HURRICANE KATRINA VERSUS THE SIMPSONS

We had our first reading quiz in English 101 this past Thursday. Out of an intermittent set of 17 students, about 12 actually turned in a blue book for grading purposes. Of those blue books, one student's take on The House of the Spirits stood out by virtue of the fact that it had nothing to do with the novel by Isabel Allende.

This student was in pain. Physical pain, the punishing aftermath of a wisdom tooth extraction which had taken place the previous class period. (Why were no opiates provided? Vicodin is always fun. Note to self: investigate lack of painkiller options).

The pain I suppose explains why the student chose to write about Things That Are Wrong With This Country. A good kvetching can be therapeutic, although why she chose to write about this instead of a novel by Isabel Allende is anybody's guess. Again, life without painkillers can be, well, pretty fucking painful.

In the midst of this pain-induced rant the following statement vibrates like the nerve sensations from an impacted wisdom tooth, to whit: "Why did they have to interrupt The Simpsons to cover Hurricane Katrina? It's just boring." My quotation is not exact; to do justice to the student's words, I would have to peer into the blue books nestling comfortably together on the floor together with the rest of the debris I accumulate through the teaching week.

The other day a good person died. His name was Jason Thompson. I didn't know him that well, but he was a familiar face on the LAHC campus and part of a little group that would meet informally after my MW English 28 classes. Jason died due to mysterious complications of diabetes. His friend, a former student, called me to let me know about the luncheon tomorrow at Sizzler's on PCH and Crenshaw near the AMC Rolling Hills Cinema complex. Although I wasn't Jason's professor I'm going to the luncheon to show support for the family. Jason, wherever you are, I hope it's a better place than this. A world in which the entertainment value of The Simpsons, an animated cartoon family, trumps the real-life pain and suffering of poor people affected by a horrific natural disaster.

And they say today's students are callous and jaded. That they have no respect for ideas, that they are vain and materialistic, that they value nothing but their own comfort.

How dare they?