our community
Letter to the Editor
Last Wednesday's edition of this paper gave me much more than the usual food for thought and I thank all those who contributed to the feast. On the front page were good articles on the Roseland incident and coverage of the sweatshop issue and the desire of the Progressive Student Alliance (PSA) for the University to join the Worker's Rights Consortium rather than the Fair Labor Association.
The middle of the paper contained Jason McFarley's fine feature column about the abuse of power by the Roseland officers and a letter to the editor by Justin Bonner about how we could use a bit of a crisis around here to shake up complacent students who claim to be Christian. Good stuff to read and ponder.
I would like to mix these four pieces together and offer a somewhat synthetic thought. Yes, Mr. Bonner, we should get uncomfortable about a number of things around here and get rid of our indifference. Yes, Mr. McFarley it is okay for you to display your anger.
We all should be angry about the treatment of our community members at the hands of what appears to be two abusive police officers.
What should make us even more angry, or at least embarrassed and ashamed, is that more extreme moral outrage has been shown over a poor lad's last second watery mistake during the Syracuse basketball game.
For the past two years I have been watching with some interest the formation and practices of the PSA. I had some hope that they might really develop into some positive force on campus.
It appears that they probably will not. I fear that they are becoming more and more like the group that the late Al Capp satirized in his 'Lil Abner cartoon strip. During the 1960's, when so many campuses were up for grabs, Capp often depicted a collection of student activists he labeled S.W.I.N.E. (Students Wildly Indignant about Nearly Everything).
The issue of our students of color being harassed and intimidated by a local governmental agency is not one to be overlooked. I thought, imagined, wished, hoped that the PSA would already have had sit-ins and protests outside the Roseland Town hall and Police Department.
Instead they want the University to forsake its already proven leadership role in an organization dealing with sweatshops in order to join a group that has not really come together.
It might be that they desire us to sit in the Administration Building and sing the 1960's hit "Puff the Magic Dragon" rather than sit in Roseland and sing the 1960's fight song "We Shall Overcome."
They want our student body to mobilize for this?
"Think Globally, Act Locally," is a fine motto to follow for justice issues. It makes sense; it does accomplish things at the level where most people are. In other words it is where the rubber hits the road.
Take the lead now! Organize now! Doing that which is positive, concrete and observable on the local level might actually produce results on an issue of justice.
It has not been done around here in some time. It might actually be the start of something.
Father William Seetch
Rector, Morrissey Manor
March 23, 2000
All Viewpoint Stories for Tuesday, March 28, 2000
