Editor, Daily Nexus,

After reading Max Bottaro’s column (“Isla Vista Has Lost Its Spunk,” Daily Nexus, Sept. 28), I literally had a headache. Should I address the racism, the misogyny, the homophobia, the degradation of the prestige of our university or the attack against our community? Although I don’t think enough can ever be said against these issues, I’d like to discuss the last one. An underlying topic throughout all these themes is the sense of entitlement that many Gauchos have. It seems that we try to justify our actions and words by using the statements, “I just want to have fun” and “can’t you take a joke?” I invite all to think critically about how their fun affects others.

Bottaro stated that “this is our town,” but students are here for only four to six years at a time. Believe it or not, I.V. existed before we were here and it will continue to exist after we leave. The families who could possibly “fuck up [his] senior year” are and have been living and will continue to live here longer than students. We all know what happens when Bottaro’s perspective prevails. Remember when Conquest Housing bought out a low-income housing complex, evicted the families living there, remodeled and invited students to live there while paying exorbitant amounts? If we don’t care about our neighbors and have disdain for them, injustices such as this will continue to happen. With that said, we do pay the rent and we do live here, so that means we have claims to this community as well, but think about what you can contribute to the community instead of how much you can pillage it for the sake of “fun.” Rather than being the students who burned the couch that is now blocking the road or the students who are destroying side view mirrors for sport or throwing glass bottles in the middle of the street to watch it shatter and then laugh, be the community members that actually contribute to Isla Vista. There are plenty of ways to get involved, contribute and still have fun.

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