I enjoyed the Thanksgiving pot luck yesterday at the Wash U CoOp. I said I was thankful for hearth and home, my companions the cats, and especially for the Wash U CoOp, exemplifying the most honorable values of Washington University in St. Louis, our motto Strength through Truth and our subtltle, IN St Louis, Thats not Eliot University of Beijing. We are proud of where we are, and I went on to give thanks to the amazing support group I am blessed to have right here in St Louis, including E.J. Rollins and Harriet Harriet M. Shanle who took care of my cats when I was in the hospital last year. Harriet was there as my guest, in her role as CoOp Granny and Co-Founder, present at our very first pot luck, August 2004, when we put the historic derelict Perry CoOp House back to its legitimate use as the core of our cradle to cradle Wash U CoOperative Network. CoOperative living is as American as Harriet Shanles apple pie, I quoted one of my Webster University Freshman students in the Student Housing Initiative Project, after our dinner at Harriets house, when we discussed how to slip a wildcat CoOp past the Webster Groves City Council. THAT would be easy compare to convincing the Webster administraton. Sorry, yesterday I forgot to give thanks to the Wash U. Administration (Attn: Art Sci Council) for the generous support extended to the Wash U CoOp in our early days and for not shutting us down since then. We have survived all sorts of adverstities, and will survive a recent inaccurate and perhaps malicious story about us, published on the front page of our now spooky but once independent student newspaper, Student Life. Washington University is NOT a monolith. As our great patron, the late Dean Jim McLeod informed us when we asked for his support, The University speaks with many voices. A couple weeks later, we had a building and even a frosh seminar to help lay the foundations. Many voices can sometimes speak in unison. Cooperative living is as American as grannys apple pie. Attn: Kris Parsons, Chelsi Webster, WU Commune
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 22:11:53 +0000