If you attended the MLK Day Sunday service this past weekend, you would find that the majority of the guests who came to pay homage to Dr. King were not Denison students. This is disappointing. MLK Day at Denison was started by students, for students.[pullquote]If it were not for Dr. King’s work, we could be attending a very different institution.[/pullquote]
To see such low participation and enthusiasm from the present day student body is unacceptable. If it were not for Dr. King’s work, we could be attending a very different institution, and we as people, could have very different values. Some people cite the fact that MLK Day clashes with Greek recruitment as a factor for low participation, but that excuse doesn’t seem to hold water. Don’t the missions of Dr. King and our Greek system intersect? Both put a strong emphasis on service and kinship.
But of course, this is not an exclusively Greek problem. This is a fairly apathetic campus, and that apathy has seeped into our culture. Throughout my time at Denison, I have seen half empty auditoriums for important political and social events, and I continue to wonder: Do we care about anything beside our classes and our parties?
Consider: Last year, students rallied together via social networks and petitions to oppose the closing of Shannon House. Last semester more students than I’ve seen before attended the DCGA dialogue about Party Registration to air their concerns. But when it comes to MLK, there are crickets. Dr. King made tremendous personal sacrifices for future generations, and the very least we can do is thank him by taking a couple of hours out of our day to participate in service or to attend a teach-in.
When you think about it, the trade-off doesn’t seem so unfair.
*Unsigned editorials represent the majority view of the editorial board, consisting of the Editor-in- Chief, section editors and assistants.