Are we as a student body just looking for fights to pick now? As if racial tensions and greek versus independent rivalries weren’t enough for students to handle, Tray Smith is now, rather distastefully, trying to tear a divide between new and old money students. Can he honestly be serious?

To begin, all of Smith’s points are exaggerated, bitter or even work against him. He denounces people who have worked for what they earned and taunts them for having high academic standings and leadership experiences under their belts. Maybe I’m biased. After all, I’m one of the terrible out-of-state people who knocked off a year of college in high school. While my family is by no means rich, I’ve witnessed my parents work hard enough to move from renting a small house to owning a home in Brentwood. I’ve seen with my own eyes how diligence in study and work leads to success and reward.

Somehow, Smith sees this as a bad thing. His article is filled with ignorance, laziness and general incompetence. He instead suggests that the more fulfilling lifestyle is “not as much finding a job as it is avoiding a death tax hike.” Really? You would rather have your father die and leave you a fat check than actually make a name for yourself and say that you were able to accomplish something in life? That’s what old money is all about, doing nothing but driving a late model Escalade (which, keep in mind, is still a $30,000 vehicle – the same price as one of those foreign-made luxury cars Smith jabs at), and sleeping past lunch in a frat house? It’s about degrading those that enter your tax bracket by actually doing something?

There is quite a lot wrong with Smith’s view of the world and how this University is run. It absolutely does not matter how long your family has had money, if it does at all. Yes, healthy donations to our school are great, but having your name on a building doesn’t make you better than anybody else. What makes you stand out in this day and age is by doing everything Tray rants against; working hard, accomplishing goals, and providing a better life for those after you.

Loafing all day does not lead to success; it’s a way to be forgotten. I can only hope that Smith and anyone else who share his viewpoints (be there any) one day make such a realization.

Keith Edwards is a sophomore majoring in public relations.