Vandalism disappoints

To the Editors:

No War on Iraq. Zionism is Racism. Every Night is Take Back the Night. Peace. Anarchy. I don’t care what your favorite current cause to force on everybody else is, but to those of you who are taking it a step further and turning it into petty crime—stop it! I have never seen such an overabundance of juvenile vandalism on this campus before, and it’s making me think that one should take some sort of proficiency exam before they are allowed to wield a $1.75 can of Rustoleum. Do you think that your message is really going to stay there? Think about it: one moment we’re all raising a stink about the college wasting its money on stupid things, and then the next we’re giving them something stupid to waste it on. I think that Oberlin has such a beautiful campus, and it makes me extremely unhappy to see it defiled on such a regular basis. So please, for the sake of keeping our buildings/sidewalks/stairwells looking unlike a giant bathroom stall, think of the consequences of spreading your message in such a destructive manner.

—Noah Smit
College sophomore