Wednesday, February 1, 2012

1 February 2012 Useless traditions No need to poke a ground hog



          The forecast for our mountains calls for a probability of rain tomorrow.  Therefore, no shadowy apparition should be seen by irritated and sleepy woodchucks.  I see no need to rise before daybreak in order to poke at an angry rodent in order to satisfy some old superstition or tradition.  Just because our ancestors did it that way does not make it worth preserving.  They used to hunt for meat with bits of rock tied to sticks, thereby becoming meat as often as acquiring meat. 
          What other useless traditions might we dispose of?
          Our youth are wailing and complaining about the cost of college education.  They feel that student loans are hampering their ability to enjoy college life fully and that their lives after leaving college are ruled by the necessity of working to repay student loan fees.   Many college students have been led to believe that their parents owe them college educations. 
          This same set of students may well believe that new cars, credit cards, and spring break trips are things that they are all entitled to enjoy.  Credit card bills amassed during spring break trips are not really education costs.  Nor are automobile expenses, auto insurance, and other luxuries such as gaming systems
          Also in the tier of useless traditions, w might find field houses and stadia.  The myth of the student athlete competing for the non-existent honor of a university is exactly that, a myth.  Those pseudo-students are recruited and housed in luxury dorms with under the table money for dessert in order to coax wealthy alumni to keep funding an athletic program that serves only those pseudo-students who will most likely play at some game until hurt and unable to play, or until recruited by a professional franchise.  In either case, graduation is unlikely.  Benefit to the average student due to a professional athletic training program is next to non-existent.  In fact, it causes their student fees for non-class work related items to be higher. 
          As much as they would complain if those professional athletic programs vanished, the alumni who most likely are complaining about leaving taxes to their spawn would demonstrate not one bit of regret at saddling future generations of students with the costs of new athletic facilities, their upkeep, and the outrageous and un-necessary salaries paid to coaches and trainers that exist only to service the mercenary athletes who are looking for the best pro-recruitment draft deal. 
          Think about it.  I’ve never heard a college athlete complain about tuition costs or student loan reimbursement.  That is truly a useless tradition!

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