Stand up for how you feel

The tragic episode in Littleton, Colo. last Tuesday has captured the attention of our entire nation. From students at local schools, writing letters to family and friends of the victims offering support, to the president of the United States, this has united our country in sympathy and confusion.

Yet, as with other school shootings over the past year and a half, life will eventually go on and little will be done to prevent it from happening again. But something CAN be done, and we can help.

As I walk across campus, I am struck at how calm it usually is. There are always plenty of people out and about, but everyone minds their own business and lets the world go by. Granted, there are very occasional demonstrations and the like, for the most part it is unprovoking. But I find it sad that the only controversy on this campus comes from comics or the release of social security numbers. All of these concerns seem wholly self-centered, either on ourselves individually or as an institution.

While I wholeheartedly agree that these concerns are valid, shouldn't we also attempt to devote at least some of our attention on matters outside our own little worlds? With

situations like Kosovo and Littleton happening in our world, shouldn't we be standing up for what we feel is right?

I applaud Students Against Sweatshops for standing up for what they believe in, but I am saddened that it takes such a dedicated group to even publicly stand up for what they feel is right, much less stage a week-long sit-in. What are the rest of us doing, then? Are we so immersed in our own worlds, worried about passing this class, worried about how to get into that medical school or find a job, that we cannot spare some of our energy for fighting for what is right and good in our world?

My physics professor said today, "The reason that evil wins is because good people do nothing."

If we are good people then we should, nay we must, stand up for what is right.

Is gun control an issue in preventing what happened in Littleton from happening elsewhere? Should the U.S. and NATO be continuing to bomb Yugoslavia? I don't know.

I do know, however, that whatever you feel you should write your congressman or organize a rally, stand up for what you believe in. Don't let yourself become so totally immersed in your own affairs, maybe only talking about what is wrong in our world, that you don't peek your head out of your shell every once in a while and do something about it.

For those of you who saw "PCU," although the many protesters in that movie may not exactly have had universal interests in mind, at least they stood up for what they thought, for "if you are not outraged, you are not paying attention."

Timothy Bowers
Physics and astronomy sophomore