OUR VIEW: Iced pathways a safety hazard

It snowed. It’s winter. We get it. And there’s no end in sight. Well, maybe a little in sight – one month down and like five to go. So instead of focusing on the negatives – the freezing death and the white, powdery prison – we’ve decided to complain about the condition of the sidewalks. We’d reprimand Mother Nature, but there’s no point because we’ve heard she’s not a Statesman reader. Not that many students are frequenters of this paper’s editorial page either, but we figure we have a better chance reaching you guys. So, on behalf of the mass of humanity slipping and sliding on sidewalks on and off campus, we’d like to plead with snow removers, amateurs and professionals alike, to keep our footpaths clear of snow and or ice. We understand that we sound a little like an overbearing mother – “Shovel the walk.” “Take out the garbage.” “Wash behind your ears.” “Don’t throw snowballs at your professors.” – but we’re OK with it. The truth is, it’s just not fun to glide around haphazardly on snow that will eventually turn into sheets of ice under heavy traffic if the situation isn’t nipped in the bud. A bunch of half-awake college students careening around on snow and ice is a safety issue. People could get injured – wrists could be sprained, tail bones cracked and heads bounced off the snowy sidewalk. And more importantly, a person that slips and falls could be embarrassed. We can find nothing that says, “I’m a capable and viral mating option” better than slipping on snow or ice, going horizontal in the air and landing flat on one’s back in the middle of the Quad at about 11:30 a.m. on a Wednesday. You’ll have a bruised hip and buttocks, but, more importantly, a black and blue ego. Either the university and off-campus property owners need to step up to the plate and do an acceptable job of making for safe sidewalk travel, or we need to decide to let it all go by the wayside. Maybe just let all the walkways around town ice up so we can all don skates and gnarly headbands and do our best Apollo Anton Ono impression on our way to classes. Or leave it really snowy so we stage a re-enactment of the movie “March of the Penguins” with everyone dressed in black and white, shuffling around campus. Cool as the penguin thing sounds, it is somebody’s job to clear the paths around campus, and it is just courteous to shovel the walk in front of your residence or place of business. That’s all we’re saying. Let’s work together to make foot travel around Logan a safe and pleasant experience. It’s either that or we all gather in the TSC and start a guerrilla war against winter by doing everything we can to expedite the process of global warming. The first option is probably a slightly less dramatic, more responsible course of action.