The Fourth of July comes around once a year. For most of us, it's an excuse to sleep in on another bank holiday or roll out the grill for a small party with friends.
I know I had half a mind to enjoy my day off doing as I do most holidays - basking in my laziness and accomplishing absolutely nothing.
But then it occurred to me, a flash of brilliance that can only be characterized as divine on an otherwise cloudy day. WWJD? What would Jefferson do?
It only seems right that on the observed anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence we stand in remembrance of even the trouble-making founding fathers.
I hear TJ and his friends got into a fair share of trouble before setting King George straight. Likewise, perhaps it's high time we performed our own share of mischief before graduating and setting the world straight.
Upon receiving news of Shay's Rebellion in 1786, Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter to Abigail Adams, "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive."
Proof enough that this generation should heed TJ's five cents, and do a little reviving of that old independent spirit.
Don't waste this year's Independence Day passed out in front of the couch watching Will Smith save the world or at another mediocre barbeque. With each passing year of growing apathy for what the Fourth stands for, we lose our independence a little more.
Instead, I challenge you to reinvent the Fourth of July for the modern Sundevil: a story to be proud of.
Show your appreciation and discontent for your Alma Matter in some ingenious way. Our campus is filled with problems needing solutions, making ASU's Tempe Campus an open canvas of opportunity. And what a sweet and tempting canvas it is.
Just last week one group on campus succeeded in sticking it to the man.
The ASU Advocacy Group spent all last semester in negotiations with ASU President Michael Crow and the state Legislature to try to lower the tuition increase for next fall.
While the group succeeded in bringing Crow's proposal to the Legislature down from 8.5 percent to 6.5 percent, the students' negotiations with the Legislature produced one hell of a state budget - one where ASU is fully funded.
All because a few individuals initiated the right movement to accomplish a feat Crow admitted he wasn't prepared to work for.
I think Jefferson would agree that the value of resistance can be appreciated even in the most insubstantial ways. This is only a small solution in a long line of problems that dissatisfied students and staff here at ASU face.
But it's results like lower tuition that will positively affect us all.
So do us a favor and spice up the local news with a little maroon and gold.
Share your tales of sticking it to the man TJ-style with Anjali Patel at anjali.patel@asu.edu.
