Power to the People Right On
From Reedie Journals:
Welcome to a virtual community of Reedies. Have you ever wondered what that quiet guy in class must be thinking, or what kind of movies one of your acquaintances likes? Ever wondered what goes through the psyche of the Reed community? Now you can find out. Excited? So am I. All it takes is to write your thoughts. Everyone counts, so join now!
My idea is to give every current student at Reed College a blog... an open atmosphere where they can express themselves and their thoughts to the world. Not everybody will want to participate, but even if you don't write in a public journal, they sure are fun to read.
So what are current (as opposed to alum) Reedies thinking? Here's a sample:
Yesterday I found out why you should never honk at pedestrians.
The light was green and although the red hand had just started to blink, I knew I had plenty of time to reach the other side of the street. Not four feet into the road when a loud and forceful honk caused me to freeze in my tracks. I whipped around to see an old woman in her car pointing angrily to the blinking pedestrian signal, as if to say that this was the only guide I should listen to when it came to crossing the street. My own personal judgement? - bah! My own judgement didn't take into account the fact that this lady expected to glide straight into a right-hand turn without anything obstructing her path.
Not that being patient and maybe just waiting for a moment to turn-on-red was out of the question.
As soon as I realized that her only issue was that I (and everyone else I know) considered the flashing red hand (and not any other part of the system, mind you) to be merely a suggestion, I continued across the street. I wanted to yell at her but the light would have changed and I would still have been in the middle of the street- a very inopportune place to be in regards to oncoming traffic.
I reached the other side and as her car turned I heard her yell at me, trying one final time to teach me a lesson. But I was too stunned to pay her any attention; the original honk still reverberated through my body. I've been honked at before, sure, (it's become an expected thing now when I'm downtown), but only in a calm, get-your-attention kind of way.
And so, drivers, please don't honk angrily at pedestrians. There are other, less intrusive, ways to get your frustration out.
And another:
There is no greater pleasure than to grip my head and pull it out of the bleeding sockets, and, after raising it in the air, to dip it with the same hands into the molten gold. At the same moment the Royal Medal of Honour would be pinned onto my chest.
Enjoy your youth while you can. Twenty years from today, you'll be using the then-current technology to express your views on doot.
Doot doot.
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