This economic crisis is no Mardi Gras!
The Traveler Editorial Board
Issue date: 2/23/09 Section: Opinion
As billion-dollar bailouts and stock market plunges become increasingly routine, we shiver every time we think of the economy.
But we also shiver to stop thinking about it because we realize our generation will inevitably be responsible for righting this upside-down world. What preoccupies us most right now is how seemingly ill prepared our generation is for the job.
Frowning, fretting and token saving aside, UA students - including us - still seem not to have grasped the magnitude of this economic turmoil.
But really, how could we?
Even economists are divided about this meltdown's causes and cures. And the sheer enormity of the monetary amounts Congress has tossed at banks, mortgage lenders and homeowners doesn't register as real. To us, it seems like Congress is playing with Monopoly money.
But they're not. And that frightening fact - that this economic crisis is real - calls for a mature response not only from politicians, but also from the students who will someday assume the roles of senators, representatives and Wall Street executives.
What would such a mature response be?
Truthfully, we don't really want to think about it. We'd rather be out partying for Mardi Gras.
But, just as, for some Christians, partying on Mardi Gras in no way negates the Lenten requirements of fasting and abstinence, for future U.S. leaders, ignoring the economic crisis now won't negate the need to address it later.
If, in order to stably and sanely address the economic crisis, students need to ignore it for a while longer, we understand. Sometimes, pigging out on sweets before we give them up softens our diet anxiety.
On the other hand, we fool ourselves when we think the memory of the pig-out will fortify us when we finally do enter the sweet-free phase. It never does. We crave sweets anyway. And, the gorging is never as good as we claim it to be, either - because we innately sense we're making things harder on ourselves.
So, if you, like us, sense that we're making things harder right now by gorging on the relative security and insulation of college life while everyone else stares down a scary economy, let Fat Tuesday be your last gluttonous day and sober up with us as Lent begins.
Let's admit this is a critical issue, then conquer cumbersome economic terms to educate ourselves about what's going on.
We're sick of shivering.
But we also shiver to stop thinking about it because we realize our generation will inevitably be responsible for righting this upside-down world. What preoccupies us most right now is how seemingly ill prepared our generation is for the job.
Frowning, fretting and token saving aside, UA students - including us - still seem not to have grasped the magnitude of this economic turmoil.
But really, how could we?
Even economists are divided about this meltdown's causes and cures. And the sheer enormity of the monetary amounts Congress has tossed at banks, mortgage lenders and homeowners doesn't register as real. To us, it seems like Congress is playing with Monopoly money.
But they're not. And that frightening fact - that this economic crisis is real - calls for a mature response not only from politicians, but also from the students who will someday assume the roles of senators, representatives and Wall Street executives.
What would such a mature response be?
Truthfully, we don't really want to think about it. We'd rather be out partying for Mardi Gras.
But, just as, for some Christians, partying on Mardi Gras in no way negates the Lenten requirements of fasting and abstinence, for future U.S. leaders, ignoring the economic crisis now won't negate the need to address it later.
If, in order to stably and sanely address the economic crisis, students need to ignore it for a while longer, we understand. Sometimes, pigging out on sweets before we give them up softens our diet anxiety.
On the other hand, we fool ourselves when we think the memory of the pig-out will fortify us when we finally do enter the sweet-free phase. It never does. We crave sweets anyway. And, the gorging is never as good as we claim it to be, either - because we innately sense we're making things harder on ourselves.
So, if you, like us, sense that we're making things harder right now by gorging on the relative security and insulation of college life while everyone else stares down a scary economy, let Fat Tuesday be your last gluttonous day and sober up with us as Lent begins.
Let's admit this is a critical issue, then conquer cumbersome economic terms to educate ourselves about what's going on.
We're sick of shivering.
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