Editorial

Why Don’t We Care?

Apathy will always be an enemy of progress. As the winter term draws to a close, indifference has begun to cling to the Andover campus more stubbornly than the New England chill. Regardless of where we choose to place the blame, Andover students have become extremely blasé. Although significant issues are affecting both our community and the world at large, we remain indifferent. We hide our impassivity behind a wall of flimsy excuses, ranging from excessive fatigue to an ever-mounting pile of assignments. The growing mentality that “someone else will do it” or “I’ll worry about it later” makes an appearance with every task we deprive of our attention. Take, for example, the race for Student Council President. How many students can honestly say they have read all of the candidates’ platforms? How many questioned a candidate before signing their petitions to run? Have all of us even watched the campaign videos? The answer is almost certainly no. Instead of involving ourselves in the exercise of choosing who will lead the student body, we nurture our indifference to a point where it becomes detrimental to the entire election process. Furthermore, with no ort-tab or recent All School Meeting reminders, the Green Cup Challenge has become nothing more than a shadow in the minds of Andover students. Energy awareness, though more relevant today than ever, seems cliché. We trumpet a .24 percent decrease in energy consumption to the sky, choosing to dismiss the fact that this is most likely nothing more than a minor flucuation and not a result of significant effort towards the GCC. This time of year is a grind for everybody. The unfortunate result of this is that issues not posing a direct threat to students’ report cards or résumés are automatically delegated to the back burner. We dismiss events like the Student Council election and the GCC because we have convinced ourselves that such matters do not concern us. We feel as though we can only handle life at Andover day by day. Anything that is not due tomorrow is irrelevant. But that is simply not true. Events that are significant to community at large will invariably affect us in turn. That is the simple nature of being part of a collective whole. If we choose not to involve ourselves in the workings of the community, then we can only expect it to gradually fail. Our actions have consequences. We will be affected by the leadership of whoever becomes School President, and with every pound of ort and every watt of electricity that is wasted, our GCC standing is not the only thing that suffers. The ripple effects of our indifference will be felt in both the short and long-term. Yes, we are tired and sick. Yes, we are busy. But that is no excuse for indifference when time and opportunities are passing us by. We must surmount apathy for the sake of progress. Let’s set our sights beyond just the task at hand. This editorial represents the views of Editorial Board CXXXIII.