Editorial
Page 2
The award-winning Grove City College student newspaper, Nov. 8, 2019
From the Editor’s desk
Losing my family James Sutherland Editor-in-Chief
Nobody told me that growing up would be hard. Well, that isn’t really true. Lots of people told me growing up was not all the fun it looks like to a petulant little six-year-old. Even though I heard the exact same speech from family, friends and teachers my whole childhood, I never felt like growing up would be this hard. I’m sure every Grover, especially my fellow seniors, long for the elementary school days of yore. We could all put together the same list of the anxieties that sends us to a box of Tums: trying to find a job; paying eight different kinds of taxes (I might vote for whoever the libertarians run); trying to manage crippling student debt (I also might vote for Bernie); not being allowed to lie in bed all day because the night before your favorite basketball team couldn’t dribble through a basic press and lost a 30-point lead in the last eight minutes of a game. But, for me, one trial of growing up has been harder than the rest: losing my family. Don’t worry—no one has died (yet). I’m using “lose” in a much more figurative sense. I grew up in a family of all boys, the youngest of three sons. My brothers and I shared a bedroom our whole lives. We used to burn the midnight oil with our knock-down, drag-out debates about whether Ichiro is a first-ballot Hall of Famer (he is).
We used to share pretend seasons of football, basketball and baseball together, using the living room as the field for whatever sport’s championship we were currently winning in dramatic fashion. We watched the same five baseball documentaries during every lunch and on every car trip (I know pretty much any fact about the 2002 World Series, in case you wanted to know). But we don’t get to be that close anymore. My oldest brother lives in D.C., not far from where we grew up. My middle brother lives in Philadelphia and I live here, making a nice triangle with 200 miles on any side. Sure, we keep up on the phone and over text, but it isn’t the same. We don’t have the free time to just talk like we used to. We’re starting to build our own lives, starting into career paths and hopefully starting families (the middle brother has a girlfriend now and thinks he’s the bee knees; it’s gross). I’ve only just started to realize that this is a permanent state. There will not be some time in the future when we all move back in together and share a bedroom and yell at each other about whether Kawhi did the Spurs dirty. I miss the time when we did have those things. I never appreciated that time for what it was. We’ve still got holidays and vacations and hourlong phone calls after basketball games. But what I’m realizing, more than anything else, is how important it is to savor those times – they aren’t as plentiful as they used to be.
‘OK Boomer’
NBC NEWS
Generational wisdom is best heeded Josh Tatum
Perspectives Editor “OK, boomer” (stylized “OK Boomer”) has been, over last week or so, the subject of a piranhic media frenzy. It started last Tuesday when the New York Times style section–after sifting it out of the dregs of video-sharing app Tiktok– marked the phrase as “the End of Friendly Generational Relations.” The phrase gained some more momentum when it was used offhandedly in the New Zealand Parliament by a young MP and when a radio host called “boomer” the “nword of ageism” on Twitter. Big whoop. For the uninitiated, the phrase is used by Generation Z (those born after 1995) as a comeback to the condescension of some Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964). A typical exchange will go something like this. BOOMER: Kids these days can’t write in cursive, balance a checkbook, or hold a job. GEN Z-ER: OK,
Boomer. The subtext of this clapback is a two-fold sentiment. One, that at least Gen Z-ers didn’t wreck the economy and environment. And two, that Baby Boomers are in part responsible for the incapability of Gen Z-ers. With the definitions out of the way, in my view, the phrase itself is contrived (buy the T-shirt!) internet ephemera and will probably dissolve as such. “OK Boomer” is, in the lingo, a forced meme. Not to mention that the subtext is quite misdirected. Most if not all tribalistic attempts to identify the “real enemy” usually go over rather poorly, and grandma and grandpa aren’t it. Rather, the mistakes made in postWorld War II America were, as is typical for the alienated, no individual’s fault. That being said, both the condescension of some boomers and the use of this phrase (insofar as both actually happen), show an unwillingness to talk about the real issues. The generational tension, however, is quite exaggerated. Gen Z feels as
though they have a lot of work to do to make the world right, but the blame is usually allocated more intelligently (like towards corporations and government waste). This phrase, ephemeral as it may be, is at least a good segue to talk about the general problem of activism, something boomers were better truly better at. This is not to approve of all their tactics, but at least the youth of yore had the gumption to actually go out and do something, like invent rockand-roll, monkey-wrench construction equipment and assassinate politicians. Today’s armchair activists are content to sign a change. org petition, hold a sign and sleepily fall into the waiting arms of a paternalist government. At least activist boomers knew how to stick it to the man. To quote the eternal Benjamin Franklin, “an old young man, will be a young old man.” So, we have something to learn from our elders, and while the occasional condescension of a vocal few is irritating, it is wrong to flout a generation at large.
Collegian Staff Editor-in-Chief
Business Manager
Managing Editor
Social Media Manager Matthew Moody
Section Editors News
Copy Editors
James Sutherland Grace Tarr
Paige Fay
Community
Anna DiStefano
Perspectives Josh Tatum
Entertainment Nora Sweeney
Sports
Connor Schlosser
Photo Chief Wes Kinney
Copy Chief
Britney Lukasiewicz
Davis Miller
Jessica Hardman Claire Josey Michael Martin Lauren Ness Ashley Ostrowski Elizabeth Schinkel Joanna Thorpe Sydney Travis Caleb West
Staff Writers
Katheryn Frazier Fiona Lacey David Smith Mackenzie Stine Mallory Trumbull Jules Wooldridge David Zimmermann
Staff Adviser
Nick Hildebrand
The Collegian is the student newspaper of Grove City College, located in Grove City, Pa. Opinions appearing on these pages, unless expressly stated otherwise, represent the views of individual writers. They are not the collective views of The Collegian, its staff or Grove City College.
Green Eyeshade Award the
This week’s Green Eyeshade Award goes to Davis Miller. Davis may be the only staffer to literally shed blood for the paper. He did his job this week despite tearing his ACL. Thanks for the great work Davis! The Green Eyeshade Award honors student contributors that demonstrate consistency and excellence in their work.
Davis Miller
COLLEGIAN
An odd cartoon from 1969’s Collegian. Bonus points if you can make any sense of the wackiness.
This week in Collegian history
Sadie Hawkins and wacky cartoons Nov. 1, 1939 “Topsy-Turvy Leap Week Will Start Tomorrow: Go Get ‘Em Gals- It’s Your Turn Now”
We’ve all heard the song “Sadie Hawkins Dance” (whether or not we’ve actually been to such an event). In 1949, the Student Council held their first Leap Week Dance which, attended by “bold females and shy males,” bears remarkable similarity to the song. Women were admitted for free, but were required to “provide two bits plus a buffalo” in order to get her date into the dance. Wild!
Nov. 5, 1969 Inexplicable comic above Two bits and a buffalo to anyone who can explain this piece of work to the satisfaction of Collegian staff. Nov. 2, 1979 “David and Goliath Meet Nov. 13” When someone refers to “the court case,” a phrase which is uttered with reverence (and occasionally contempt), every Grover ought to know exactly what case to which they are referring, that being the historic GCC v. HEW. The gist of the case is thus: Grove City does not take government money, therefore the government has no jurisdiction over her
inner life. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare did not share this belief. “The College is seeking to preserve certain Constitutional freedoms - the right of private institutions to remain under private control, the right of students to have a choice between the large, state-controlled college systems and privately controlled schools. GCC will be fighting in the courts for both its freedom from government control and for the freedom of students across the nation to choose the kind of education which best meets their needs.”
Jules Wooldridge
Staff Writer