Word: stiched
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...December issue of Perspective, Rebecca Stich '98, the out-going programming chair at the Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA), responds to what she sees as a pernicious trend among Harvard's "activists." She claims that several recent e-mails from UNITE and an article in the November issue of Perspective by Shlomtzion M. Shaham '01 suggest a marginalization of community service in the agenda of the left. Stich quotes Shaham's comment that "community service rarely effects social change: it attempts to alleviate existing problems, and does not try to change the underlying structures that caused those problems." From statements...
...Stich's point is well-taken, and she deserves credit for the nuance of her account. She understands that to speak monolithically of "Harvard activists" is to generalize meaninglessly. Like any other cross-section of the student body, "activists" at Harvard come in many shapes and sizes, and they approach their activism in a variety of ways. Likewise, "activism" at Harvard is a heterogeneous idea and cannot either be embraced or dismissed absolutely. And while Stich's critique is not aimed at most Harvard activists, it takes notice of an identifiable trend within the activist community that requires attention...
...Although Stich admirably documents the symptoms of this "trend," her diagnosis misses the point. She attributes the activist rejection of service to a "futile search for a bad guy," but sadly, there often seems to be something far more unfortunate at work: the search for victims, not to be helped, but to be "bemoaned." From recent events, it has become clear that Harvard's activists are in danger of arriving at Augustine's "malevolent benevolence." While they should, like Augustine's truly compassionate person, "prefer that that which he grieves over not exist," they sometimes seem actively disappointed when...
...troublesome as it was, however, the great grape debate did not surprise me. Harvard's activists have periodically conveyed their confusion as to whether the "protest" or the "cause" should be the engine driving the train. When Stich describes the singular disinterest with which the activists seem to approach community service, perhaps she is noticing this phenomenon. Getting "down and dirty" in the trenches, making a positive difference in the lives of the less fortunate has rarely been the priority of the activists. Rather, many simply seem anxious to talk...
...Stich's article conveys the understandable frustration with which the dedicated volunteers on this campus have responded to their deprecation by the "activist" left. But Harvard's volunteers should not misinterpret the source of the attacks upon them. Only through the lens of Augustine's critique can we understand such behavior correctly: it is the seed of unseemly compassion, and Harvard should not tolerate it. Rather Harvard should embrace a spirit of true compassion, one that finds suffering reluctantly and honestly looks forward to the day when it will be no more...