This letter is in response to last weeks’s article, BC wages war on hunger.
First, to all those who seek to achieve a noble cause that is greater than themselves, please do not allow “technicalities” to serve as an excuse for failure. Laws, rules, regulations, and etc. (i.e. technicalities) that were written by humans, can be changed by humans.
Obstacles (i.e. technicalities) that lowly-motivated people will use as an excuse for failure, are opportunities for the highly-motivated people to use as an excuse to succeed. Which excuse would you choose?
Think about it. “Technically” at one point humans couldn’t fly, or land on the moon. Technically, at one point women couldn’t vote, African-Americans could not be elected as President of the United States. Technically, at one point [you fill in the blank].
Secondly, there can be a difference between “a technicality” and what is actually practiced. I publically invite Mr. Juvrud and Mr. White to accompany me to an OFC, SW, FM, or WM which has a deli similar to the Bellevue College [Cafeteria]. Using my EBT card, I will legally purchase ready-made or custom-made sandwiches, along with a number of other in-store items that are similar to what is sold in both BC Cafeteria and BC Cafes.
Mr. Juvrud, Mr. White, and I can then sit down together in the “eating area” of the store(s); they may then observe me eating/drinking what I just purchased with my EBT card, while we discuss how having a “CAN DO Spirit!” can overcome obstacles.
A person can’t usually accomplish anything by constantly saying or believing, “I can’t!” The reason an EBT terminal hasn’t been established on the BC campus isn’t because of technicalities. It is because there is a lack of a CAN DO Spirit!! To achieve a noble cause, goal, or purpose, you got to believe, “I CAN!!!”
In regard to the “criticism by students of [the exclusivity of the Interim EBT Complementary Food Offering Program (i.e. Hunger Relief Program,” this program is a generous effort put forth by the Hunger Relief Program Committee (HRPC).
The HRPC set the parameters of the HRP—and if they would simply choose to do so—the HRPC could expand the parameters of the HRP to include other impoverished students and faculty (documented or undocumented) who do not qualify for an EBT card. The exclusivity created is of the HRPC’s own choosing.
In a transitional close, there is much that Students—empowered as the true Customers of Bellevue College—could do to instill “CAN DO Spirit!” to achieve many of the noble causes, goals, or purposes that are needed on campus i.e., like converting the C-Café to a student-operated convenience store) and beyond (i.e. overcoming cultural/social discrimination).
As queens and kings of BC (i.e. the customer), take your dreams and visions to your Associated Student Government; then working together, show the world some CAN DO Spirit!