With the doldrums of summer bringing rise to intense heat and even greater boredom, students are destined to find outdoor activities that beset the norm. For me, the activity of choice has become kayaking.

Now, each and every student is led to believe that the Red Cedar River is a heaping cesspool of E. coli, trash and even the occasional bike rack. Granted, I've seen some strange and varied things deposited in the river, but only so on our campus.

This letter is in regards to a trip I took a couple weeks back. In my mounting boredom, I decided to take a trip down the Red Cedar starting above campus.

I journeyed out close to Williamston, abandoned my car at a roadside park, jumped in my boat, and made my way back. By the end of the trip, only one thing struck me.

The Red Cedar is as beautiful and majestic as the many other rivers I've paddled over the years. Sadly, the only problem with it is our campus.

During a three-hour paddle I saw a baby fawn, six deer (all in separate areas), a beaver, muskrats, baby ducks, a plethora of squirrels and not a speck of garbage or debris. Just short of my ending-point, however, I rounded a corner in front of Collingwood Apartments. I was thoroughly disgusted with what I saw. In the river were six shopping carts, three black bags full of trash and a La-Z-Boy.

Oh yes, a La-Z-Boy.

Thirty yards upstream I sat complacently floating past two deer drinking from the river. Round a corner and wham, the saddest sight I've ever seen in all my trips.

As for Collingwood Apartments, shame on you for letting those items go unchecked. It seems our perceptions about the Red Cedar have lead to our dissolution that polluting it is OK, cause hell, it's already dirty, right?

Wrong.

Responsibility for our lakes, rivers and streams is our own. The only place I've ever seen trash on the Red Cedar is below our fine campus and all throughout it. I implore anyone to look for themselves. Granted, the chemical imbalances in the past are not just the fault of our students and residents, but the eyesores of today are directly attributed to our misunderstandings.

The Red Cedar is a beautiful river, it runs through the heart of campus, through the heart of your fight song and through the hearts of those who choose to see it.

As for now, I think I might head over to Collingwood Apartments and leave my old couch and some trash in their front office. Keep your river clean: It's not someone else's responsibility.

David Spoelstra
2002 MSU graduate