Even though the night of March 27, 1999, could be known as MSU's "darkest night," it's important to remember the sunlight that still came the next day.
It has been five years since 10,000 hard-partying Spartans fans took to the streets to display their disillusionment with the MSU men's basketball team. They torched whatever was flammable, smashed whatever wasn't impermeable and uprooted everything not bolted in place. Tear gas stung the eyes of anyone involved, and the deserving - read, stupid - found themselves cuffed, inked and processed as official members of "the system."
It was apparent the next morning - especially for those who woke up with a rap sheet - that MSU was sorry for what it had done to East Lansing. Those convicted for rioting the "darkest night" into MSU history paid a variety of people more than $325,000 for the damages, some served jail time, and then everyone went on with their lives, putting it in the past along with MSU's 68-62 loss to Duke. MSU students demonstrated this solemn debt to their hometown by trying to tear it apart again, this time following MSU's loss to Texas in last season's NCAA Tournament.
On that night, the "second-darkest night," some MSU students decided they weren't actually sorry for what happened in 1999. Granted, not many students were left over from the 1999 riot, but 2003 was a byproduct of 1999. The appetite for destruction wasn't as vehement, but it still was ugly enough to spit in East Lansing's face one more time.
That late March night in 2003 proved that some MSU students really haven't learned anything from the 1999 riots. We're only one year removed from last year's, yet the five-year mark is a milestone. A milestone for what? How MSU has moved on since 1999? Ask an East Lansing policeman or policewoman working the streets for last year's "riot," and find out how we really haven't.
Most of the students who were arrested or charged with a crime for the 1999 riot refused to comment on their experiences or memories, as well they shouldn't have. The convicted or arrested made a mistake five years ago by rioting and would love to forget that night even happened. We were well on our way to doing that, too, until poser-revelers wanted to party like it was 1999 last March Madness.
We'd love to bury the past on the 1999 and 2003 riots. We'd love for the student community and the East Lansing community at large to accept the past for what it's worth, learn from our mistakes and move on. May the next story that appears in this paper regarding the 1999 or 2003 riots be the 10th anniversary articles in 2009 and 2013.
A riot in a college town is not unique to MSU. It happens all over the nation when a loss or a win and some booze overlap with pleasant weather. But every time the "darkest" and "second-darkest" nights rear their ugly heads in East Lansing, remember one thing - the sun came out the next day.
The glass was swept up, the embers extinguished and the hangovers wore off. We can't forget the past and we'll always remember the consequences, but one act still remains unfulfilled.
Get over it.
