Y’know, I’m getting really tired of all the complaining about how lazy
and
ungrateful college
students are. I hear it on the radio (goodbye and good riddance
Michael
Savage!), on the TV
news, I read about it in newspapers and magazines, and in restaurants
and
bars around town. Let’s consider something… the lazy and ungrateful
are
everywhere, and the hard working and
involved are too damn busy to waste their time setting you straight.
(I
guess that puts me somewhere in the middle?).
I remember when I first started getting really annoyed by the ignorant
whining about college students. I was tending bar in Ashland, home of
the
Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Mount
Ashland Ski Area, a thriving summertime tourist industry and my alma
mater,
Southern Oregon University. A couple of local business owners, we’ll
call
them Curly and Shemp, were sitting at the bar telling misogynistic
jokes
and clapping each other on the back while having a good old time ogling
the
cocktail waitresses, who, of course, were college students.
Curly turned the subject to his taxes. Evidently the inconvenience of a
high property tax prevents him from buying that new BMW motorcycle he
wants; the real problem though, in his whiskey-clouded mind, isn’t the
tax
itself, it’s the fact that he has to pay for the University that lies
just
outside the back door of this bar. Shemp chimed in with his own tales
of
woe regarding the rental properties he owns. Because of the students,
at
the end of every academic year he has to find all new tenants, and
often
his rentals have to go empty for months at a time.
I’ve got news for you jackasses… without that University and those
college students, Ashland wouldn’t be the little mecca that it is. Who
do
you think it is that is willing to pay the high rent for your run down
apartments? Who do you think it is that looks after your snot-nosed
kids at
your day-care? Who do you think it is that stocks and bags your
groceries
at the local market and delivers your pizza for you when you’re too
damn
incompetent to cook for yourselves when your wives are out of town. And
finally, who do you think it is that serves up your booze for you at
the
local bar while you bitch about him right to his face.
Well, I didn’t say that… frankly I needed their patronage, and their
tips, to help to pay for the next round of school books I would be
buying
later that week. I didn’t spit in their beer or overcharge them,
instead I
continued to serve them with a smile and gladly accepted their 9
percent
gratuity and went on with my night. I did, however, make sure that
everyone
I knew, knew not to be a patron at their businesses.
And people wonder why students don’t take part in local issues and
activities.