20070420
Respect your teachers
I'm not sure if I should keep yesterday's entry online or not. Even though I added a watermark stating that the photo I hacked was meant for satire and should not be used as canon, I'm having second thoughts about posting the photo, in a general context. I mean, I don't want their to be any mix up or belief that I support such random acts of violence, because I certainly do not condone it.My intent of that photo was to point out how stupid school shooters try to make themselves look. His behavior was NOT because people picked on him or because of some mental disability. People like the VT killer are nothing but copy cats and frauds.
Since Monday, nearly every large school or school district community in the country reported some sort of threat. The ones I find most concerning are the ones made by people against teachers.
When I was young, I understood that there were certain people you should respect no matter what. Your parents or guardians obviously. Some kids who show no respect for their authority are kicked out of their house because they didn't respect their authority.
Another group of people that deserve some respect are teachers. Yeah, you may think that "science class is boaring" or "math who needs it". But eventually, you come across atleast one instructor who inspires you to learn about a subject you felt would have no purpose in your life.
Recently, I learned that one of those kind of teachers who I liked passed away much too soon. He was a professor with a doctorial degree in Astrophysics and Cosmology who taught College Physics and Astronomy at my school.
On Monday of last week, I wrote him a letter saying how much I appreciated his class and how I liked listening to his lectures about physics. Last fall I hung out after school and listend to him give a lecture with a few other science professors about cosmology and theories about the universe. I wish I could have stayed for the entire lecture, but I understood most of his theory. The only reason I could not stay to hear the rest of it was because the ride to take me home that I was waiting for had arrived.
I never took a cosmology course, but I did understand astronomy from what I had learned in the Boy Scouts.
I was shocked and saddened that just a few days after I wrote my letter of appreciation that he had passed away over the weekend. He was a chain smoker, but never appeared to be in grave health. While everyone was mourning the tragedy in Virginia, I was somber about the death that happened in our school's community. Proximity won over casuality. What happened at VT was terrible. They lost several professors. I was busy grieving for the one who passed away a couple days before that terrible incident.
What really upset me was that several Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Nursing students found out about the somber news before I did and in a email between their own group of people. Most of them who recieved the email had no respect for him in the first place, as they would talk amongst themselves, obnoxiously pop bubble gum loudly, and pay no attention to him while he lectured in class. I mean, here they are just a week before he past away showing no sign of respect for this man who has a degree in one of the many fields of physical science and saying things like "he doesn't know what he's talking about", and a few days later passes away but they are the first to know about it. What the heck?! They get an email a couple days before the University sends everyone this somber anouncement, and now they say things like "I liked him".
Why should people only be liked after they are dead? Why can't we show appreciation for the people who try to teach us to be better people after they died? Why must death or tragedy unite us when we can do these things while people are still around to return their gratitude?
The recently late former Senator Thomas F. Eagleton of whom the Eagleton Federal Courthouse is named after and erected while he was still alive, once commented to fellow former Senator Dick Gephardt durring the courthouse's dedication cerimony "Buildings are named in honor of dead people. I'm not dead yet." Though this was Eagleton's sharp sense of humor, it does bring up a good observation.
It is better to honor someone while they are still with us than to honor them when they can not thank you in return.
Let us remember to honor our friends while they are still with us. Let us show them respect and gratitude while they can still say "Thank you, that means alot to me."
Labels: physics, science, stlouis, writing
posted by Bushido Hacks 4/20/2007 09:32:00 AM
