Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Pick your battles

There's been a miniature uproar around campus over the past few days, as the University President made the controversial decision to ban all blood drives on campus. Supposedly, the reason for this have to do to the fact that AIDs can take an extended period of time to show up in blood screenings, so blood donated could be tainted without anyone knowing. Since college campuses are known for excessive sexual activity, this increases any risks. But come on, if someone wants to donate bloood (which is a GOOD thing to do), they will do it. And this little glitch can occur at any blood drive location, not just on a college campus... I'm not saying whether I agree or disagree with this plan, but it leads me to question just how are we picking our battles.
Just after reading the headline about this newly enstated policy and pondering over it a bit, I walked in front of the Event Center to see a familiar foe. Since I began attendance at San Jose State, this man seems to never waver. He's Mr. Evangelical-Fire-and-Brimstone-You're-All-Going-To-Burn-In-Hell preacher man. Hi, Dude, this is a college campus. Maybe 3 out of every 282 people that pass your unwanted babbling every day are going to listen, let alone respond. If you find it so necessary to tell people that if you are gay you are condemned to a fiery eternity, a Bay Area university miiiiight not be the place to do it. I have no problem with people who are religious...more power to you. But when someone's fanatacism gets in the way of me living my life, nevermind simply trying to WALK TO CLASS, we have a problem. This man seeks people out and preaches to them about he thinks they should be living, and why they are so wrong in not believing what he believes. Not. Cool.
So, basically, I want to know why we are going to make a decision to ban blood drives on campus, which doesn't necessarily solve the problem at hand, but no one can make some sort of stand to keeping this man from infringing on my personal space. Yeah, I know, Free Speech, First Amendment, blabbity blah. There's a difference between saying "I believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster" and "Oh, I believe in Scientology" and standing in a public place, uninvited, basically berating and belittling passers by. Am I wrong in thinking this? Cuz if this is the way it's going to be, then I'm going to start bringing rotten produce with me and chucking it at this guy when he tells me how much I have sinned. I don't think that's his right, but it's my right to chuck moldy cucumbers at him.

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