In Friday’s paper, we encouraged students to take advantage of their rights to protest and peaceably assemble. We called on students to speak out against policies that adversely impact our lives as students at a public university — tuition increases and state budget cuts. Our plea apparently fell on deaf ears.
Students from the College of Charleston and Clemson drove more than two hours to attend the event. The vast majority of students at USC refused to walk two blocks from campus to join them.
Shame on us.
Shame on us for getting shown up by Clemson University, but more importantly, shame on us for failing to show our state legislators that we care deeply about issues that affect college students.
How can we expect to convince state legislators that their policies have real-life implications if we are too lazy or too apathetic to get out of bed and stand in solidarity with those who cared enough to show up?
We understand that class and work schedules prevented some from attending yesterday’s rally. We’re not upset with those people. We’re upset with those who decided that getting an extra hour of sleep was more important than fighting on behalf of current and future Gamecocks.
If you’re one of those people, shame on you. You missed a real opportunity to make a real difference.
