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March 29, 2005
Letter to the Editor: Campus squatter just wants a little respect
You may not know me by name, but you know me by sight. I’ve been living (or at least trying to live) in Bush Library for several months now, though I occasionally take a hiatus and reside in Drew Science when I feel that people are getting too close to my proximity.
Why do you always have to be hassling me?
People say they don’t want loiterers like me hanging around campus. They think I’m creepy, or dangerous, or out to get them. I see posters of myself (not my best picture, by the way - I didn’t have time for a sponge bath that day) posted around campus, and I’m just trying to live, man. The sidewalks are cold at night. Cold like the dark, cruel hearts of the people who try to bring me down.
People are always taking their belongings with them, even if they’re just going to the bathroom. Would it really be so much to ask that people leave their belongings unattended for five minutes so that I can try to find something to eat? Or something to sell illegally so that I can buy something to eat? I don’t think that’s an unreasonable request.
I mean, yeah, the food and the cell phones and the iPods that I try to unobtrusively appropriate for my own use aren’t technically mine. But that’s a narrow, narrow way of thinking. The world belongs to all of us, and I would think that the loss of material goods would actually benefit people.
It serves as a reminder of the unimportance of worldly things. Really, I’m doing you a public service by reminding you of what truly matters. Sure, you shelled out a couple of hundred dollars for that cell phone you bought, but how important is it really, in the grand scheme of life? I’m just trying to bring you all a little more perspective.
As the Buddha once wisely said, “The world, indeed, is like a dream and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage! Like the apparent distances in a pictures, things have no reality in themselves, but they are like heat haze.” Dwelling on what is materialistic will only bring you down.
The only other complaint I have is that people don’t respect my stash. I go to all the trouble to hide things in the ceiling of Drew freakin’ Science and still, people can’t leave me alone. It’s not like I had an entire bedroom or something up there, just a few necessities to help me get by when I fall on particularly hard times because students often decide to be stingy about what they leave sitting around. It’s not like my stash of 7Up and toilet paper is hurting anyone.
So next time you’re studying in Bush Library and you feel the need to take a quick smoking or bathroom break, please, have some courtesy for those around you and just leave your bag unattended.
Robert Lyle
Your Friendly Neighborhood Squatter
Posted by msveum at March 29, 2005 01:25 PM
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