Angelic hand reminds me. I’ve been reached for too.

To the first poet of TOP,
thank you.
may you receive poems meant to live through you.
JR

Charles Scott confronted this same condition in his “Obama Drama”. What do I/we really know about a politician? What do we/I know about endless loops of ruling class history? Who gives a damn?

If I/we do, then we/I need a plan. For these are the times that pry our souls. We are neither infants nor pets. We are responsible for individual responsibility. Are we responsible for learning from our own conclusions?

You ask “when are we going to stop falling for this? And does anyone really care?”

Do you care? Or did you slam shut the end of your essay with cliche?

I ask my students to pay attention to what they care about. Either strong love or agitation, even anger can reveal the arena of our purpose. If you/we care about educating ourselves to the propaganda we receive, yet plan for nothing different, I/we do not care.

Your essay, Charles’ essay, and others writing for TOP serve as lens for your coming of age. Does action spike after TOP writers point to cracks in worn-out facade?

Writers work hard to investigate well. Their passion is to match readers’ thoughts with a story so compelling that the readers’ facade is cracked just in time.

My slam shut question is what growth have readers been put through – has someone come up with a plan to turn a dead-end trend?

Applause, TOP writers.
Jeanene Renfro

One of the realities for running a small town, for that is what SMU is, involves purpose-driven donors. That $20 million for Moody is just that. Nothing given for a specific purpose, like Moody, can be used for another purpose. A university’s endowment is chained to old visions that finally were built.

Nothing gets done unless a vision bursts forth, word of mouth carries a tune of what we wish we were, and every once in a while someone with money hears the tune, sees the outlines, and places their legacy in support of what began on a shoestring.

Epic is young, I think its a couple years old, if memory serves. You could investigate who carried the vision, who approved the impetus, and who opened the initial stream of funding.

After learning its history, and if you wanted, you could leave your historic mark on SMU by being the champion who raised the roof on Epic funding. Substantive student fun requires imagination, planning, and ever vigilant fundraising expertise.

The decision was made more than a decade ago, maybe two, to raise SMU to national and international heights. Aesthetics and Athletics take their fair shair of critical blows when meritorious outrage like yours ignite. It is a decision much like “fake it until you make it”. Look great until you are great?

Meanwhile, you discovered something worthwhile. Perhaps you or someone you inspire with your essay will take Epic to the next level. That is how a small town is run, by finding a wrong and trynig to right it.

PS – by ‘cebteniall’ I think you mean “centennial.” Learn something new every day!

Both myself and our staff fully respect your opinion. I must point out, though, that our author wasn’t trying to argue any “facts” in his article. The author was sent to Relay For Life to do an observation assignment. The article contains the author’s observations of what he saw and experienced at a particular time during the event, nothing more. TOP does not deny nor discredit the success Relay For Life has at SMU in any way. The article was published as an opinion and observational piece, and is not mean’t to be taken as an attack or assault on the event or those who organize it.

In terms more reflective of our magazine’s purpose, the article should simply be considered what is just ‘another perspective’ to something that happened, a perspective not traditionally heard around a campus such as this.

2) the electric daisy shit was president turners cebteniall celebration which he planned the same weekend as relay which cost thousands

3) relay is not sponsored by smu, and smu does a lot to make sure we can’t make relay the way we want too

4) we have a measly 3000 budget (relay board) while we raise over 90,000$ benefitting the American cancer society

5) have fungetting lung cancer keep smoking those cigarettes you dumb shit