Opinion
 

Logic often eclipsed by close-mindedness

by Joshua Curry

It was when I was walking through the ever-safe economy lot that I got a perfect view of 20 teeth; molars, canines, incisors, the whole deal. They were all bright and white and attached to the wide-eyed face of a little girl, no more than five, who sat alone inside the passenger seat of a car. She stared at me with her teeth clenched in a gesture I could only describe as "scarecitement."

"Is this the result of UH's day care waiting lists?," I wondered. "What would happen if campus police saw her?" I wouldn't be surprised if they issued her a citation. I was billed $60 at the end of the semester, after the University was closed for the winter holiday, for a citation nobody knew existed, especially me.

What struck me most about this girl was that innocent fear, as if she was thinking, "I wonder if this one is going to try and get me." There was that little smile in her stare like she might have had an entire army hiding in the car with her. The kind of fear I generally encounter is entirely different, where experience is considered too risky and opinions are too strong to accept anything out of the ordinary. Everything else, of course, becomes the feared "other."

So often it's irrational, such as all the drug convictions in our area involving less than a gram of relatively harmless drugs while kids are dying from overdoses of over-the-counter cough syrup. Harris County accounted for just shy of half of all drug offenders in Texas in fall 2003. This fear is in all the wrong places, like some giant puppet/horror show put on by the pharmaceutical industry and the media.

My feathers were righteously ruffled by these thoughts, so I went to Parking and Transportation Services to fill out an appeal form for that aforementioned parking fee. I was greeted with rolled eyes when I didn't have my citation number handy, and I clearly explained that there was no parking citation of speak which to speak. At this point the cashier was searching for a non-existent number, and I was listening in on the students behind me pointing out the solid logic of the parking map. Three identical diagrams of the school, one of which has a compass rose, are all rotated in different directions. Genius.

I finally got some feedback. "Oh, you've already paid that ticket. We will credit the $60 back to your account." Thieves.

The logic classes offered at UH and should be utilized whenever possible. Here's an example: if you receive a parking ticket, then you pay it. If you pay it, then you don't get charged again. Now I received a parking ticket and paid it, and I didn't get charged again. Easy enough, right?

We could use this logic for all sorts of things: if you are a rapist, then you go to prison with no parole. Sounds reasonable, eh? Unfortunately, parole is handed out just a little too often so that there is room for all those drug offenders, who just might have a harder time getting parole than the rapists. But at least the streets are now safe for America's little girls.

In actuality, logic just doesn't cut it when put up against money and certainly not against fear, so I guess we are stuck working with "if p then q" statements and perhaps a better understanding of the "crypqtic alqhabet."

Curry, an editorial writer for The Daily Cougar, 
can be reached via dccampus@mail.uh.edu.