This article was originally published in the November 30th edition of The Beacon
An unusually high outbreak of fights on campus recently has people wondering if Merrimack students are taking the name “Warriors” a bit too seriously.
The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is you DO NOT talk about Fight Club. This, though, is something we have to talk about.
If anyone has gone out the last few weekends, especially the two before Thanksgiving, you know what I’m talking about:
Merrimack on the weekends, or Gotham prison break?
Remember the scene from The Dark Knight Rises when all the prisoners are freed? That’s what the apartments looked like each night.
Merrimack Police Services officers were scattered throughout the campus, many looking as if they didn’t know what to do, or what they could do. Fights were breaking out around every corner, and the gathering students forming mobs of bystanders created perimeters of helplessness.
Those who “won” the fights before they were broken up were falsely identified as victors, while their fellow Merrimack student lay bleeding on the ground next to them.
I get it. This is college. Alcohol, hormones, and jealousy flow freely through the veins of most of the people out on a Saturday night. Inhibitions are lowered; feelings are more easily hurt. It doesn’t take much to have one of the best nights of your life, but it takes just as little to turn into one of the worst. Fights happen, sure, but not like this.
One night in particular saw five recorded fights, although many more occurred before anyone was able to respond. The combatants included athletes on the same team fighting one another, girl-on-girl fights, and guests on campus causing a ruckus. One of those fights involved a guest walking into a party with a foot-long knife.
A thought: When someone leaves your apartment with a foot long knife, you stop them. It doesn’t matter if it’s not your problem, not your guest or if you didn’t do it. If you didn’t stop it, you’re responsible for what happens.
And sorry, ladies, but if “your man” wants some other chick, punching her in the face isn’t going to do anything but hurt your hand.
Merrimack, what are we doing?
In a recent survey of Merrimack students, when asked where they currently go to college, 100 percent of them answered “Merrimack College” or “North Andover” – not “Gotham City” or “Arkham Asylum,” although maybe that’s where some of us belong.
We need a hero. Batman would be great actually; he’s the hero we need, not the one we deserve. Unfortunately though, as much as I’d love to see Batman outside J tower stopping the idiots ruining our Friday and Saturday nights, he’s not gliding onto campus anytime soon.
Batman can’t save us, but we can save ourselves
The only heroes we have are ourselves. If we don’t stop this childish nonsense, no one will. And if it doesn’t change, the phenomenal weekend atmosphere we’ve grown to love at Merrimack will quickly disappear before we know what hit us.
This isn’t Fight Club and we don’t live in Gotham City, either. This is Merrimack College. That used to be something to be proud of.
It’s one thing to right a wrong, and even understandable to act passionately, without thinking, while intoxicated. However Scarecrow, Bane or the Joker are not who you’re fighting with. You’re swinging at your classmates, your teammates, your friends.
Remember that.
Blind Obedience 