You Can Tell a College Man

But you can’t tell him (or her) much, as adults know.

Okay, I’m going to write this.  I realize that I may be a curmudgeon.  To be fair, that’s probably a given, but I have some defenses.  While I did the usual residential college 18-22 years old in the late 1970s, I grew up working poor, and had to work during my breaks to pay the bills.

Apparently many college students today don’t.  Because they are not letting coronavirus upset their Spring Break partying.  This article is especially telling, although there are others.  “I am a slut,” one person says.  Another.  “No one at college told us we could get sick having sex on Spring Break.  They just said to not share drinks.”  “If there are no parties in Florida, we’ll go to someplace where there are.  Toronto maybe.”  Toronto, pay attention.

I’m sorry that you don’t realize the world has changed, not quite overnight like it did with 9/11.  And I’m sorry (not really) that the world has changed on you.  After all, it changed very dramatically on me with 9/11.  And we didn’t respond by going to Toronto.  In fact, if you want to read about the Canadian response to 9/11, read about Operation Yellow Ribbon.  I cried.

But you will live forever, and you will never infect anyone, ever.  Right now, you are the stupidest people in America.  And I don’t think that will change over time.  But you don’t care, because it’s all about you.  The problem is that you don’t even know how stupid you are.

I was always sanguine about getting older, because I had faith that the coming generations would do what was necessary.  But partying in the face of a worldwide pandemic is not only not necessary, it is criminal.

You need to grow up, really fast.  That is the world that we are in.