Can't We All Just Get Along?

Everyday I pick up the Daily and there are at least a few people who are pissed off and complaining. One article is about how a certain group of Jumbos are fed up with how liberal Tufts is, and how something needs to be done to restore some morals around here. The article to the left of it is about how another group feels like the administration is suffocating them, and how the Tufts community as a whole is too conservative in their views on sexuality, or art, or whatever the topic du jour may be. The administration is ticked off at the fraternity system, and visa versa.

Today I read two different pieces that detailed the newest campus outrage: the word "c**t", being written in chalk on the sidewalk. We can't say that any and every thing is appropriate "chalking vocabulary" because that could certainly lead to situations that actually warrant an upheaval, but seriously, can you all please just lighten up? Now, I've learned a thing or two about a thing or two in my three years on the Hill, and I have a feeling that the problem is that many of you don't even know how to "lighten up" because often Tufts seems more uptight than...well, we won't go there. Here's my advice: the next time you see "c**t" written on the ground, either 1) Go see The Vagina Monologues. 2) Giggle like a school-girl (like me). 3) Be slightly offended, and let it SLIIIIIIDE. It's a dirty word, not something that we need to take to the authorities.

Maybe if students spent less time protesting menial things like this, we could turn our attention to other issues, like the fact that the most hopping place on campus on the weekend is the library, or the fact that there's an entire class of freshmen who haven't really had a "college party" yet. I understand that we're supposed to be "preparing to take over the world" as college students or whatever clich‚ one wants to use... but we don't need to do it all the time. Lighten up, and the next time you feel like protesting something insignificant, go crack open a beer. Tufts wouldn't let you know it, but at other places college is actually allowed to be fun.



William Elder

LA '04