In the age of Facebook application activism, I was not surprised to read that the sit-in protesters after Chalk Day backed down after the police showed up. I’m not saying they should get arrested for protesting the washing away of chalk, but if it wasn’t worth that much to them, then why do it in the first place? Our generation has the romantic ideal of the retro that has just turned into trying to be the diluted version of the youth of the sixties and in being simply that, [they are] missing the entire point. If you’re not willing to take it all the way, then you have no power. If you allow authority to threaten you into submission then you’re losing the power of the people. Ithaca College would not arrest an entire class of students for barring workers from washing away chalk. And if they did, they would get a very negative reaction. Hell, The Ithacan would have solid material for a full month. We all want to be as active and progressive as our parents were, but we have been labeled as lazy and apathetic. While that may be true, I think most of all, we are afraid. We are afraid of authority. We are afraid of getting negative reactions (which is why we enjoy the anonymity of the Internet). Pretending to be progressive is almost as bad as not doing anything at all. You’re just making yourself believe you’re doing something and they’re allowing it to happen to humor you. Basically, I just hope that the next time Ithaca College students find themselves in that position, they don’t chicken out.

Colleen Goodhue ’09