Letter to the editor: Following the news isn't easy

Dear editor,

The Iraq War ended the week of Dec. 12th, right in the middle of finals week. Yet, was anyone talking about it, were there groups of people discussing it, rejoicing over it, was the campus abuzz with the news? No. Everyone was hunkered down behind a thick wall of books, studying.

Campus is always full of activity. If you have an interest there's probably already a club for it, anything from knitting to riding bikes to Quidditch. But the hard part of being a college student is weeding out the actual news from the club announcements.

People say that no social change movement has ever succeeded without the support of college kids. This is the reason why Occupy Wall Street might be having some problems. I've met more people asking what the movement is about than people who actually know the exact reason for the protests.

Now, this might have to do with the fact that Occupy Wall Street doesn't have just one goal and the aim of each OWS city is slightly different from the next, however, I feel like the fact that playing on your Xbox is easier than contributing to huge social change probably isn't helping either.

In my house we had the radio on all the time; I heard the news as it was unfolding. I read about local news in the paper each morning.

I would have called myself a well-informed person before I left for college, but now I don't have time read the paper in the morning — and I mean the real newspaper that contains world news not just strange tidbits about college life.

And while I've found my radio station online, I can't always listen to it because it's distracting to my roommate and eventually just becomes background noise most of the time anyway. Somehow, staying informed has become a responsibility, something I must conscientiously make an effort to do.

I never realized this at home because the news, radio and current events overlapped with my everyday life, but now there are so many other distractions at school that I have to actually set aside time to find out what is happening in the wider world outside of UVM.

It is not the most thrilling way to pass the time but I believe it is important. How can we expect to be leaders in the world or change it for the better if we know nothing about what is going on around us? We are on the verge of entering the world as — gasp — adults and fully-fledged members of society.

It's not like we will be handed manuals, how-to guides and care information for the planet Earth on graduation day along with our diplomas.

Nobody is going to say, "Here, let me break down what's been happening in the past couple of years while you were sucking on that hookah and taking down the minutes at the Dining Hall Improvement Society Meeting."

No — we have to come prepared. History is being made this very minute and we have the chance to have an impact on it, but have to know what is going on first.      

Sincerely,

Isabella Browne Lorcher

Class of 2015