To the editor:

Having read your September 8 article about the "Cohen Crackdown", I cannot help but wonder about the mental state of this campus. Amid the higher learning and supposed intelligence lurks extreme irresponsibility and flagrant disregard for authority.

Throughout the article you use subtle language to show your displeasure with people enforcing the law. "Crackdown", "infringing", "unusually large number of arrests". Cohen brings forth the truth that the entire campus overlooks daily: "I am not forgetting students are citizens. I think they are forgetting they are breaking the law," which the Sun even used as its "Quotation of the Day." The issue is not about strained relationships between the students and the city. It is not about "crackdowns" or "infringements on Cornell tradition." Lack of student representation at City Hall has nothing to do with "[overlooking] the perspective of students" (as Amernick puts it). The entire city understands the perspective of the students. The issue is about breaking city and state laws. It is ridiculous for the senior class treasurer to assert that "there were more arrests and fines than necessary to get the point across," when clearly this flagrant law-breaking attitude persists. Come by West Campus at 2am on a Saturday morning and watch the freshmen stagger back drunk. It is high time for the students to own up to the problems that they themselves are creating. It is irrational to blame anything relating to this issue on the Ithaca Police. They are doing their job. Why are we making their job harder?

Socrates explains it well in the Crito. We each have chosen to come to Cornell, reside in the city of Ithaca, and live in New York State. We each made that choice somewhere down the line, so we are responsible to live by the laws that the university, city, county, and state have established. No one at this university has any right to complain about infringement, crackdowns, or what amount of fines ‘exceeds‘ an unknown standard.

It is time for the students of this campus to grow up and assume responsibility for their actions. We better learn now.

Gregory Drake Wilson '98
greg.at.drakos7.NOSPAM.net