I always loved Boston, and gravitated my way towards this city doing whatever it took to arrive here, make my mark and to find a college or university to study at. I ended up attending Northeastern, and even though I was not given housing when I transferred and then was eventually sent to live at the local boston youth hostel, I still put my best foot forward. I still went to sporting events, joined several clubs, became a Senator, am an honors student, a member of several honor societies and essentially, I try my hardest in everything I do for this school.

However, I am very dismayed and perturbed at recent events at this university and the mark it has left on the community of Boston and, even more importantly, on me, an American. One would have to be living under Plymouth Rock to not have heard about the Super Bowl riots. They are aggravating and show a poor judgment by some of the student body at this institution, but are prefaced by even more poor instances at this school and across the nation.

A few years ago after the Michigan State men’s basketball team won the NCAA National Championship, students of the university took to the streets and began to burn and destroy the campus and areas around it. The same happened at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst when the Yankees lost the World Series to the Arizona Diamondbacks. This past fall, as most of us celebrated a Red Sox come-from-behind phenomenal win against the Oakland Athletics, some students at Northeastern felt the need to take to the streets in cheer and happy jubilation.

Well, that turned pretty sour pretty quickly. Students smashed in car windows and flipped over the rest. On the way home, my friends and I found at least 40 car mirrors on the ground. We watched a taxi driver almost have his whole car flipped over, with passengers inside, as he stopped at a light. He was forced to, and I am glad he did, drive on with people standing on his hood. They were all sent flying to the curb.

This past month, I, and assuredly everyone else, knew that win or lose for the Patriots, the city of Boston would be plagued by young co-eds who were filled with too much beer and cheap alcohol. The university knew it too. They sent out fliers warning students of the consequences of poor actions, and what is expected of a Northeastern student. I guess nobody reads their mail; maybe they should have sent it through e-mail or written it on the outside of a Philly Blunt, and then somebody would read it and maybe take heed.

I watch my fellow students walk by and I am appalled at the apathy I see daily. I see the inability to care; to care about their school, their community or even themselves. It is disgusting. We live in a comfortable world, this enclosed bubble of America and even more enclosed bubble of American universities. This comfort that was granted to us by generations before who never wanted to see their children have to live like they did, and go through what they did. The generations that survived the Great Depression and fought through World War I and II and either defended this nation in Vietnam or attempted to peacefully protest our way out of a war we could not win.

The problem is that those strides we’ve made have come from the generations before us. Our parents fought those fights, we have not. I know though that it will not be the terrorists, or any rogue nation out for revenge, that will be this great nation’s downfall, it will be the apathy of the youth.

Why fear terrorists when you have college students in your own backyard? Is it more likely you may have your property destroyed or life put at risk by a terrorist plotting thousands of miles away and being examined by the CIA, FBI and NSC, or is it more likely that Joe College in a drunken state just decided that your car looks good enough to flip over?

The examples above are a micro-look at a macro-problem. It is not just the fact that riots broke out or people have been murdered. It is the fact that the youth of America have become so disenfranchised that we destroy ourselves. We find comfort not in achieving but in drinking and in sex. This argument is not even about being liberal or conservative or basing things on right verses wrong.

This is Darwinian and Spenserian: this is survival.

You can say I am reading too much into this, but am I really? I rushed out of my apartment on Super Bowl night. I rushed out to help. And while I did, I was alone. And when I told people to stop, they came at me like I was the next car that they wanted to flip over. They say a person cannot stand against a mob, the mob will always win. I stood against a mob and did not win, but I still do not believe that is true. The greatest way to stand against a mob is to stand against it before it can even form.

We must stamp out these problems. It is everyone’s job to correct this problem. It is Northeastern’s job, it is our parents, guardians, family, friend’s job and most importantly, it is our job. It is time for people to stop thinking about themselves and see the bigger picture. I still love my school. I have been kicked around a bit, but I never cried or bitched, didn’t decide to throw in the towel and drown my sorrows with a few dozen beers and some drugs, and go running around the streets looking for a fight. If you really want a fight, well you got one.

We are in a fight. And it ain’t us against them, it’s us against us. It is apathy mixed with people who just do not care versus the future of this country. Stand up and be accountable for your actions. Stand for something, get involved and care about yourself and your community. The young will inherent this country. I don’t want to inherent destroyed city streets that my neighbor gave me. Remember this: he who stands for nothing will fall for everything.

— Pete Bandel is a junior political science major.