OUR VIEW: Irony alive and well

An activity on the Quad and the Taggart Student Center Patio Wednesday night was meant to raise awareness of homelessness. During the event, students slept in cardboard box shelters and sleeping bags, played video gaming systems, ate free hot dogs and marshmallows, and partied until they went to sleep on the lawn. The mayor of Logan paid them a visit and spoke about the sad condition of poverty. Some students, male and female, streaked across the Quad, no doubt in an effort to raise awareness about clotheslessness.

The get-together raised money for Habitat for Humanity, which is wonderful. But let’s not pretend that anything else happened that was helpful, useful or respectful to the serious problem of homelessness.

On Friday, CAPSA held a dodgeball tournament to raise money for the non-profit organization to help battered women. Dodgeball, a game which an article in the Washington Times deemed “too violent, degrading, and seclusionary” for most school districts, features merciless attacks (using objects) of bigger, stronger kids on weaker, more submissive ones.

Maybe we should have a swimming competition to collect money for families of drowning victims. Or, we could have a marathon for those who suffer from chronic knee pain. Here’s one: A giant cook-off to raise funds for the hungry.

The association of the bloodsport of dodgeball and bloody domestic abuse was certainly unintended and we don’t question the good intentions of CAPSA and Habitat for Humanity. But the irony exists and the organizations may want to be a little more careful in their choice of fundraisers.