Pick you battles, choose your plights

Southern has a lot of problems, but no more than the average institution and no more than the average community. In order to assess certain discrepancies accordingly, we’ve got to open our mouths and say something.
Now I’ve been here for a minute–not as long as some–and I know that we as Southernites have absolutely no problem letting off steam. Okay, so that’s pretty healthy, pretty up to par and on the move. What’s not so healthy is that we let off to the WRONG people about the WRONG things too much for my nerves.
It irks me to hear people complain about anything, and to idly do it just to hear yourself talk is just, like, so not productive and down right senseless. My number one, biggest, larger-than-life, above-all-others pet peeve is this jibber-jabber about parking.
The problem with parking is not lack of space. It’s not the people at Traffic and Parking giving out tickets because “they don’t have nothing better to do.” The problem with parking, my dearest little Jaguar friends, is the very same people who complain about it the most: The students who feel they have some divine right to pull up to their classroom door. It’s just not gonna happen that way.
Tell me the last time you’ve seen the Minidome parking lot completely full…I mean besides the concerts and pep rallies. Let’s face it. There is enough room for parking on campus. It’s just that freshman want to drive and no one wants to park where they’re supposed to park. That’s the problem. I know this because I don’t want to park at the Minidome, and I haven’t. So when I get a ticket, I say nothing, because it’s MY FAULT, thus I don’t have room to complain.
Now, tell me what college campus has room for students to park right on the heart of campus and walk a few yards to class? It doesn’t exist. If campuses would make room for every student to just roll up near their class, that would be–let’s see–about 30 parking spots per classroom, not including the faculty and staff. The whole campus would be a parking lot.
Shut up and walk, ride a bike, get a scooter…get some fresh air…get a life!
And for those of you illegally parked on the shoulder–I’m not talking to all of you, just the ones inconsiderately parked right on the corner of streets and driveways–I’m waiting for the day I pull out and, because of you, get my bumper knocked off. I hope you got a good lawyer, buddy.
Parking isn’t the only issue we pointlessly whine about. There are others. This is just my beef. My other beef is that we complain, complain, complain, and NEVER say anything to anyone that can do anything about it.
Did we attend the traffic and parking forums that used to be held on campus? No. Do we go to the SGA? No. Do we submit formal letters of complaints to the right people? Very few of us do. Do we even know who the right people are? Not enough of us.
Look, telling your mama’s cousin’s nephew’s girlfriend’s sister’s baby’s daddy that parking or anything else on campus sucks is not gonna do anything to correct it. You’re wasting the precious air we breathe and very precious time.
Like I said, there are many issues on campus that need to be addressed, and those of us who tread daily on this sweet Southern soil should care enough to see certain things changed. But please, choose wisely what you care to argue about, because some of our “problems” are born of our own imaginations.