It is pathetic that Menlo needs to award spirit points for attendance at homecoming. It used to be that people did not need to be rewarded for showing school spirit. Presently, we have witnessed spirit days where as few as six percent of a class participates, and we have been coerced into attending spirit assemblies, whereby we are expected to somehow conjure a lost love of Menlo. Well, spiritmongers, let me expose the sad truth spirit has long been dead, and all I can say is good riddance.
Spirit contests are nothing more than disguises of the fact that spirit does not exist. Moreover, it is the admission of a sad fact that Menlo is so obsessed with the concept of competition that spirit is not successful without the presence of the idea of beating somebody else into the ground. Spirit does not exist only competition does.
Therefore, spirit contests should be abolished, because they foster the division of classes rather than unity, they spawn competition (something which Menlo has enough of without the help of "spirit"), and they are demoralizing to classes who happen to lose.
Furthermore, spirit contests fail to promote spirit in any waythey are nothing more than a quantitative assessment of a subjective idea. As a result, spirit contests do nothing more than seek to divide and demoralize the school and prmote the inevitable evil, competition.
Therefore, Menlo, have a homecoming football game if you want, but get rid of this spirit cant. Spirit is long dead, and spirit contests do nothing but shove another spear through an already nonexistent concept.
Menlo on the whole doesnt care about Homecomingstudents are far too worried about their personal lives, grades, and competition to shift focus from themselves for more than a fraction of an instant. Therefore, rather than trying to resurrect spirit in an apathetic student body, we should do away with our pathetic attempts for revival.
If people are interested in football, they should be more than welcome to attend; the same goes for those who care to support Menlo. But for the people who dont care, please abandon your insulting scams which attempt to instill spirit in us. Those who have spirit can manage without spirit contests, and people who dont have spirit will never develop it as a result of your sorry stratagems.
The sentiment of a given student body is largely the result of its environment. Menlo has provided its students with a competitive environment, which I have no objections to. The aspect of Menlo which is most inflammatory is the fact that it sets the roots of this concept which it calls spirit in the only suitable soilcompetitionand neglects to call a spade a spade. Face it Menlowe do not have any spirit whatsoever; but we have plenty of competition.
Anonymous