FREE, FREE at last. Four years was plenty and, believe me, one more might kill me. My love-hate relationship with the University of Virginia ends here. "Forever learning, forever leading" should be the motto of this school. As the band Living Colour once sung, however, "when a leader speaks, that leader dies." I don't want to die. Instead, I hand my pencil to my friends.
Question: What is your question?
Answer: "This instant, as a voice of the conflicting organism that is U.Va., speaking through the mouth that is The Cavalier Daily, I am compelled to reflect on the social dynamics that govern our collective physiology. The debate that rages at the heart of many a U.Va. student pits the volunteer spirit eager to contribute to the community against selfish concentration on personal welfare. The paradox is that those who expend the energy to answer a question define themselves as part of the institutional bonds that confine them. I refuse to impose my individual moral values on this question to define a context for those reading it. But if you really want my response, ask me and I'll whip it out!"
--Jason Pinkerton, CLAS '00
Question: What are you?
Answer: what am i?
"i'm me
period
or so i would like to think so
i'm a liberal that doesn't have the guts to act like one
i'm overtly pessimistic in all matters.
i pose as your best friend, trying to satisfy you in every way
and yet under that sheepskin i have a calculating selfish brain.
i do things only for me
what others think doesn't matter.
and yet i'm too self-conscious of what others might perceive me as.
U.Va. has taught me one thing.
the ever-growing hypocrisy.
this world is full of it.
only if people were more honest and true to themselves.
there is no need to desperately search for other's approval.
no matter what you do they will form an opinion about you and that will
stick. sculpting yourself to that image is only deceiving yourself.
and to these people we trust our future.
back to me.
me.
i'm me and always will be.
if you don't like me for what i am so be it.
i will not overtly guise myself to please you.
i know deep down i'm a kind smart person.
i have no reason to prove it.
honesty.
you are what you are.
don't hide it
that's what i do
that's what i am
me."
--Juwhan Lee, CLAS '03
Question: If humanity need do only one thing to maintain its existence, what would that one thing be?
Answer: "Although the means for continuation may someday be obtained, for me, a more pertinent concern involves not just how we will survive, but why. I believe that every life created is both a gift from and an offering to an infinite existence some call god, some identify as tao, and some merely recognize as possibility. Given the capabilities inherent in every member of our species, it saddens me to think of the limits placed upon mankind by the egos of man, and his servitude to money. Until we are able to establish a society in which cultivating the beauty and creativity in all of our kind is recognized as more valuable than obtaining the material and monetary, my only answer to the question of why to survive is to instill goodness and love in all my seeds, in the hope they will be able to create for themselves a life worth living."
--David Mitchell, CLAS '98
Question: Some say that the secret to life is one thing. What's your "one thing," what comes in second, and why?
Answer: "I think the secret to life is always having desire to succeed. Everyone stumbles at some point in life but the key thing is not falling down. You may stumble more than others, but as long as you have the heart to succeed, you will. Second thing is knowing the right people. It makes the first part a little easier. God bless."
--Adam Oh, CLAS '00
Question: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? What will be the primary basis of religion by the year 2100?
Answers: "d^&% and c*#! which is steadily replacing d^&% in that domain of discourse."
--Serge Grigoriev, CLAS '00
Usually, Serge the philosopher would get the last word. Not in my last column. Peace. Thanks to everyone who was there and to those who couldn't make it. chris_delgrosso@yahoo.com
(Chris DelGrosso was a columnist from 1999 to 2000.)
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