I have sat in quiet contemplation of the events surrounding The September 29th Movement for the 18 or so months it has continuously graced the pages of this publication, and after reading the current soap opera-like twist of plot occurring in the past few weeks, I have decided I can no longer sit silently by; my voice must be thrown into the Babel which has captured this university. You are about to read the most profound statement on the whole situation:

Nobody cares! Nobody is listening! This entire crusade is vacant. It has the same effect on the population of this university that a certain ex-football player’s recent trial has had. We watched, we listened, intently, for the first part, eager to see that somehow our generation was not dead, apathetically wrapped up by Sega, TV, Mountain Dew and crappy music. Then it got continuously hammered at us by the Daily until it has the effect that nobody cares anymore.

I have never dealt with anyone, in any part of my day-to-day life, who has ever whispered about the so-called “Beardshear 8” (we are not dealing with the Vietnam War and the 1968 Democratic Convention people, and I see no comparison at all. Are the B. 8 being jailed?) or the so-called “Movement.”

This entire episode has been trumped up by a student population that thought it wasn’t getting enough attention and a periodical whose activity pursues a policy of mediocre yellow journalism. Today, your columnist Rhaason Mitchell made a point of using his granted space to rant about how everyone was being mistreated by the university for their protests on campus.

Mr. Mitchell, may I remind you and your colleagues that although you and I are given the right of free speech by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, you must also remember that when you violate the law (I believe that there was unauthorized use of a public building, among others), you must also pay the penalty.

No matter how righteous your cause, you know ahead of time that when laws are broken, penalties will ensue. you are in college, probably in your 20s, Mr. McGriff is older; you should have enough cognitive ability to realize this. So please, when you pound your chest and proclaim that your cause is being persecuted, realize that the other 24,992 or so students of this institution started ignoring you a long time ago. It’s time to pay the piper, and it looks like your bank is dry.

Robert Welch

Sophomore

History