The current display in the Stevens Gallery in the downstairs Reid Campus Center is a political art show. It’s a by-submission student effort to exemplify the idea that art and politics are necessarily intertwined. After all, as George Orwell brilliantly put it, “The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.”

That said, the show is pretty pathetic.

The Stevens Gallery committee received a few hastily-made print-outs from campus activism groups, a hand-made book of American flag block prints, paintings depicting the violence of international crises (like the Iraq War), an anonymous, ambiguous upside down work in oils called “Autumn Leaves” and little else. To make up for the lack of submissions, the Gallery committee provided pens and parchment paper for visitors to scrawl their own “political” messages.

Now, two weeks after the show’s opening, the parchment papers are full of big, overarching statements like, “Give peace a chance,” “Why can’t we all just get along?” and “Love is all you need.” An anonymous viewer signed the guest book with the message, “Idealistic and uninformed.”

It’s not that Whitman students don’t care. We do: Just look at our clever bumper stickers, ample Facebook groups and political dorm posters. In general, we occasionally read The New York Times online and we always print double-sided.

The problem is that we don’t seem to have the time to do much else.

When the choice between a community peace rally and an hour to spend on a 20-page essay due next Thursday comes up, most will choose the latter. We’re stressed out, after all: and besides, what’s our singular involvement really going to do?

And maybe there’s some truth in the attitude that apathy is really only realism. Sure, we can cover the walls of one room in the Reid Campus Center with our messages of peace, love, compassion, global understanding and political outrage, but at the end of the day what does that accomplish? George W. Bush will never see our artistic displays of protest. And what’s more, if he did see them, he wouldn’t care.

But protest isn’t about George W. Bush.

Protest, ultimately, must be a personal endeavor. It, like all things, must be something you do for yourself; to be involved in something bigger or greater than just You. Protest is a lot like worship: You do it because you believe in something against the odds.

The people I know who attend rallies and actively participate in political endeavors on campus are some of the sanest people I know. They are constantly reminding themselves what is really important to them. Taking a moment to step outside your own internal struggle can do wonders for your spirit.

By and large, though, Whitman is a pretty apathetic place. You can theorize about politics until you’re blue in the face, but the word “active” is part of “activism” for a reason. Politics must be a part of your routine.

I’ve heard at least a half a dozen people quote that Orwell quote (or something like it) at least once in their lives. If we really believe that all art is political, and we all want to be more political, then why weren’t there more submissions to the show?

We must put our hearts into everything we do : not just everything we do for a grade.