Dear Editor
This is in response to the article (and I use the term loosely), “Tuning Out Campus Noise.” First I would like to ask, has it been a slow news week? Is there nothing better to report? This is hardly even a well-thought-out opinion, let alone a viewpoint. However, since it has been published, and I have for some reason read it, I must say that I am appalled.
I have two main problems with this article. First, the anger issues and anti-social attitude expressed frankly scare me. If your first reaction to someone handing you a flyer or giving a well-meaning casual greeting is, “Everything you believe is stupid and if you speak to me again, I’ll kill you and your whole family,” you have bigger problems than a mere cup of coffee are going to fix. Secondly, and more important, this kind of apathy is exactly what’s wrong with the world today. People do not pay attention. No, I am not suggesting that you adopt every cause that someone hands you. However, with the possible exception of Homecoming – which I will readily admit makes me yearn for my own set of oversized headphones – most of the groups are trying to call your attention to at least a pseudo-important issue.
In my time at ETSU, I have received pamphlets on everything from anorexia to xenophobia. Have I run into the streets in defense of all of these causes? No. That is not the point. The point is, if people are not bothered to pay attention to the world, then we have no chance for betterment. Anyone who has pulled his ears out of his headphones for longer than 30 seconds cannot deny that our world is in a downward spiral.
I have to wonder if Mr. Prowse is even aware of the genocide in Darfur? Or even the current status of the war in Iraq? The homeless problem we have right here in Johnson City? I would venture a guess and say no. He and his apathetic headphoned brethren are part of the reason the world is falling apart. The people and governments who commit atrocities under our very noses do it, and get away with it, because they know that America, and the world at large, is full of Robert Prowses who feel content to hide being their privileged lives and overpriced electronics and refuse to pay attention.
My advice is take off the headphones, look around, interact with your fellow human beings. If you crave electronic stimulation, turn on the news, NBC, FOX, MSNBC, I do not care. Just pay attention! If you do not you will find your life collapsed around your ears and have no idea how it happened.
Kathryn McKinnon

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