Breeze Perspectives: Breaking out of ‘generation why?’
We must work to combat the most proliferated disease on campus: apathy
By Marlee Newman, contributing writer
Posted on October 5, 2006

As freshmen, we are swamped with advice on how to survive in the big, bad collegiate world. “You’re in college now,” they say. “You have to start taking responsibility for yourself and the world around you.”

Stick around long enough, though, and you’ll hear those same people say, “Well, discrimination happens, but there’s nothing I can do about it,” or, “Hate crimes exist, but they don’t really affect me.” My personal favorite was, “Well, they’re bad…but it’s cool that we live in a country where people can express their opinions!” Freedom of expression is great, I completely agree. It’s awesome that we can express our like or dislike of an issue and not fear persecution. However, I am sure that hate crimes are not precisely what our American fore-fathers had in mind when they gave us this right. Why don’t we ask the parents of Matthew Shepard if they think it’s “cool” that Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinny got to “express themselves” by beating their son and leaving him to die. Somehow I doubt it.

We are supposed to be the upcoming leaders of America, the great minds of the future, but even though we’re in college now, most of us still cannot realize that it only takes one person to stand up for the rest to follow.

During freshman orientation week, we were taken to see this program called “The Faces of America.” The actress said that we were “Generation Why?” and implied that we are a generation full of apathy toward others. Unfortunately, I would be inclined to agree. Our generation seems to have taken the path of least resistance. The vast majority of us seem to wait before acting. We wait until there is someone dead on our doorstep to fight for what should have been fought for in the first place.

Hate crimes aren’t going away. Based on a uniform crime report done by the FBI, there were 9,528 victims of hate crimes in the year 2004, and those are just the ones that have been reported. Whether you have seen an act of hate or not, it is still your job as a citizen of the world to try and prevent them. It shouldn’t matter if you have been a victim of hate, or that it’s relevant to you and your life. What should matter is that it’s happening, that it exists.

Maybe our problem is that we’ve forgotten our history. Maybe we’ve forgotten that the Civil Rights movement occurred only 40 years ago, and that some groups are still fighting for equality.  Simply because the Ku Klux Klan isn’t seriously active anymore doesn’t mean it doesn’t still exist (and, yes, I do know someone who thought that the KKK no longer existed). Acts of discrimination, be they seemingly innocent or full-out battery, are still a part of our culture’s everyday life. And this is not simply a black-and-white issue. Discrimination can be universal, against anyone who is not exactly like the oppressor. I could be discriminated against. You could be discriminated against. We probably are. Simply because you don’t hear it doesn’t mean it isn’t said.

Please remember that we are the future. It is up to us to fix the problems made by those before us and to keep the world decent for our children. If we don’t start caring now, when will we? Will we be able to turn off the apathy switch and turn on compassion just like that? Will we be able to know in full adulthood the issues that are important to us, like hate crimes are for me, if we don’t start thinking about them now? I don’t believe we can.

Abraham Lincoln said, “To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.” Don’t be a coward. We’re in college now; let’s take responsibility for ourselves and the world around us.

Marlee Newman is a freshman history major.