A sense of wonder and exasperation has been noted on campus this past week. Concerns over sanitation, sanity and equality abound. People want to know: Who’s going to clean the bathrooms? Why can’t this be over already? Why do the strikers have to be so loud and disruptive? Sometimes, a lot of noise must be made before a cause is acknowledged, understood or supported. The workers here want what the janitors wanted in Los Angeles not so long ago: equality. People are supporting the workers because they believe everyone should get what they deserve. The public has never really asked the administration to open its books personally, so as to see why they can’t do things like pay the workers what they want. Nor does the student body question the need for an increase in student tuition, along with an addition of fees, not even in light of the corporate and public donations it has received in the last few years. We don’t need to know what’s on the books, we want to know we are all being treated fairly. Unfortunately, in the capitalist system, the price of success and economic advancement for all is inflation. The reward for the rich man is often found in the mistakes and unfortunate circumstances of the poor man. What’s most unfortunate is that, in a land of supposed prosperity, we have the top 1 percent of our nation holding onto 95 percent of the wealth. Meanwhile, inflation for the dollar has raised $3.01 from 1976 to the fourth quarter of 1999.In most areas of the country, it is found that the workers are making less than they made in the year 1976, even counting for inflation. That seems to be the case here. A person reading Columbus Alive this week would have found that from 1979 to 1997, real wages in Columbus dropped from $12.19 per hour to $11 per hour. Mayor Michael Coleman has blamed this problem on the number of households living on $21,000 or less a year. Forty-four percent is a lot. Not many of that 44 percent are employed by Ohio State. This problem of low wages is now endemic to any city with such a problem. Sometimes, relief can almost certainly be sniffed out where there is an organization with its share of well-paid employees and administrators. This relief could either be supposed or real. We never know unless we ask questions. That’s why questions were asked here and a strike ensued afterwards.It’s easy to blame the problem on the administration when you consider the growing impotence of working-class efforts, trying to make a living wage from their employers. Wages have gone down consistently for them. Again, by reading Columbus Alive, we find some other bit of disconcerting news: the difference in administrative wages. The men’s basketball coach in 1976, Fred Taylor, made $98,000 in today’s money. Highest-paid athletic department director Edward Weaver made $125,000. The top dog, Harold Enarson, made $150,000. “Brit” Kirwan currently clears $291,000, in addition to the rent-free house he lives in out in Bexley. The president of the United States makes $91,000 less. This scares people. Some people get mad and fight. Others get mad about the ones who are fighting. They don’t like it, and rightly so, when they have to be interrupted and disturbed while trying to get an education. Some supporters of the fighters see a dangerous pattern, and they want to stop it any way they can. Sometimes, a lot of noise and a lot of discomfort must be felt before the cause of it can be discovered. It sure is a pain, having to put up with these politics and all the seemingly fruitless talk. It’s also a pain, and a danger, to compare living wages of one group to that of another, still under the yoke of the system itself. It might only lead to more strikes down the road. Valerie Howland is a senior English and psychology major from Conneaut, Ohio.