I ran into an old friend on campus last week.

This friend also happens to be a conservative member of the GSB Senate whose colleagues probably would frown on him consorting with a (gasp!) liberal, so for his sake, we’ll call him “Pedro.”

Pedro and I used to have rather lengthy discussions on the important social and political issues of the day, so it was no surprise when he asked me about my position on the most controversial campus issue of this young school year.

“Steve,” he said, because that’s my name, “are you going to the McHub rally?”

Bear in mind that when I say “controversial campus issue,” I really mean “complete waste of time.”

There was a time when college students organized and protested to end a war, impeach a crooked president and fight for the civil rights of women and minorities.

Is trying to keep Iowa State students from committing suicide by french fry really the best we can do? If this is college activism in the 1990s, I’m glad I’ll be graduating sometime within the next several years.

Now, I know that those of you who fought so hard to save us from the red-nosed menace, Ronald McDonald, are saying to yourselves, “Don’t you read the paper, Daily-boy? We won!”

With all due respect, wake the hell up. If McDonald’s really wanted to put a store in the Hub, the university would let them.

By reading the story in yesterday’s Daily, it appears that someone at McDonald’s finally figured out that they don’t need another store on campus. McDonald’s already has a store in the Memorial Union, and putting another one in the Hub would make both stores unprofitable. Neither would get enough customers to stay in business.

There are already four McDonald’s stores in Ames. You can’t swing a dead cat over your head without hitting one. If you don’t believe me, I urge you to try it. I don’t like cats.

I’ve heard about the rallies and seen the clever signs opposing the McDonald’s store in the Hub, but I haven’t heard many better ideas about what to do with it. Have you ever been to the Hub? It sucks. There are six Coke machines in there.

If you want to complain about a corporation having too much influence on the university, try buying a Pepsi product around here.

The McDonald’s opponents complain that McDonald’s food isn’t healthy. Have you seen what’s in the Hub now?

Vending machines full of candy and chips. There are also sandwiches in the machines, but if you’re willing to buy a sandwich with meat in it out of a vending machine, you obviously aren’t concerned about your health.

Don’t get the wrong impression here. I’m not going to start wearing a black arm band with an “M” it, mourning the loss of McDonald’s. I don’t care what the university does with the Hub.

But students have a limited amount of time to spend trying to save the world, and we need to choose our fights a little more carefully.

There are so many other issues, issues of consequence, that you could spend your time on. Take the renaming of Catt Hall. It doesn’t matter if you’re for it or against it. If you have a strong opinion either way, get involved. That is an important issue.

How about the renaming (we just don’t like the name of anything around here) of Cyclone Stadium/Jack Trice Field. That is always a fun issue.

People talk about it every year, but nothing ever gets done. You don’t see people putting up signs or having rallies about that. Why not? Jack Trice was not only a pioneer for African-American students at Iowa State, he died playing football for the Cyclones.

The name should be changed, even if it’s only because having the stadium named one thing and the field named something else is just stupid. And could they have come up with something less original than Cyclone Stadium? How about The Football Stadium?

Here’s a novel idea: Election day is less than two months away. Call College Republicans or ISU Democrats and find out what you can do to help. They’ll be happy to have you.

These issues are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many issues on campus that have a more direct affect on your life here than what kind of food you can get at the Hub. Find one.

Incidentally, I have a plan for the Hub. I propose that we turn it into a Macarena Center. We would play the song over and over, and anyone who wants to dance to it can go there. Once it’s full of people, we drop a bomb on it.

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Steven Martens is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Cedar Rapids.