To the Editor:
In last week’s editon of The Poly, I was humored by H.D. Thelorax’s article “Paper trail campaigns hurt the environment.” Mr. Thelorax writes a bi-weekly column in The Poly called “Below the Tree Line.” Perhaps you’ve read them I mean, who can forget such memorable articles as, “Destruction of Earth spells doom for man,” “Family planning vital to keep Earth in shape,” or his recent “Apathetic stance destroying the world”?
Now what I find particularly humorous about last week’s article-more so than his previous masterpieces-is Mr. Thelorax’s blatant inconsistency. Allow me to explain. If you had read the article, you would have noticed that Mr. Thelorax is disturbed over the amount of wasted paper used during our recent GM Week festivities. He suggests advertising alternatives such as chalking, WRPI interviews, and using recycled paper, rather than, in his words, “virgin printed posters.”
Mr. Thelorax also goes on to state, “I personally did not vote this year because I did not see any candidates doing any truly creative advertising.” Funny, you would think Mr. Thelorax, being the environmental evangelist that he is, would have a more intelligent reason for not voting than that. But what is really funny, is that Mr. Thelorax, who did not vote mind you, goes on to write, “At the very least, the Union could require all advertising to be done on previously used or recycled paper.” So Mr. Thelorax apparently feels that the democratic process, which he would not support, is, however, expected to cater to his fancy.
We see this attitude more clearly when Mr. Thelorax ends his article writing, “As long as candidates cannot act responsibly toward the planet, I fail to see how they can be expected to act responsibly to represent me.” Why should they Mr. Thelorax? You didn’t vote for them! It surprises me that someone like Mr. Thelorax, who every other week must reassure the RPI community how unselfish he is by trying to stop pollution, save the trees, and preserve the ecosystem, would turn around and expect people to serve him in this way.
Every other week Mr. Thelorax gets to advertise his views on how humans are destroying the ecosystem and whatnot, but the one week a year when candidates get to advertise themselves, he finds fault! He writes, “People waste massive amounts of paper on something that, 20 years from now, will be completely meaningless.” Here’s a guy who writes articles for The Poly, which uses paper in amounts that put GM campaigns to shame, saying that we are the ones wasting paper!
There is something much more disturbing than this glaring inconsistency, however, and that is Mr. Thelorax’s view that the GM Week ads were meaningless. That may be true, and perhaps 20 years down the road we will forget them, but what gives Mr. Thelorax the right to assume that the articles he writes in The Poly are so much more meaningful than the ads thrown up around campus during GM Week? For someone who must tell us how humble he is by spending his time trying to save the earth, Mr. Thelorax sure has a high opinion of his writing and his ideas.
Philip Gaudet
CSYS ‘03
