The funny thing when you’re gone from college is that no one really cares.

p. Believe me: if I had it my way, on the day I left, everyone would dress in black. Men and women alike would carry decorative hankies that by the end of the day would be soaked in tears of raw sorrow and snot of passionate remembrance.
But that’s not quite how it is.

p. The “study abroad” situation is an interesting one, because it forces narcissists and solipsists like me to confront a very large fear — that we are not the center of the universe, or the College campus, or even our particular social circles.

p. That’s right. I didn’t want to believe it, either, and I’d been categorically denying it for a number of weeks now. I expected parties to cease with my absence. When people went out, I thought, they would sit around on uncomfortable chairs in otherwise empty rooms with no music playing, discussing how terrible things had been since I’d left.

p. “If only Dan were still here,” they’d say. “Then this mere
From a beautiful woman: “I wish Dan were around so I could sleep with him.”

p. From another equally beautiful woman: “I’ve already slept with Dan. But if he came back, I’d gladly do it again. And again. Sigh.”
And so on and so forth until the whole room is no more than an amorphous puddle of swooning fans. In my dream world, I’d return from a hard day of work here in England to find hundreds, nay, thousands of voicemails, e-mails and instant messages begging me to return as promptly as possible. But it’s very rare that I find page after page devoted to my glory, or even a simple “WE NEED U! COME BACK!111!”

p. Could it be that I’ve been forgotten?

p. Well, maybe. College campuses are filled with bright, young people doing fun things and living for the moment. I, for the moment, am not part of the moment. I may not be replaceable, but the gap created by my absence is probably pretty easy to ignore, all things considered — sort of like that crack in the wall that you always mean to fix but never will.

p. Some are doubtlessly scoffing. “This kid is only gone for three months, and of those three, the College is only in session for one. Of that one month, several weeks will be spent pursuing final exams, anyway. So who the hell cares if he’s not around for Blowout?”

p. This is an excellent point, and one that I can only counter by reminding you of how much fun I am to be around.
I’m exceptionally fun. Ask anyone who knows me. (Don’t ask people who’ve only heard of me — they are, by nature, jealous.) In this day and age, when frenzied Americans everywhere spend their waking hours just looking for their next fix of entertainment, I’m better than drugs, sex — even television. Yes, even television. Those aren’t my words. One of my friends told me so once. Really.

p. Has she/he spoken to me since I left? Well, yeah, a little bit, I guess.

p. I suppose what it all comes down to is, I wanted to believe that going abroad would be the closest possible thing to faking my own death and watching people at my funeral. But it’s not. There comes a time when we must accept that things will go on without us, that we’re not the sole harbingers of joy to our friends. It’s a bit like facing death, in a way. If people have any idea that you’ll come back, they’ll stop missing you right away. The big exception to this rule is Jesus Christ, who many are positive will return but still deeply miss. But I, unlike John Lennon, am no Jesus. I’m just a Lazarus — I’ll be back.

p. I’m reminded of the last lines of “The Catcher in the Rye,” which read, “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.” From this, we can infer the following:
One: (Somewhat extraneous, but bear with me.) J.D. Salinger must never have told anybody anything, because he’s currently living as a recluse and seems to have no desire to return to society.

p. Two: None of my friends or acquaintances have told me anything of great significance, or they’d be really, really, really, gut-wrenchingly sad right about now. Granted, a few get the sniffles on occasion, but it’s allergy season and I don’t want to assume anything.

p. And three, oh, three: I’m about to miss you all much more than you miss me.

