Thoughtful, Committed Citizens

Gun’s Quote-of-the-Week:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”
-Margaret Mead

College students are scatter-brained, unorganized, apathetic individuals who, generally, don't give a darn about anybody or anything other than themselves. I can say this because I used to be one, and it drove me mad at how hard it was to get people behind any kind of cause or issues whatsoever. I had the privilege of being a leader on my campus, and I got to know the other leaders on campus very easily because there were so few of us. When campus would hold a major event involving student leadership, the same people would show up to those events every single time. It wasn't because we were power-hungry snobs trying to keep decision making inside of some elitist group, nor was it because we enjoyed being the center of attention. Trust me. We BEGGED people to help, volunteer, and lead. We needed numbers to convince our administration to do anything, and frankly, getting the numbers was the hardest part of getting change to happen.

That's why when I learned about the recent shenanigans the students of my Alma Matar are pulling off right now, I dropped my jaw in disbelief.

Ferris State University is a hockey school. Its students have created hockey chants. They are vulgar, mostly inappropriate, and would be considered offensive to families with young children. For that reason, the University recently chose to ban them, and actively throws people out who violate the new policy.

This year the University decided to throw out a student who used a chant that in years' past was allowed. For the first time, the students revolted.

The next hockey game, somehow, someway, the students that showed up to the game talked to each other and came up with the plan to sit in the bleachers and remain absolutely silent. They did. Nobody said a thing for the entire 1st period. I couldn't believe this. NOBODY on my campus has ever been able to convince ANYBODY on my campus to do ANYTHING uniformly, at least not with regard to changing University Policy.

Of course in the intermission between 1st and 2nd period, the rest of the audience asked the students what they were doing. Fox Sports was broadcasting, and they interviewed students asking why they quit cheering. The students, on live TV, explained they were protesting University policy. Talk about your bad PR. To make matters worse, the ACLU has been notified. (Apparently courts have ruled in past legal cases that rules banning vulgar speech at sporting events are unconstitutional.)

Apparently change is happening. The game after that, despite several VERY vulgar chants being thrown out, no student was. Hmmm…

Those of you who know me know that I choose to use non-vulgar language. You would then correctly surmise that I wouldn't support this group of students trying to "re-legalize" the vulgar chants. However, my opinion doesn't matter. Why?

Because right or wrong, decent or indecent, those people who care enough to surround a cause and commit to advancing it are the ones who rule the world.

Everyone else is at their mercy.

…and that’s why it’s a Gun’s Quote!