By Alex Walsh
Last semester, the Zebra Path was repainted red. For school spirit, you know. At the time, I was told it was a Homecoming tie in, and would be back to its old colors shortly after the festivities were over. But then it lingered. I made light of it as a Communist plot. People cracked wise about zebras not being red. The journalistic powerhouses over at the Independent talked to the original artist who said something along the lines of, “I wish they asked me before they did it.”
I always intended to write something about it at some point. I watched the red coat slowly fade and chip away, revealing the old black beneath. There even seemed to be some dark green under there. I was going to point out that it was a fitting metaphor for Stony Brook’s beautification, putting a nice, shiny “Red Hot” coat over the same old institution. Sort of like what all those professors who signed that petition against President Kenny were saying. But I never actually wrote it. I guess I drank the Kool-Aid. I remembered the promises in the immediate post-painting period. The assurance that our Zebra Path would be authentically zebra-y once again. With my luck, I thought, it would be repainted right when I published.
I guess I didn’t have to worry about that. It’s got a bright new red coat. We were lied to. I guess there are worthy things to be lied to about. In the grand scheme of things, the color of the path by the library isn’t all that important. I just didn’t really like the repainting in the first place, and I figured it was okay because they were redoing it. Whatever, I’m graduating. I’ll always dream of prying off the “Zebra Path” plaque in the interest of zoological accuracy.
The repainting this time was on April 25, a date on which nothing of importance happened in the Russian Revolution. What a letdown.
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