emptive strike in Iraq is fundamentally wrong and unacceptable, but I didn't hear a single person in opposition to the petition mention that. Let's stop skirting this issue with trivial talk about whether or not it's our place to take a stand.
There is an entire population of people potentially on the brink of being bombed to death-they don't have time for people to debate more, or to sign another petition so we can pass a referendum. (Please pause right now and think about that-Bombed To Death). They need as many voices on their side as they can get, not because they want Lucky Charms in their dining hall, but just so they might have the opportunity to see 2004. Let's look beyond our self-interests, beyond the meaningless technicalities that could easily silence the majority of students at this college. Let's search inside for our idealism, for our sense of humanity, which, somehow, so many of us seem to have lost already, at such a young age.
Sincerely,
Eric Abrams '03
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