The Bowdoin Students for Justice in Palestine began the new semester with a new protest on campus: a pro-Palestinian “encampment.” Fifty students slept in tents to protest the college’s investments in companies that support Israel. With the temperatures hovering around 10 degrees, these rebellious neophytes earned my respect. But, isn’t that what separates Mainers from the rest of America our rugged, outdoorsy individualism?

What? They didn’t build their “encampment” outside? It was too cold and there was too much snow, so they decided to move it indoors? They set up their tents inside the Smith Union? Their “encampment” is really just a big “slumber party”?

OK, forget what I said about “they earned my respect.” On the contrary, they have made Mainers the laughingstock of the world. Don’t they know that Maine is known worldwide for three things: Stephen King, lobsters and L.L. Bean! Leon Leonwood (“L.L.”) would never call a bunch of tents, set up indoors, an “encampment.” Come to think of it, I don’t think a dictionary would either.

Time for Bowdoin to put more emphasis on vocabulary and less on student entertainment.

Erwin Rupert
Scarborough