Spring Break
Immature behavior puts lives in danger
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Maybe I’m a little cranky because I was awakened at 5 a.m. (just a couple hours after my normal bedtime) today to the sound of a fire alarm.
After marching downstairs in a huff at whoever the prankster was, we residents found 10-foot flames coming from the plastic park benches outside Joe West Hall, where all the smokers hang out.
Rumors were flying about some people hearing masses of firecracker explosions two hours before the blaze erupted.
Now, I don’t know how the fire started. It could have been inadvertently ignited by one of the smokers.
No one knows yet.
But I think someone must have been messing around with fire in order to set plastic tables into a roaring inferno.
The saddest part of this whole business is that about 200 of the residents of Joe West didn’t leave the building until the Resident Advisers went back in and rounded them up.
And I know for a fact that at least two residents intentionally slept through the entire ruckus.
Had the fire entered the hall, these residents could have been in serious danger. But I don’t blame the students for not exiting.
I have been tempted myself to ignore the alarm and risk getting caught and subsequently slapped with a $500 fine for not evacuating.
The risk is almost worth it to avoid being subjected to the fool du jour who thinks it’s funny to evacuate a building with a false fire alarm.
Too many fire drills can have the same effect.
Why do we have to practice evacuating a building? Why?
How hard is it to figure out that you are supposed to exit the building by the stairs when the voice on the intercom tells you to?
It’s like that old story we all read in grade school about the boy who cried “wolf” one too many times. Soon, nobody cared anymore, and the sheep were attacked by wolves.
On a different, but not less frustrating, note, China seems to be behaving childish as well.
The country has elevated its fighter pilot who was killed in an unfortunate accident with a U.S. spy plane to the status of martyr, according to a Reuters article.
The Chinese hotshot pilot, Wang Wei (pronounced “Wong Way”) had a record of flying too close to U.S. planes and harassing them.
China demanded an apology from the United States, caused a rift between the two nations and is risking trade negotiations that would be favorable to China — all for the sake of national pride.
But, in fact, the whole thing came from one man flying the Wrong Way.
Speaking of being wrong …
In one of my columns this semester, I ranted in a similar fashion about the difficulties of life, including an unpleasant experience at the Student Health Center. I was under the impression that Health Center services were not covered by medical insurance.
I was informed that I was wrong.
Apparently, most student services provided by the Health Center are free of charge at the time of visit, because the $61 mandatory health fee each student pays per semester covers them.
I was also told that there is a “minimal charge for specialty visits such as psychiatry, physical therapy, dermatology and allergy. These fees are reimbursable by some health plans.”
My only excuse is that reading a bunch of paperwork in a waiting room is not exactly a priority when you can’t breathe because of pneumonia.
After a two-year absence, I will certainly give the Health Center another try.
Thanks, Cynthia Llanes, for setting me straight.
Monica L. Ewing is a
Spartan Daily
Production Editor.
“The Way It Is”
appears Thursdays.
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