in. 29, 2010 I The Clarion I I
Wake up and smell the frustration!
One student’s call to his fellow Brevard College students to take action in their surrounding
community
by Travis Taylor
Opinion Editor
If anyone read this column last week
(and actually finished it), they would have
read my comments concerning the peculiar
lack of interest in the Brevard College
community on the part of BC students.
I truly think that the majority of students
on campus are totally apathetic to the world
at large, at least inasmuch as their attention
spans seem to exclude the reality of the
world around them in favor of the simple
world of TV and the internet.
Therefore, I have decided to challenge
you, the readers, to respond to my unasked-
for opinions with your own, beginning
now.
On Martin Luther King Jr Day, along
with a group of somewhere around fifty
other students and faculty, I participated
in the first (hopefully annual) MLK
Challenge.
Those of us who participated spent
the day working with various local
organizations whose missions all include
service to their communities.
In eight hours, give or take, this small
group of people representing the Brevard
College community did an inestimable
service to the larger community of Brevard
and Transylvania County.
People of different races, genders, sexual
orientations, and religious backgrounds
all worked together to provide this service
for less-fortunate people, also of different
races, genders, sexual orientations, and
religious backgrounds. It was indeed
the embodiment of Dr. King’s service
philosophy.
However, I have a huge problem with
what took place - specifically that the
turnout was unacceptably low. Less than
ten percent of the student body participated,
despite the fact that those who chose to
participate were excused from classes AND
given a free t-shirt.
On behalf of the ten percent of the
student body that gives a crap. I’d like to
ask the obvious question: Where the hell
were the rest of you?
Were you loving class? Were you texting
your friend across the room, or down the
hall about how much you hate school?
Were you complaining about your
parents, who are likely providing you this
experience, which you are so eager not to
take advantage of? Were you outdoors
loving the magnificent weather?
Maybe you were catching up on sleep.
Maybe you forgot. Maybe you don’t
care. Maybe you think you’ve got it hard
enough.
Maybe you expect someone else to do
everything that needs doing for the rest of
your life, so that you can concentrate on
your social life and ignore reality.
Thanks, Brevard College students.
Thanks for being apathetic. Thanks for
being over-privileged and under-worked.
Thanks for being lazy, forgetful, and
for having a misappropriated sense of
entitlement.
But most of all, thanks for giving me the
opportunity to evaluate my own place in the
world, for giving me a sense of contrast.
I think that our culture holds no one
accountable for their actions. I think that
personal responsibility has been left by the
wayside in our age of excuses and external
projection.
For me, however, the feeling of shame
that came over me upon reahzing that I was
a part of a minority made up of those who
would take a chance on improving things
was enough to make me want to challenge
those of you who couldn’t be bothered to
do so.
Prove me wrong.
Tell the minority campus community of
aspiring activists that we’re not the only
living, breathing people on campus. Do
something worthwhile. Be a part of the
world, not apart from it.
Responses can be e-mailed to taylortn@
brevard.edu or to Clarion@brevard.edu.
The Clarion
Senior Staff
Editor in Chief:
Travis Wireback
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those of respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the faculty, staff or administration of Brevard
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