Letter to the Students

Dear Students,

Upon reading the article in last week's Tack about the RIDES program, I have been inspired to reflect upon my sincerest opinions and concerns.

Most of you know me as a resident of Liberty. The building's name may imply to most of you that I am forever a sober and studious nerd. But let me assure you that I, like so many others, believe in a student's right to drunkenness - at least with a sense of responsibility.

We're only a few short week to graduation and one of my long lists of thanks is that I will no longer have to provide for our RIDES program, especially our late night buses. For these past four years I have despised funding a program that promotes irresponsibility. Students can board the buses just to pay no respect to the quantity of alcohol they drink or to their often miscreant behavior that follows. To attest to this we simply have to reflect upon the mishaps upon our bell, the need for Student Senate to patrol the bus, and let's not forgot the fair share of landmines we dodge roaming the hallways or the 4 a.m. fire alarms.

Looking back at these reckless and irresponsible behaviors, no idea bothers me more than to see the money that I will be working hard to pay back be used in such a fashion. Rather than use this money to fund some exciting field trip or purchase necessary improvements for our school, we still insist on funding the oh-so exciting and monotonous trip to the social zoo, Malarky's. At the very least, I'd hoped that our money that is funding these late night RIDES' bar crawls can be put to some good. I've told myself over and over that these late night missions provide me, at the very least, with the presence of mind knowing I won't have to deal with as many boozed up drivers on the streets. While many of you may be responsible enough to take the bus home, there are still far too many that have admitted to me of their forgotten car rides home. This is enough to suggest a lack of effectiveness to what I'd hope to believe is the bus's ideal purpose.

In closing, let me say that while we are students in a school, if we (especially the socially responsible) wanted to pay for people's futile attempt at learning responsibility, we'd send them to prison not to a school.

Sincerely, James Hopkins