To the Editor:

David Ptak’s September 20 column (“Express yourself, stir things up, now!”) was refreshing reading for an ISU student suffering from the same deficiency of social passion.

His argument was that “art is dead” and, more importantly, that “creative expression on campus is on life-support. Where are all the fresh young voices that yell whatever they yell just for the hell of it,” Ptak says. I don’t know.

This campus is certainly not very exciting — that is for sure. Maybe it’s because we’re in Iowa. Maybe it’s because we’re submerged in a sea of engineering majors. Regardless, no college student should have to be deprived of the true college experience. A friend of mine recently made me think about this “true college experience” and how much ISU is void of it.

He said that when he was in high school, he had an image of college as an extra-controversial environment — daily protests over strange world issues, naked people running around in psychotic delusion, professors smoking pot with students… You certainly don’t see much of these things at good ol’ ISU.

It seems there is a lull in ideas in general in this present era. Does anyone care about anything anymore? Where has all the passion gone? When you look to the past and compare it to what is being generated now, it gets mighty damn depressing. Sit and think about this a moment, my friends.

What do we have to offer the annals of history? Not so much, I think. More of us need to come to this realization. I have recently, and I’ve been walking around in a state of ceaseless pondering.

It is the realization of this problem, I feel, that is most important to its solution. I wonder what I can do. And you might wonder what you can do.

Well kids, it is merely a matter of acting upon your thoughts. If you feel passionate about an issue, act upon it for God’s sake — even if it is something others see as totally worthless (and it very well may be).

But at least you did something. I feel much better already having submitted this to the Daily — you see?

Matthew James Fritzjunker

Sophomore

LAS