Another week has gone by in this Spring semester. I’ve skipped too much class already. I really need to stop doing that. If you hear about me skipping again, yell at me. I’m serious. Call me up and yell. If you don’t know my number, then IM me and tell me to get off the computer and go to class!
I’m going to start on a quick light note- my roommate Ricky has decided he is going to be the UT Superhero ending any and all crime on campus. However, the job position of superhero is not one you can just walk into so he needs your help. If you have any ideas for costumes, a name, a theme, any symbols, etc, please shoot me an e-mail.
Now my second topic of the week is bound to upset some people. If you happen to be one of those people, feel free to contact me and voice your opinion. Okay, diversity rallies- I don’t like them. I am not saying I don’t like diversity. I just don’t like the rallies. For those of you who do not know of my high school background: My high school was diverse. We had a pretty even mix of white, black and Hispanic. It wasn’t a “white” school. We had a pretty open flow of culture between all the ethnic groups. Blacks were 26% of the school population, Hispanics were about 16%. About half were “white, non-Hispanic” and the remainder came from Native Americans, Asians, et al. We never made any big deal about being a diverse campus- we just were diverse. The district allowed all 8th graders to choose which high school he/she would like to go to and we ended up being a diverse school. I’m at UT now and I’ve heard stories from A&M about diversity rallies held at the two campuses. I just laugh when I heard about this. UT has only around 16% minorities total. A&M has a total of 14% minorities. Although I hate to admit this, our campuses are not that diverse. We hold diversity rallies to celebrate our diversity. What diversity? We aren’t diverse so we try to act like it. What the hell good is that? A rally will not change anything. It won’t magically add minority students on campus. I love black people, I love Hispanic people, but what I love most is when I’m around people of other races and it’s not a big deal. Instead of holding a rally to act like we’re diverse, let’s become diverse. I don’t want to parade around campus telling myself we are. We aren’t. It’s as simple as that.
This will upset people as well but that’s the kind of musings this will be this week. The MLK Statue on the East Mall was egged on the previous Monday causing an uproar (story 1, story 2) on campus. I do not think that it was proper to egg the MLK statue nor do I condone that action. However, everyone made such a big deal about this. Some students reported seeing flowers around a statue of Lee on campus. Well, two other buildings (ACE and GEO, the Daily Texan newspaper said RLM which is not what police reports state) were also egged the same night. It sounds like some kids were throwing eggs around campus. Were they trying to send out their political message of hate on campus? Maybe. Were they trying to get a cheap thrill? Possible. The MLK statue is the only one on campus guarded with video cameras. Adds a little to the thrill factor. I know many people will take this the wrong way and I’m prepared for that. I just don’t feel that a statue being egged is that big of a deal. If they hung a sign on it saying racial slurs- that’s a big deal. If they tried to destroy or deface the statue- that’s a big deal. Throwing some eggs at a statue and two other buildings. I just don’t see that as a clear racial hate issue. Some people will bring up that the statue of General Lee on campus had flowers around it. No one reported this to the police as vandalism and only the newspaper had a report of a student seeing this. The people who threw eggs could be connected to that, it could be someone else who has a racial issue or who knows. I really just don’t feel the eggs were that big of a deal. According to the Daily Texan, Student Government “voted unanimously Tuesday [Jan. 21, 2003] to pass a resolution condemning the statue’s defacement and urging the UT administration to adopt and implement a racial harassment policy.” Great for them. There is no reason why we should allow racial harassment on campus. When was the last reported harassment due to race on campus? I have no idea. There has been nothing in the police reports for this school year about it that I can recall. Take that for what you will, if you think I’m wrong.
On a much lighter note, Saturday the 25th was the first “Whose Date Is It Anyway?” date auction at the University Catholic Center. It was amazing. For all those members of STRONG (if any) who check out this site, you did a great job. I am impressed and that isn’t easy to do. All in all, from what I heard, around $4,000 was raised to help complete the new center.
Adam asked me this week why I had Matt’s weather online but not his since he was in fact colder. I checked it out and he’s right. Adam is colder at Grinnell College than Matt is at MIT. [as of when I wrote this on the night of January 26th. Weather does change.] Also, if you need to know any random facts about cars, Adam knows what you seek. I’ll mention some of his random facts in the weeks to come.
That is that for this week’s musings. Matt’s stats are below as they were last week. I’ll be setting up a page so you can track his progress towards 100% soon. Also, if you have any idea for RM232, shoot me an e-mail. I have some ideas in the works but any feedback would be great.