To the Editor, My last letter failed to reach a large portion of you on a personal level so I will try again. Those of you I asked said that my last letter was too long; as if you had something more important to do with the few minutes it would have taken you to actually read it. So this time, I will keep it short and direct. You people seem to care about nothing other than yourselves. You inhabit this planet with 6 billion others and yet you care for nothing other than your ruthless, relentless pursuit of material goods. Where exactly do your principle’s lie? You do not care that the government is unlawfully detaining innocent people as long as they do not come for you. You do not care that the present administration is tearing our constitution and bill of rights to shreds with the Patriot Act and the soon to be Patriot Act 2 in the guise of security as long as nothing gets in between you and your next car, shoes, outfit, cell phone, or other toy. What is it going to take before you wake up and start paying attention? Would being sequestered to your home while police men in riot gear holding M-16’s march up and down the street arresting anyone who leaves their residence get your attention? That’s what is going to happen if our alert status goes to red. Or would the round up and imprisonment of honest citizens who dissent into internment camps that frighteningly resemble concentration camps get your attention? If you think that’s impossible or that our government did to honest Americans of Japanese descent during World War II. But I don’t think any of this will get your attention or cause you to suddenly have an attack of consciousness until it gets in the way of you getting that high paying job we’ve all been led to believe is waiting for us upon graduating. Until it does, you seem to have no problem with innocent people being taken, with our constitution being run through a shredder, with the present administration acting as if they can do whatever they want, and with police state restrictions. In fact, upon reviewing the last few issues of the Houstonian, it is painfully clear that the only thing you do get angry enough about to make your opinion known was the controversy surrounding Quanell X’s visit. It has been three weeks since he was here on campus, can you please focus your attention elsewhere or must we continue to read editorial after editorial for weeks at a time over something that has long since been over and done with. I agree, I disagree; trust me, the point on both sides has been well made. Benjamin Franklin once said, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety.” If we just complacently roll over at this time, we will be like sheep being led to the slaughter. If we do nothing to prevent this, then we deserve eventual enslavement by our government but our children won’t deserve it. SHSU, this is your last wake up call from me. What are you waiting for? Are you waiting to see which side your favorite movie or music star is going to take before you take a stand? Are your morals, your principles so transparent that they must be dictated to you by pop culture icons? I dare you to do something. I dare you to get involved, to pay attention and to get off your butts and stand up for whatever it is you believe in. I challenge you to be driven and passionate about your convictions instead of your clothes. Prove me wrong. Once again, if you’d like to begin a group on this campus, e-mail me at [email protected],Amanda Crawford