Sometimes You Feel Like A Nut

We all have run into people like this. Just look at those eyes. Those are the eyes of an insane person. I even went to college with a few.

When I was in college in Idaho there was a crazy in the school. I heard his family was rich and they sort of just warehoused him there until they could retire to Costa Rico. Now Fred was in the school of technology. I suppose they thought he could blend with slide-rule geeks easier than with the football players or Iranians. I heard Fred had been at the four year college for six years and I was told it would be three more years before he would be ready to graduate because he was determined to take every class in the school of technology. Now where I grew up having odd people around me was nothing new. So I would nod and smile at Fred in the dormitory elevator and otherwise give him a wide berth. I had one of the girls from upstairs tell me it was a real treat to find oneself alone on the elevator with Fred at 1 am when they went down to the lobby to grab a TAB while in their pajamas.

On the nut scale I thought Fred was pretty benign. Then I went down to the dorm cafeteria right before they closed for breakfast one Sunday morning. I had a hangover and the choice of the runny scrambled eggs or waiting till 6 pm for supper was a tough one. So I decided to try the eggs, when Fred sat beside me. It was going well until Fred starts stabbing his forearm with the butter knife. By now the eggs are looking a lot worse. OK breakfast is over I'll just bring my tray to the window and go back to bed and forget this whole morning. On the way back to the elevator I stopped by the head R.A.'s apartment and told him he needed to check on Fred.

The point I'm trying to make is How Crazy Does One Have To Be, To Be Thrown Out Of Community College? Jared Lougher was a such a nut that his classmates cherished the desk closest to the exit so they would stand a chance of escaping when he started shooting. The community college, however, with their TSA mentality just wanted to move the problem down the line. Thirty years ago the Dean would have called the police, who would call a Psychaitrist who knew a Judge who would get this guy in a locked ward. Not today in the USA of TSA. The fear of litigation along with the generalized stupidy of public education have left us vulnerable to all breeds of crackpots.

So if the paranoid schizophrenics are no longer at the county farm the rest of us have to be vigilant. We also have to endure monthly atrocities and even worse, the solid month of media commiseration and fault finding. My advice is to avoid large crowds, carry your own protection and be aware of those around you. Look in their eyes; you can always see it in thier eyes.