Monday, April 03, 2006

more fun in chico

You know, you gotta love this town. I hate to go on another rant, but I just got this letter from the president of the university I attend. It basically outlines a hate crime that happened last Sunday. Some car downtown got defaced with racial slurs, in front of the guy's house. This is ridiculous! If you live in California, you may have also heard that our girls softball season was canceled. Why? A seventeen year old recruit was sent to the hospital for alcohol poisoning at a softball party. The best part? She was recruit, as in, not even on the team or even a college student for that matter.

The sad part is how commonplace this is. Here's a direct quote from the article in the Sacramento Bee:

An 18-year-old student died in 2000 after drinking a bottle of brandy at a fraternity party; a 19-year-old Chico student was killed the following year after authorities say he passed out drunk on train tracks.

In January 2005, a 19-year-old Butte College student nearly died after drinking a large quantity of vodka in a pledge initiation held on the Chico campus; in February 2005, a fraternity hazing ritual resulted in the death of a 21-year-old pledge.

While it's cool going to the nation's "party school"—we have been mentioned in primetime hits such as American Dad and King of the Hill—it is still a sobering reminder how much of a reality living in this town is.

Anyway, I'm not mad. I mean, people do what they do, and goodness knows I get my fair share of partying in. But are hate crimes necessary? Do people have to die?

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