To Future Readers of the Pine Press

Anonymous SHC Member

Photo Credit: Jordan Kovach

Maybe you’re like me, and you enjoy looking back at past Pine Presses. I love seeing what co-opers were doing, thinking, in the decades that came before me. Maybe this has been reprinted and you’re reading this in your current issue. Either way, I have a message for you.

Today is February 18th, 2023. On the 13th, our community suffered a tragedy: a man entered MSU’s campus and started shooting, killing three and injuring five. In the aftermath of this tragedy, many of us have a new or renewed fire to fight to make sure that this kind of violence is no longer normalized in the United States. We have protested, planned strikes, called our representatives, and donated. In some ways, it feels like the community has come together in solidarity against gun violence and the policies that allow it to thrive. There is an energy in the air, a united call for change. I have seen this energy before, however, and it can be hard to sustain. People forget, people lose hope, and people go back to their normal lives. Frankly, I am happy that you likely don’t have this energy, because it means that on some level, you feel safe. Many of us look forward to feeling that way again. But as the energy fades, many attempts to make change lose steam. People stop fighting, and gun violence becomes another background issue that we are left to resign ourselves to.

Please, if gun control laws have not improved drastically, if mass shootings are still normalized, if the government has not addressed the societal issues that help produce gun violence, continue fighting. Organize, vote, donate, and don’t support people or businesses that support/receive support from the NRA. Find the fire to keep caring.

Favorite Co-op Memories

Here are some of our members' favorite co-op memories!

My first room prog at Ohaus!!!! -Jo :) (Orion)

Hearing Co-op live music for the first time in Fall '21...I knew I had found something special. -Jake (Hedrick) wayyyy too many to pick from but one in particular is the 2021 U of M vs MSU game on halloween. It was during a time when Howland was still pretty locked down but we were all outside tailgating in our own front yard and for some reason we were wearing onesies. A lot of us were sitting on the roof and people were on the porch too- it was basically the whole house A photographer came by and asked if they could take a pic and we said yes About a week later someone found the pic on an article that said “students disregard covid lockdown protocols” or something like that. it makes me chuckle because we took lockdown so seriously and didn’t even have a positive case until long after everyone was vaccinated, we just have a lot of people and no one believes we all live in the same house! -Cate (Howland)

Dancing in the street at a party in a thunderstorm -Nicholas (Apollo)

Summer's at Raft <3 -Anna (Raft Hill)

Rollin spliffs in the summer sun

Going kyaking with housematesNoelle (Apollo)

Halloween! -Delaney (Apollo)

Kitchen convos -Mark (Apollo)