If 40,000 students could talk

The IU Student Association congress sat in session March 3, coasting through the duties of a particularly inconsequential meeting. Not much was on the slate -- approving new congress members, endorsing registration policies, making a donation to the United Way. It was in the beginning of the eager days just before spring break, and the atmosphere was an aloof kind of casual. All resolutions passed or dismissed without much debate until near the end of the meeting.\nUp to this point, junior Jason Growe had been sitting off to the side, calculating his audience. \nGrowe, president of Zeta Beta Tau, one of IU's historically Jewish fraternities, was to speak in support of congress resolution No. 04-03-09, the "Resolution to Endorse an end to Middle East violence." He felt the best way to attract congress's attention and support was to make a strong connection between Israel's and the United States' Wars on Terror. \nHis blue suit and tie injecting an air of seriousness into the laissez-faire environment, Growe began his speech. A fresh, confused attentiveness percolated through the assembly, and pin-drop silence gripped the room as the word "Israel" was uttered. \nQuestions, questions -- suddenly everybody had one:\nWhy Israel? What about the rest of the Middle East?\nAs long as we mention Israel, why not mention Palestine?\nIs this even an IUSA concern? \nWhat right do we have to get involved?\nThe debate could have gone on all night, but luckily for those with plans that Wednesday night, the resolution eventually passed with only a few small word changes. \nThe most important clause reads, "LET IT BE RESOLVED, that the Indiana University Student Body Congress endorses an end to terror in Israel and a renewed effort for peace in the Middle East."\nFor all of its semantic brilliance, no one in the room expected the resolution to have any profound results. Not a single life would be saved overseas nor would the fear of a single Israeli diminish.\nIUSA can provide students with many campus services and a voice to which the administration has to listen. Its tangible power, however, reaches little farther than the city limits of Bloomington.\nUltimately, the resolution is a paper tiger -- carrying little more political weight than the paper on which it is printed, destined to sit in a cabinet collecting dust until either the fighting stops or the entire region is blown away by black market atomic bombs. Is our student government justified in meddling in arenas in which it is a mere spectator -- where the most it can do is shout amongst the cacophony behind the sidelines?\nYet IUSA's duties extend further than simply serving the student body. Our student government is also charged with the responsibility of projecting our collective opinions into the world. In this case, the IUSA congressmen, elected by a majority of their peers to perform this very duty, decided the student body was against terrorism in Israel and the Middle East. As this is the opinion of IUSA, so it is also the opinion of the student body.\nThe plight and suffering of human beings worldwide may not fall under the jurisdiction of IU, but no man, woman or organization of persons should be given the prude charge of holding their tongues in the face of monstrous human injustice.\nSympathy has no jurisdiction. To deny our student voice the right to express its sympathy for the unwarranted deaths of thousands is to render us pitiless, coldhearted and inhuman. While one far away voice will not stem the blood-flow, it will not go unheard.