Teach Peace
I always enjoy the opportunity to talk with college students about their aspirations and their observations from the perspective of their young lives. Last night I stayed at the home of one of my best friends from my boyhood, which gave me the chance to speak with his highly accomplished elder daughter, who just entered UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles) as a freshman. In the course of the talk, she mentioned that all incoming students receive a heavy indoctrination that their school’s cross-town rival, USC (University of Southern California), is “the enemy”; all freshmen take a pledge that they will forever regard USC and its people as such. I suggested that this must be a kind of joke that no one takes seriously, but she assured me that the entire ritual is completely serious.
I’m sure most people regard these hijinks as good, clean collegiate fun, and so I’m sorry to sound like a kill-joy, but I find it sickening. Taking an innocent kid and teaching her that some other equally innocent kid is some sort of “enemy” merely by virtue of the school she’s chosen is deplorable. That the urban gangs do garbage like this is regrettable, but at least their members have the excuse of having been deprived of the privileges of a normal upbringing. Seeing this played out in our great academic institutions shows a revolting lack of grace and class.
The Earth is populated with races, religious sects, and nation-states that are in a perpetual state of hostility. Is it really so hard to understand why?
Although I share your opinion of the indoctrination, what is almost certain to happen is that by the time she gets her degree, she will look back upon the indoctrination as silly. Most likely, the indoctrination was done by sophomores who ran some sort of orientation program and copied what they went through the previous year. Freshman orientation programs always have their silly aspects.
I agree with Craig Shields. I also don’t understand people playing football, or soccer and heading the ball, and therefore getting brain damage… If we know better from science why not apply it? For example baseball players now wear helmets.
Also shouldn’t there be chear leaders, and large amounts of money, for science and math………and maybe quadrathalons = run, swim, science, math competitions?
It is unclear how American football could ever be made safe. But as for soccer, probably if the players wore helmets, heading the ball would be unlikely to cause damage.