Category: Antioch

Earlier I mentioned that parts of American Pie had been playing in my head. Now another song just triggered.. signs my optimism is trying to surface out from under the flood of dark anger and sadness. Posting here just cause it’s a good song.. and a good poem. I played this song a number of times on my radio show on WERU after 9/11.

Show the Way – By David Wilcox (coincedentally attended Antioch College ’76-’77)

You say you see no hope, you say you see no reason
We should dream that the world would ever change
You’re saying love is foolish to believe
‘Cause there’ll always be some crazy with an Army or a Knife
To wake you from your day dream, put the fear back in your life…

Look, if someone wrote a play just to glorify
What’s stronger than hate, would they not arrange the stage
To look as if the hero came too late he’s almost in defeat
It’s looking like the Evil side will win, so on the Edge
Of every seat, from the moment that the whole thing begins
It is…
Love who makes the mortar
And it’s love who stacked these stones
And it’s love who made the stage here
Although it looks like we’re alone
In this scene set in shadows
Like the night is here to stay
There is evil cast around us
But it’s love that wrote the play…
For in this darkness love can show the way

So now the stage is set. Feel you own heart beating
In your chest. This life’s not over yet.
so we get up on our feet and do our best.We play against the Fear.
We play against the reasons not to try
We’re playing for the tears burning in the happy angel’s eyes

For it’s…

“So this is it. We’re going to die.” – Arthur Dent 

So 8 months after it was announced that Antioch College was closing, and 8 months of holding on to hope that the Antioch University Board Of Trustees would listen to alumni, pledges and reason, it looks like it’s finally over. They are saying only one year suspension, maybe more but as I wrote last June, I don’t care about the ‘place’ in Yellow Springs, I care about the Antioch College community.. the people and the unbroken chain of continuity between those that came before me and those that are there today. Suspending for 1 year shatters that.

and the thing is.. last June, before Reunion, I was ready to hear, from those that knew what was going on, that it was just unsustainable and this had to happen. I wasn’t going to be happy about it but I was ready to let go. The problem is now thanks to all thats been going on under antiochians.org I believe more than ever that if today the Antioch University Board of Trustees had taken a chance and let the college go to the ACCC … that the alumni could have saved the school and made it amazing. I was ready to dive head first into this effort.

We all got up to dance, Oh, but we never got the chance!

The little radio station in my head just played this for me.. scares me sometimes:

 “Now the half-time air was sweet perfume
While the sergeants played a marching tune.
We all got up to dance,
Oh, but we never got the chance!
`cause the players tried to take the field;
The marching band refused to yield.
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died?”

So lets see.. half time air = BOT meeting, February 2008. Deadline for the ACCC proposal to be heard by the BOT and a letter of agreement will be generated that allows the rebuilding of the college to begin.

Sergeants = ACCC

“We all got up to dance, Oh, but we never got the chance!” – There were so many of us ready to do so much. The BOT clearly just does not ‘get it’ at all.. they just missed the chance to be part of something amazing.

`cause the players tried to take the field; = ‘we’ tried to take the college.. to save it.

Marching band refused to yield – BOT ignored logic and what ‘was right’. I’m still shocked. As much as it was fun to pretend their were evil incarnate etc, I never really believed in my heart.. I mean, I kinda know some of these people

What was revealed? That sometimes, no matter how good an idea or cause is, “what’s right” isn’t what happens. What can we do? Fight, if there’s hope to fix it. If there isn’t then salvage what you can and walk away.

There’s some talk of an ‘Antioch in Exile’ over at The Blaze but I’m not ready to go headfirst into that mindset yet. At this point I’m just angry. I want someone to do something horribly irreversable and rude to Toni Murdoch’s car. I want to pay folks to picket Art Zucker’s house. I want to … well.. I wont say cause I might actually do this one, but suffice to say ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not taking anymore!’

“Never underestimate the ability of a large group of smart people to make stupid decisions” – An ‘away message’ of an antiochian friend recently.

So I’m pretty broken right now.. maybe even more than I was last June because I’ve built up hopes & dreams, as well as new friends & rekindled old ones, over the past 8 months. I care exponentially more about Antioch now than I did last June.. and yet it still is closing. <sigh>

More later…