A week to celebrate

It's that time of year again. That's right, it's the week so many people anticipate all year, so many cherish and so many hold in higher respect than any other week. \nI hope IU students will fill the streets, full of joy and love, to celebrate these seven awe-inspiring days. We'll gather together delirious with excitement to cheer and honor those who take part in the great event, while we stand on the sidelines and do literally nothing to support them. This week we become unified to celebrate ... our big, blue ball. \nIt's Earth Week 2006! One hundred and sixty-eight hours of nothing but herbal teas, recycling and generally being conscious of every environmental wrongdoing that we gave little attention to during the other 358 days since last year's big week. And all of these days lead up to one day where everyone, for morality's sake, understands the importance of his or her surroundings and reaches out in some manner to help the world's environment: Earth Day 2006! Earth Day, for those of you stuck in a hole somewhere, takes place Saturday.\nSo I suggest this: Saturday, in honor of Earth Day, every IU student should make an effort to do something helpful for the environment. And I don't mean something small, like recycling an aluminum can for instance, but something large-scale that requires you to have all wits about you and to be so soberly concentrated that you have never been more focused on a goal in your life. \nFor instance, you could stay inside and eliminate every piece of material that is hazardous to the environment and remove it from those products for potential use. Then go and ask your neighbors, who no doubt have devoted their time to planting a tree or saving baby seals from an oil spill, if you can do the same to their apartment.\nNow I know some might be very skeptical of this suggestion. But it isn't like there's anything else special about Saturday. If it wasn't for Earth Day, April 22 would just be some typical Saturday, lackadaisically filling the void in between Friday and Sunday. And even if you have some kind of plans (I'm sure a lot of students had planned on going out of town this weekend), you must ask yourself,"What could be more important than the protection of our Earth?" I find it hard to believe that the social event of the year will happen this particular Saturday. You can have fun with your friends any time during the year, but Saturday is serious and should be devoted to nothing except the health of the third planet from the sun.\nTake this week as one to celebrate! Hold in great respect the happiness that you have from being so graciously given a planet that can support life, and remember to keep it clean and usable for generations to come. Nothing can be more important to the students of IU on this Saturday than Earth Day 2006!