Rants & Raves
I am normally dizzy with elation following free giveaways. The feeling of possessing something I did not have to pay for is so overwhelming that I usually end up with an afternoon headache. Unfortunately, the souvenirs from the recent MIT Community Picnic left me with no warm, fuzzy feelings. I was appalled by the environmentally destructive yellow tuckus cushions.
I pay over $50,000 a year to come to a school that prides itself on environmental responsibility. Why were my tuition dollars used to buy large blocks of plastic and foam that will be discarded after a single use? While a few may be used to fend off night wanderers from Central Square, the rest will most likely sit in dormitory storage and then wash up on beaches a thousand years from now.
What I find even more disturbing is the vast amount of resources that went into these cushions, only to ensure that professors’ bums don’t get wet in Killian Court. They can sit on the grass like the rest of us.
Why not take the money spent on pollutants and low-quality sandwiches and subsidize textbooks?
—Sarah C. Proehl ’09
The following letter was sent to “Rants & Raves” in response to the Sept. 11, 2007 rant about elevator usage.
Clara:
I hope you noticed the irony in your article. You were lazily (by your own admission of guilt) taking the elevator to the third floor with no outward appearance of being physically able to do so otherwise. I don’t really know why I feel like pointing this out except that I suppress the same thoughts. I discovered that just because a person is slowly walking down the Infinite Corridor in the prime of health does not mean that that morning they did not run six miles. Or that just because someone was running up a hill at the speed of a snail when I could sprint it after running 2.5 miles doesn’t mean that they did not run further.
Just some thoughts and a quote: “Just because you think you know where a person is going, doesn’t mean you know where they are coming from.”
Peace and Love,
Andrew D. Jones III ’10
If you want to rant or rave, e-mail cl@the-tech.mit.edu.