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The power of 'uprising' is foreign to many students
By Matt Wilson
Old Gold and BlackColumnist

As I read through these editorial pages every week and look at what all the columnists and letter-writers have to say about what’s going on around the campus and throughout the world, I come to one very basic conclusion: almost everyone’s complaining. Whether it’s about the Alcohol Law Enforcement being too strict, the Sig Ep pig adventure or national politics, it seems that everyone has something to say about how he or she could do things better around here and in Washington.

Now, I’m not trying to say that complaining in and of itself is bad. In fact, I think complaining is great. Without the ever-so-useful art of the complaint, we wouldn’t be able to do things so mundane as getting that burger without mustard that we originally ordered, or so far-reaching as getting the Fed to cut interest rates another half a point (even though the far-reaching ones take some collective complaining).

Rather, the point I’m trying to put across is this: if you think you can do something better than the person currently in charge, do it. Or at least try to. Get people on your side. Start a protest. Make signs. Set up a march. Or maybe just change the way you live. Whatever you do, start an uprising.

An uprising doesn’t have to be something outrageous or even ’60s-like. It doesn’t have to involve huge groups of people chanting slogans. And I don’t mean that anyone necessarily has to write 95 theses and nail them up on the door of Wait Chapel (even though I think it would be great, if not a bit reminiscent of past endeavors). It can be a lot simpler than that. Your uprising could simply be one against Abercrombie and Fitch (gasp … the college clothes masters!) Or better yet, against conventional clothes at all. You could decide to give up slacks, collared shirts and visors and start wearing T-shirts for ’80s metal bands and a kilt. Or, more realistically, you could stop wearing all name-brand clothes, start buying your clothes at thrift shops and get all your friends to do it with you. Start a new trend entirely. Make people think what you’re doing is what’s popular.

But this kind of thing doesn’t simply apply to what’s fashionable or popular. It also can apply to the rules. True, it’s possible that you could get in trouble for bucking the system, but it’s also a possibility that you could see to it that the stipulations you don’t like are changed, especially if you have a good argument. Take, for example, the A.L.E. business. Sophomore Mark William’s column said their policies don’t reflect the motto Pro Humanitate ("A.L.E.’s methods contradict our university’s mission," Sept. 5). Now, I’m not one to say whether or not those policies do or don’t, but if Williams really believes that his point is valid, I encourage him to pursue it. At least to write a letter to an A.L.E. official and see what they say about his complaint. It couldn’t hurt.

When you get right down to it, folks, this campus is boring. People who aren’t satisfied about what’s going on around them aren’t doing anything to change it. And to get your point really across, you can’t be like me and vent through a newspaper column. You have to start an uprising.

Matt Wilson is a sophomore who writes occasionally on campus life.