A.J. Donaldson

Did they listen to my message?

Who understood my battles? Was I just another echo of leadership?

Did students really respect me? Did I do enough to change someone’s life for the good? These are thequestions haunt A J Donaldson.

People have no idea where I come from. To many I am just the strange guy who wears a hat with bow ties.

However, I am a man who remembers where he came from.

Thus I have expressed myself through my sacrifices for you, the students.

The question is whether you as individuals have developed consciences of your own.

We students are not sensitive enough to the atrocities of the world.

We claim to be a part of “the struggle” but we dismiss others’ hardships with passivity and nonchalance.

As I look back on my undergraduate experiences, I am humbled by those like minds who stood next to me in the trenches.

However, I often think about those souls who have not progressed since I came here 4 years ago.

So many people talk and don’t do. They ridicule but don’t react, they destroy but don’t build.

I wonder if students realize that the world is passing them by.

Do we care that the charges were dropped for Duke lacrosse case and that the Attorney General basically stated that the woman imagined it all, or that a redneck named Imus depicted black women as “nappy-headed hos?” Do we care that more than 30 people were killed at Virginia Tech?

When will you ask yourself, am I doing enough? Stop standing still, stop laughing at foolishness, understand why life is not a joke.

Yesterday in the Union, I overheard a group of guys arguing about whose cities had the most deaths last year. They boasted that the Virginia Tech massacre did not compare to the deaths in their hometowns.

How can you wallow in your own problems so much that you neglect the issues of others?

We glorify gangsters more than we do graduates. Who cares how many girls you slept with or how many guys tried to talk to you?

Education is critical to the development of your conscience. And when you have a conscience, you become more sensitive. And once you become sensitive, you will not tolerate ignorance.

Things you once thought were important no longer matter, and issues you thought were insignificant become your greatest fight. You will demand social outrage within the student community. The calamities of the world are too numerous for us not to be equipped with weapons of wisdom and passion.

Blacks are already at a disadvantage. I encourage all students to put aside pettiness and get angry.

People wonder why I am the way I am. Why do I blend with Western society’s image of success by wearing suits and engaging in politics? Because I am focused.

I chose to join the system and change it, rather than sit on the outside and complain. Those who know the truth don’t care and those who care don’t know the truth. Remember students, no one will care about how popular you were. Five years from now, they will only benefit from your works. Start working.

This is not a farewell piece, because you have not seen the last of me. Stay tuned. The force is with you. That’s it.