Let me start by saying I’m not one you saw torturing the opossum. I agree wholeheartedly that it is senseless and brutish. the ‘gentlemen’ you saw most certainly looked like adults but weren’t. Although N.C. State is a place of higher learning it is nonetheless filled with people fresh off the doorstep of puberty and juiced up on hormones and Four Loko. State is a great school and attracts some of the brightest kids in the state, but they are kids. One of N.C. State’s jobs is to help to civilize them, and make ladies and gentlemen of the lot of you.

I would be extremely disappointed to discover that they had become seniors and that after four years they were still brutalizing animals. I’m unsure where you did your undergrad, but if you think State is filled with twenty-something enlightened Ghandis and Einsteins you’re going to be disappointed. This is no indictment of the student body as a bunch of uncultured savage mouthbreathers nor am I an apologist for the deeds of the perps in your witnessed marsupialcide, but some perspective is necessary.

My first year there some friends and I thought it’d be a good idea to trap a squirrel on west campus; suffices to say that it wasn’t going to end well for him had he been caught. what stopped us was an outraged RA from Sullivan that came and told us how stupid we were acting, as you’re doing. Lots of passersby thought it was hilarious watching six guys running around with brooms, tennis rackets, and clothes baskets trying to catch a squirrel. what made the difference was a young lady all of 5′ 1″ and 95 lbs. that came downstairs, five floors if I recall, to speak up on behalf of a rodent. The six of us learned something that day.

There is still a lot of growing up to be done in college. Be firm but be patient and lead by example, as you are. You all learn as much from each other as you do in the lectures. The WITH campaign’s “Let your actions represent the best of NC State” is a great motto that should be the student body’s mantra. what the 30,000 plus of you do up there reflects on the whole NC State family.


Johnne Smith

Class of 2003