__Dan Piepenbring, a junior at the College, is a staff columnist. His columns appear on Fridays.__

**Articles in Informer cause outrage**

p. To the Editor:
Two articles recently featured in The Virginia Informer helped me realize that that student newspaper is the pinnacle of unprofessional and utterly irresponsible journalism.

p. The first article in question, “A Whole New World: Studying in Jordan,” by Editor-in-Chief Joe Luppino-Esposito, a junior, promises a look into junior Robert Landicho’s travels in Jordan. What is presented is a poorly constructed argument on the contrasts between Jordanian and American ideals.

p. Luppino-Esposito explains that “war and violence was [sic] almost laughable to many people there [Jordan]” and follows this statement with a quote from Robert: “They said that joking about it was the only way to get through it.” I live with veterans at school and at home; both of them often joke about their experiences, but I would never make claims that they consider war and violence to be laughable.

p. Most jarring are Luppino-Esposito’s words on Islam. He assumes that, because the society of Jordan is “based in Islamic law, [it] means that freedoms are severely limited.” As a middle eastern studies major, I am appalled at this comment. I do not deny that inequality and corruption exists in states where Islamic law is present, but Islamic law is not the root of the problem.

p. Luppino-Esposito’s comment is absolutely offensive to Muslims. If one actually examines the statements made by Landicho, one would notice that no words support Luppino-Esposito’s claim that everyday life in Jordan is “wholly unjust.” Perhaps Luppino-Esposito should have asked senior Walid Kildani for his input, as he is a Jordanian student.

p. Thankfully, sophomore Nick Hoelker was able to feature Kildani in his article “Students challenge Bechtold’s objectivity.” But, like Luppino-Esposito, Hoelker selectively utilizes quotes to allege the anti-Israel sentiment of Professor Peter Bechtold. Interestingly, all quotes supporting this alleged stance are given by anonymous students. More shocking is the fact that Hoelker never contacted Bechtold himself. But I find it most callous of Hoelker to publish students’ references to Bechtold as “the Fuhrer.” I think Hoelker and his editors should be aware that Bechtold’s father, who passed away in late 2006, was almost killed by the Nazis. Bechtold’s aunt was killed in a Nazi gas chamber.

p. I am not writing this letter to attack the Informer. I wholeheartedly believe that multiple voices should be printed on campus — it’s essential to our freedom of speech to have these perspectives available. There is some talent at the Informer; the impeccable writing of sophomore RC Rasmus is always a pleasure. However, the obvious misrepresentation of fact and lack of research evident in the articles by Luppino-Espositio and Hoelker is disturbing. I am not a legal scholar, so I would not be so ruthless as to make claims of libel. If anything, I hope Luppino-Esposito and Hoelker consider offering the Muslim community, as well as Bechtold a most sincere apology.

p. __— Cliff Martin, ’08 __

p. **Preserving Confederate history**

p. __To the Editor:__

p. I read Keirstin Flythe’s letter in the April 24 issue of The Flat Hat as a personal attack. You see, I had ancestors on both sides in the Civil War. As a history student and Civil War buff, I admire the courage and fortitude that my ancestors displayed when they decided to take up arms and fight for their beliefs. They faced harrowing conditions and gruesome battles, and I simply have to respect my ancestors for that.

p. However, Flythe’s last two paragraphs prompted my response. First, Flythe states that she does not want children looking up to Confederate soldiers as role models because they were racist. Yet, the fact is that 19th-century American society was extremely racist. Even some Northern abolitionists could be considered racist: some of them wanted to free the slaves, only to ship them to Africa. Many Union soldiers were also racist. In fact, many soldiers that fought in the American Revolution and the War of 1812 were racist. Should we stop honoring them as well? An historian, or anyone for that matter, cannot judge previous eras with 21st-century values.

p. Second, the author stated that the creation of Confederate History Month would be an exercise in forgetting “how the Confederate heritage and its mentality alienated and oppressed the African-American race.” Yet, by not creating Confederate History Month, we would be forgetting our history, which is a dangerous exercise.

p. Forgetting Confederate heritage would mean forgetting my ancestors, and that is something I am not prepared to do. Additionally, forgetting Confederate heritage would mean forgetting history, forgetting Southerners (the majority of whom did not own slaves) who fought for a cause they believed in, forgetting the free and enslaved blacks who fought for the Confederacy (see “Black Confederates” by Charles Barrow, J.H. Segars and R.B. Rosenburg) and forgetting the stories of millions of people.

p. __— Timothy Huffstutter, ’07__