Editor’s note: This letter was submitted for publication just before Halloween. We decided not to publish it then because we wanted to stay on campus. Now that we’re leaving, feel free to read it. We guess.
To the editor:
There’s been a lot of talk about the University’s flimsy justifications for many of the rules that UR administration and New York state have implemented on campus. Until last week, eight people could eat at the same table in Douglass Ballroom, but five people could not sit at a Wilco table, or in the more appropriately distanced iZone project rooms.
The University has provided outlets to express our concerns about these somewhat hypocritical policies, and even tried to explain that much of it was out of University administration’s hands and due to New York state policies. However, while some of these rules might be out of the University’s hands, it still begs the question of what to do when the rules defy every moral you have and there is so much at risk.
This semester I just so happen to be taking PHIL 101, or Philosophy for Dummies. Last week our assigned reading was Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience;” I read half of it. And from that half I have determined the transcendentalist manifesto of our time, which is that we need to apply Thoreau’s thought to the ineffective policies created under the CURT administration.
This is the reason that I, from now on, will be having at least three guests in my room at all times. To make a statement about the cruelty that is being displayed by the University by the implementation of this policy.
Will RAs be upset? Sure. Am I making someone’s life harder by continuing to disobey a policy that those enforcing it don’t even agree with? Absolutely. Am I gaining a lot by calling this misbehavior a political stance? You betcha. There are always casualties for worthy causes.
I want to establish that I don’t think of myself as better than anyone for taking such an extreme stand and risking so much for a cause that benefits so many, but I do think pretty highly of this idea. I mean, the application of Thoreau’s philosophy about imperialism might be genius in that there is so little respect for the written word these days, much less the application of such a philosophy. I’d like to think of myself more as a visionary and less of a leader, if we’re putting labels on things.
That, however, is besides my point. I encourage the rest of campus to follow suit in my noble endeavor to stop the unjust laws governing our campus and really stick it to the man along with me. While we might look like assholes today, we’ll look like even bigger assholes when the campus is shut down and CURT refuses to lighten the policy for even longer.
Sincerely,
Megan Browne
B.A. in Business
