Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Who's a Super-Power Now?

Last week, a foreign graduate student at my alma mater made a bomb and anthrax threat that closed the entire campus down for a day. He was arraigned on six felony charges this week. I'm sure the students at the University of Missouri-Rolla are celebrating that the St. Pat's festivities will not be affected as planned, but I personally think the causes and implications of this threat are much bigger than anyone may realize.

Here's the deal: this international student decided he was going to commit police-assisted suicide because he was depressed, and he figured making terrorist threats was the best method of accomplishing his goals. Why, exactly, was he depressed? If the news reports are accurate, it's because he got the first 2 B's of his entire life. At 22 years old, he'd never gotten anything other than straight A's, even through earning his bachelor's degree in civil engineering.

Makes you wonder, doesn't it? If international students are coming in, learning side by side with American students and getting depressed over GPAs that fall below 4.0 while so many of the American students champion such phrases as "C is for Complete, D is for Done, 2.0 and go," how much longer will the US remain a superpower in the world? It's a good thing grades don't count for everything in life. Also makes you wonder if there's a reason so many technical call centers are now manned overseas. But that's enough social commentary for me today.

Hope you all get to partake in some green beverages this weekend. If you're lucky, it won't be green orange juice. Speaking from experience, all I can say is "Bleh!"

Posted by Honey :: 8:26 AM :: 2 Comments:

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