Dear Editor,
Thanks to Larry French, Robert Prowse and a handful of students who went to New Orleans over spring break, I am once again in awe of the depth and sincerity that our students are capable of. To forego spring break and do hard labor is a noble and amazing thing indeed.
With the addition of Prowse and French’s probing articles that explore the implications of our cultural obsession with Easter holiday products, I have to wonder what might happen if everyone were to forego buying the chocolate and the bunnies and gave their money or their time to some people living in (or trying to return to) New Orleans.
Is there any correlation between increasingly prevalent images of creepy rabbits in contemporary art and culture (for example, Donnie Darko) and the perversely absurd sensory assault that confronts us every time we go to the grocery store to buy a bag of carrots? Is it OK to participate in the pastel sickly sweetness of it all even if we’re not sure what we are doing it for? I, for one, am guilty of succumbing to hollow, long-eared, chocolate temptation, and would never dream of depriving my children of such enchantments … not to mention the joy and thrill of helping others.
Mira Gerard

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