On Monday, Sept. 16, 2013, thousands of Stony Brook University students picked up The Statesman and found an article titled, “Mac Miller concert: a reflection on our generation?” It’s curious that the article’s author, Tejen Shah, should propose his title as a question because he doesn’t leave room for any conversation.
Complete chaos. Tejen Shah’s one-sided commentary embodies everything I thought was slowly ceasing to exist in our generational consciousness. His article calls for forward thinking yet he resorts to belittling and vilifying Stony Brook students, as well as an entire generation. This is both insulting and absurd. He draws upon a single event in our school’s history for which to base his cliché ‘kids these days’ diatribe and I would argue that it is in fact you, Tejen Shah, who needs to move forward in his thinking.
Your belief that one person stormed the Staller Steps and we students all mindlessly followed is misguided. No one was following anyone that day, not into the Staller Steps, nor as a uniformly “sleazy” and “trashy” generation. The concert was a harmless, albeit powerful, testament to the influence college students have timelessly proven to possess. You mention this influence, but discredit it by saying members of our generation “have nothing to fight.” As we speak, the government is shut down, a war continues, climate change is upon us and widespread poverty plagues the globe. For these reasons and others, we do have cause to fight. I am sorry not everything is meant to leave you feeling “warm on the inside.” We stand on the shoulders of giants, yes, but we must keep climbing. We may only progress as minds open, not remain so closed and compliant.
You claim Stony Brook students are futile and lack individuality. However, your idea of an individual is one who would allow a concert meant for them pass by unattended. It is one who would reject a genre of music because they don’t understand it. It is one who is afraid to experience all that this life and earth have to offer. You are mistaken, Tejen. Do not try to hold us back because you will only be left behind.
Sincerely-
Brian Sutton
(Sophomore; Environmental Humanities major)
