Every Saturday night walking around campus, I see lampposts flicker as people give them a good whack. Every Sunday morning, I see overturned trash containers and broken blue security lights. Usually, I take this in stride, perhaps throwing away a can I come across. However, this Sunday afternoon, when I saw the destruction of the Berlin Wall exhibit, I decided that enough was enough.
A high school teacher once told me that one individualís rights end where another individualís nose begins. This is a powerful statement: drunken activity in your room ó whether you are drunk dialing your ex, compulsive buying on Ebay or just messing around with your friends is one thing. Destroying public art is another.
Perhaps those responsible didnít realize that their own peers created those exhibits. From what I remember, about 12 walls were up. If each had three student workers, thatís 36 people. If each worker contributed four hours (there were two working periods on the previous Saturday and Sunday mornings), thatís 144 hours of work. This doesnít include the two-hour planning meeting about 30 students, including myself, attended, or the additional planning that students, faculty and staff put into creating this exhibit.
I would like to thank those who put time and effort into creating the Berlin Wall exhibit. You wanted to create a statement, beautify our campus and give college students something to think about. These goals were all successful, especially the last. Seeing my own peersí lack of respect for the hard work of their fellow students definitely gave me something to think about, and I hope it does the same for the rest of the campus, too.
The Jamie Foxx hit, ìBlame it (on the alcohol)” may be fun to dance to in the UG, but itís not a legitimate justification for the disrespect I witnessed Sunday afternoon, strewn in the Oak Grove. And if you would like to argue that alcohol was not a factor, then I would be even more disturbed that clear-thinking students would take part in such immature behavior.
What needs to change? Some would suggest the administration should ìcrack down” on the little Wooster nightlife we have. Some would suggest that we shouldnít be given public art to begin with, our campus is beautiful enough. I think that the change needs to start with the students who recognize this vandalism as a conscientious act of disrespect. If students are able to take a stand and tell each other to let what belongs on the playground, stay on the playground, then perhaps next Sunday morning we wonít have to look away shamefully at the weekendís newest rearrangement of our trashcans and benches.