Bus drivers are irresponsible
I got on the Avent Ferry bus to come into class, as I always do, every day of the week. As I took my seat and tried to relax for the bus ride to campus I looked at the bus driver and what I saw was appalling! The bus driver had a word-find book on the steering wheel and was doing a word find while driving! I nearly flipped out and lost my mind on her! Then, her cell phone rings, and with her only free hand, she answered it!
I called the Wolfline and First Transit and notified them of what was going on. They said that they would take care of it, but this isn’t the first time that something like this has happened. A few months ago I observed a bus driver texting and driving!
We need to raise awareness on this issue. The buses are very nice and I am glad that we have them instead of the old pieces of crap that we used to have. However, they are 12-plus tons of death if they aren’t operated with the utmost respect. If one of those buses stops suddenly, we the students and passengers are not strapped in so we are going to carry on at the speed that the bus was traveling until our bodies are stopped by something inside the bus. I want students to know what to look for and to not be afraid to report it. I want the transportation department to have no license on the discipline of drivers who are safety violators.
Chris Lindleyjunior, environmental technology
Intolerance is unacceptable
Today, at around lunch time, I was leaving the D.H. Hill library, due to the noise in the west wing being too loud to study, when I noticed an odd sight. This, of course, happened to be the Brickyard preachers with a group of students gathered around them. What was odd about this, excluding the man carrying the sign saying “Do you love your sins enough to burn in hell for them,” was just the sight of having a preacher at a public university like this.
Now I will not deny the fact that I did not go up there and heckle these men. However, I still find this very grotesque and in poor taste. I came to find out the truth that this is, in fact, a regular occurrence on campus. Well, needless to say I am rather appalled; that in this day and age, in such a “free society,” and especially on a campus which prides itself in its tolerant spirit and student body, we have people telling us that we do not have a right to live as we choose, believe as we wish and that we will burn in hell for it.
I do not go about professing my religious views to other people and telling them that they are wrong for not believing them. Nor do I go about telling people that they have to tolerate me being intolerant to them. I entered into higher education with the hopes of escaping such a society of bigotry and hatred, and I hope that something can be done about this. Even if a forum is opened to have an open debate as to the actual need of such a heinous offense to the First Amendment (freedom of religion in particular). I would hate to think of how gays, lesbians, Muslims and Jews (some of who he named in his preaching) might feel about these people telling them they are sinners, and since we have a rather decent student body consisting of said groups, my being Buddhist and being offended seems rather small in comparison with the disgust they might be feeling.
I hope that this issue can be addressed, as a school such as this should have no need for people telling them they are evil for believing in themselves.
Dereck Goolsby-Bearsongsophomore, arts applications