The spontaneous gathering of people last week at TRA is a curious thing. On one hand, I believe that some of the motives of the whole gathering, or what stemmed out of the event, namely protesting in favor of alcohol and cartoons, was childish given so many more pressing issues at hand.

On the other hand, I see plainly that the event was more or less a good-natured celebration of good weather and good times with friends, during which people got to vent their frustrations and anger about what happens at this university, no matter how trivial the cause for anger might be.

This brings me to the third point that I think is well illustrated in what happened last week: this university continues to be run largely on the basis of reactionary authoritarianism. Three hundred-some people enjoying themselves out on the TRA lawn were subjected to a mild manifestation of this authoritarianism when, on the request of the hall directors, DPS showed up to become involved. But what was to get involved in? Oh, wait, DPS officers did heroically and dutifully avert the near catastrophic movement of a picnic bench into the center of the courtyard.

Some called the behavior at TRA an “incident,” others a “disturbance.” But who was really disturbed? According to the Daily, hall directors called DPS to impose “order” on the so-called “disturbance.” Were the HDs acting more as annoyed individuals trying to enjoy peace and quiet, or were they acting more as authority figures trying to exercise control over their peers?

In the Daily, Wallace HD Jon Wheeler is noted as having said that the crowd was too large to be handled by RAs. Why did anyone need to be “handled” at all? Did anyone at TRA want to be “handled” by RAs or dispersed by DPS that night? Though the TRA event didn’t turn violent, it reminds me of the Italian anarchist Malatesta, who used to say something like, “You try to do your thing and they intervene, and then you are to blame for the fight that happens.”

Though it might be disguised by the cry for “South Park” and topless women, I think that at least some of the students here are aware of the authoritarianism that I’m trying to point out. Why else would the “Cops” theme song be blared out a window at DPS when they tried to disperse the crowd? Maybe people are angry, not just because they can’t get drunk on Veishea, but because one person, rather than 25,000 people, has the final say on the matter. It is the same person that makes the decisions on stuff like Catt Hall, too. Do we see a connection yet?

In the event that I’m way out on a limb and really need to get a clue, sorry I wasted space. In any case, we need more “disturbances” like the one at TRA. Things at ISU are too routine and too lifeless. If we have more of these lively “disturbances,” we might even find a real solution to the life-threatening climate of Veishea that won’t rely on more police.

Michael R. Pitula

Junior

Environmental science and Spanish