Word: complain
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...involves not caring about some things at the expense of other things. A case in point is the problem of student government at Harvard. After mustering a small handful of votes, those students who are elected to the Undergraduate Council quickly hit a brick wall of student apathy. Students complain about us, the council members claim, but no one cares enough to do anything about it. Students, if they care enough to listen, become defensive and lash out at the group...
Even if you think that all of those politicians are a bunch of bums, voting is still important--maybe more so. As the old saying goes, if you don't vote, you can't complain. Whining without voting is just whining. But whining with voting is exercising a principled right of dissent. If you hate your choices on the ballot, leave it blank. Millions of blank ballots are sure to get the attention of those despised bums in Washington...
...important to think about such issues because a sense of community is what makes life bearable. When people complain that Harvard has no social life and that school spirit is non-existent, they are complaining less about deficiencies of the University itself and more about their own personal levels of inner peace and satisfaction. Spending the best years of your life sober and alone just isn't satisfying...
...because it was Beanie Baby day. The Yanks' starters couldn't even get in fights alone; their two bench-clearing brawls--one with the underperforming Orioles and one with a frustrated Toronto club--were dominated by guys off the bench. All the players shared time and didn't complain. They're not fun to write about...
High-achieving black students who study hard complain that their less successful peers castigate them for "acting white." One black counselor said black students should not take difficult advanced-placement courses because they wouldn't do well in them. You could argue that such self-destructive behavior reflects a so-called slave mentality, but history suggests otherwise. The newly emancipated freedmen valued two things above all else: their own land and education. They certainly didn't think learning was "white...