|
Average
Horned Frogs lack desire to help others I gave blood last week. I was pretty proud of it for a while, too, thinking about how I conquered my fear of having sharp pieces of metal stuck in my arms, all while doing such a charitable thing for society. However, then I started to think: I’m 20 years old, and this is the first time I’ve ever given blood. Just since I’ve come to college, that’s three years of excuses as to why I shouldn’t give blood. Back during the Sept. 11 rush to donate blood, I refrained from giving, telling myself enough people were giving that they weren’t going to need my blood, and it would just go to waste or something. That ended up being a fairly true statement, but now, more than six months later, blood banks need people to continue giving. When I gave blood last week, I was one of two people giving blood in the entire Student Center Ballroom. Six months ago, Carter BloodCare probably could have filled Daniel-Meyer Coliseum with people wanting to give blood. This seems to present a clear picture of how catastrophic events can lead people to feel a sudden urgent need to “do something” to help a horrible situation, especially when the situation threatens our way of life. However, now that the threat of homeland terrorism has subsided somewhat, or has at least been forgotten by many Americans, people just aren’t as interested in helping their country. Attention is turned more to the economy, as many Americans are wondering just how they are going to make the payments on their Jaguar and their summer house in Aspen. Giving blood takes a lower spot on the priority list. To refine this discussion to a local perspective, is TCU a scale model of the rest of the country in terms of community involvement? There are plenty of organizations doing some really great things to help people in need, but there doesn’t seem to be a burning desire in the hearts of the average Horned Frog to lend a helping hand. When organizations set up tables in the Student Center to promote interest in their group or their activity, do you lower your head and speed through in hopes that no one tries to talk to you? They probably just want money anyway, or worse yet, they might try to sign you up for an internship. Be wary of people giving away free newspapers or Scantrons, there’s got to be a catch. Maybe we avoid solicitors because it is something we have seen all our lives. As a large percentage of TCU students come from middle to upper-class families, most are probably familiar with their parents’ experiences of being constantly harassed by anyone and everyone soliciting long-distance service, credit cards, mail-order brides and anything else you could ever think of selling. It is almost as though we come to TCU with built-in sense to detect people asking for help and get away from them as soon as possible. That is a harmful thing, because we are at college to develop into people who do care about what is going on in the world around us, and are willing to try and help in some way. What can you do to help hunt down Osama bin Laden? Probably almost nothing. Are there people right here in Fort Worth who could use your help? Hopefully you have enough grasp of your community to realize the answer is yes. But the question you really need to answer is not if you can help, but will you? Jeff
Dennis is a junior sociology major from Gail. |
|
|
TCU Daily Skiff © 2002 |
||