Joel Silverstein

Is there a crime looming in the darkness? Perhaps that looming presumes it negative. Can limiting the Gregorian time limit of which our citizens are permitted to express themselves create a society of order, or one of unmeasured chaos?

We can’t have a hold on where or when and why we can create, see, feel and where we join them all on an axis of vibration.

Still, an “academia” presides over thought, its minds a supreme entity. Should that not be the time in all of our lives that we not have light determine our hours of expression? A citizen’s time of unaltered enlightenment must occur when their path leads them through academia, or at least a period of expanded understanding, where one’s consciousness is not yet cynical of free spirits or visionaries.

In dorms across the country, students are being cited for things like “loud music” and for playing instruments. Quiet hours commence as early as 9 p.m. in some places. And students that live there are often denied a creative outlet. Isn’t that the idea of higher education: to explore one’s opportunity to express themselves? Students that are old enough may go to clubs, or bars; but what about all of the 18, 19 and 20-year-olds, must they be confined to an existence of worrying about upsetting their neighbors, or dodging campus public safety? Why has this become commonplace?

Why not institute quiet floors for people who don’t enjoy music played at a level you can hear it? Take Montgomery Hall, put quiet seekers on the first floor, a more moderate group on the second floor and so on, with night owls on the fourth floor, staying up, talking, listening to Deep Purple and contemplating life. That is where genius happens. Not in a room with noise insulation.

Maybe these classic rock lovin’, substance smokin’ free spirits shouldn’t be in a situation that will limit their creativity. But in a social system that seems to only recognize people with a bachelor’s degree, these minds are pushed to conform. Some of them may find that they enjoy the way academia stimulates their ingenuity. But when they go home at midnight, and slip on a cool Curtis Mayfield track, they get written up. As Curtis says, we’ve got to “Move on up!”

Go on, get that, Superfly. It’s time to drop the video games, and lay claims, on a plot of life without shame.