To the Editor:
Your editorial "Tubestock doomed to mediocrity" not only misses the point of the letter I sent out this week, but also raises an issue much larger than Tubestock: an infantile and cowardly attitude which seems to infect the editorial board. You are right to say that, at its core, Tubestock is illegal and unsafe--everything about the event is and always has been. But it is undeniably one of the most fun weekends at Dartmouth.
Your thesis implies that you would like to see Tubestock continue as it was for the past 16 years, just without that pesky little problem of the administration and legal authorities in the way. You yearn for the "good old days" when the police would glance the other way in the name of fun.
But what are you willing to sacrifice to have your fun? We live in a liberal society that allows for much individualism, yet we have given up some of our own liberties for the public good. If we want to sever our bond with the contract to our laws, we must take a risk. And the most fun things are nearly always the most risky.
Tubestock, Green Key and every other big weekend at Dartmouth can be just like they were in the "good old days," but each and every one of us must be willing to pay the price for what we do. By asking for no alteration to "the core character of the event," you ask that the administration sanction illegal and unsafe behavior so that you don't get into trouble having fun and deny your own responsibility for your actions.
This is cowardly and infantile. We are not ten years old, and we must realize that what we do we must be responsible for. An "I wanna break the law with impunity, mommy" attitude is for three-year-olds playing in the backyard. It is not 1950 where the boys could do what they pleased and get away with a slap on the wrist.
To have Tubestock like it was, we must rebel against the laws set in place by a majority of our fellow citizens. Albert Camus in "The Plague" said that "it is not rebellion itself which is noble but the demands it makes upon us," yet your implication that a "Disney-fied" Tubestock is inevitable spits in the face of rebellion and cowardly lies in the mud to be trampled on by whatever authority comes our way.
You as individuals have a choice: you can choose to be responsible or choose to take the risk of breaking the law. Having this choice is the beauty of living in a free society, but with it comes a trade-off: personal responsibility.
