I just wanted to have some fun. Alcohol was definitely a factor in causing me to get arrested. I was just being a complete idiot, basically. I was 40 feet deep in the crowd and I thought 'How the hell is anyone going to stop me? But within three seconds of the egg leaving my hand, I got arrested by a cop who was in the crowd. The school is tired of this behavior and they're punishing us to send a message. If I screw up again, I'll probably get kicked out of school.
- "Rich", an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Massachusetts
You see, when I was in college, "HIGHER" education had an entirely different meaning to us. It seems that every generation has a different take on their college experience. Of course, wanton destruction and property damage seems a bit over the top, but some might say it's just swapping one set of felonies for another. After all, I (technically speaking) broke more than a few federal laws when it came to the chemical enhancement of my own college experience.
BOSTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) -- Have a few beers. Watch the big game. Get loaded. Go out and burn stuff.
That, in a nutshell, is the latest craze sweeping American colleges, and one that has campus administrators and police scrambling for solutions.
From Maryland to Minnesota to Ohio to Massachusetts, students have caused hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage in booze-fueled riots following major sporting events.
One recent rampage broke out in Boston when the New England Patriots beat the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII. Hundreds of college students took to city streets after the thrilling victory and set fires, broke windows and overturned cars. One person was killed.
Of course, Detroit Red Wings fans have been doing this sort of thing for years. The only difference is that you probably couldn't find a lot of college graduates in the crowd. Hell, you probably couldn't have found a lot of people who could even spell "college".
College has traditionally been a time when young people have stretched the envelope of "civilized" behavior- and why not? Most colleges are relatively safe, insular environments, and you have a lot of young men and women who are testing the wings of their new-found independence. Combine all of that with a lack of basic maturity, and hilarity will invariably ensue.
In the late 1930s, for example, an American college freshman ate a live goldfish for fun. Within weeks, campus copycats across the nation were swallowing dozens of the little fish in a bid to outdo one another.
Later, it was fashionable among college students to cram themselves into phone booths. And in the 1970s, the fad was streaking: running naked through campus.
And just as goldfish-eating or squeezing into tight spaces was done in a spirit of good, clean fun, today's rioters say "fun" is a big motivation for them, too.
Yeah, right...eventually these maroons will have to go out into the "real" world and try to support themselves. I suppose there is something to be said for letting them get the stupidity out of their system now, but when the destruction of private property is part of the process, it's no longer just about stupidity. Eventually, kids will have to learn that there are consequences to be paid when "stupidity" branches out into the malicious destruction of personal property. Let's hope it doesn't take jail time (after all, enough of our tax dollars already go to edumicate these maroons...), but it may take exactly that for some folks to WAKE UP AND SMELL THE CAT LITTER!!!
Of course, I'm a fine one to be casting aspersions. I could have easily had a couple of federal drug possession convictions on my record. What the hell was I thinking?? Stoopid is as stoopid does, eh??
