To the Editor:
I would like to point out to Mr. Ostendorp (Oct. 11, "Against Apathy") that the mood on this campus has been far from apathetic. Any apathy I have encountered has been welcome after a month of anxiety, terror, and sadness. I was on a trip in Pittsburgh on Sept. 11 and have family and loved ones in both Washington and New York. I will never forget that frantic day, calling friends and relatives while phone lines were down and I was so far away. My father had a friend on the plane that hit the Pentagon, where he himself used to work. I cannot forget the images and thoughts burned into my mind after watching television for days straight, arguing with friends, reading news articles, and trying to grasp the tragedy by talking to my parents and anyone else who would listen about what was going on in our country.
When I returned to Dartmouth, I was glad to recapture some of that familiar "apathy." Not apathy about the lives lost or the country scarred by these tragic events, but the "apathy" that allows me to see a "lackluster Counting Crows concert" as a major event.
I would suggest that Mr. Ostendorp and others who are disappointed by our apathy look around. Look at the shocked faces in Thayer that still stare up at CNN as they wait to meet their friends for an "apathetic" dinner. Listen closely to classroom discussions, tables of friends eating together, and the voices, televisions, and radios humming in the dorms. You will find a campus that cares deeply about our nation and is far from apathetic but that has realized we must go forward and deal with this tragedy in our own way. It is more valuable for us to learn how to save this world in the future than it is to sit frozen in time obsessing over the transgressions of the past.
