Is there really an honor code at Dartmouth? It is hard to believe how many students lack respect for their fellow classmates. Thievery of all levels occurs continously on this small cozy campus of ours. People say it is outsiders, but all in good faith, now I disagree.
Here we are in sophomore summer, with no one to blame but ourselves. Thievery within the dorms is not likely from outside sources. These are our own classmates, the people with whom we live that are not willing to show us the respect or decency one would normally assume from such intelligent people. I know that many of you are robbery victims as well. Most of you can probably relate to the anger, frustration, and desire for reconciliation felt when you have been ripped off, cheated, or stolen from. Many of you empathize with the disgust that our own buddies do this to us.
Stolen expensive goods hit us the hardest, but less blatant thievery commonly occurs as well. We cannot count on being able to use our provided space in the bathrooms of dorms. Some people like to call it "borrowing" for a permanent amount of time. My friend is the victim of a razor thief. Every time she brings a new razor to the bathroom, it disappears that very day. Her shampoo mysteriously dwindles much faster than she recalls using it. I understand that sometimes you may have just run out, so you "borrow" somebody else's, but every single day? We all have ID's; just go to topside and get your own razors, your own shampoo, and your own food.
Recently I had baked a lot of food, and left some of it in the dorm refrigerator for a few hours. During party hours, several people must have come in (because too much food was eaten for it to be just one) and scarfed all of the food. When I came in at three, all I found were crumbs from a previously large array and quantity of food that had been baked for a birthday. It was like the discovery of a dead carcass.
It was also the last straw. My bubble was burst and my anger exploded. Images of Arnold Schwarzenegger shot through my head, and my immediate impulse, of course, was to hunt them down and terminate their lives of thoughtlessness, disrespect, and thievery. I was positive that whoever had eaten my food was surely no homeless starving vagrant, stealing food as a last resort to wasting away.
I instead assume that it was a group of people who drunkenly wandered in with a case of the munchies, and were pleasantly surprised to find such delicacies awaiting them to aid their process of relief from intoxicated hunger. In this state, they probably found nothing wrong with eating someone else's food that had obviously taken a great deal of time, as well as money, to prepare. These thoughts likely did not even pass through their minds. Yet they still ate the food, and went to bed content, at other people's expense. I doubt they would have liked that to happen to them.
Where are some people's morals? Whether it is a $500 leather jacket or 75c razor, show respect for your fellow classmates. Be thoughtful, or at least pretend to be, in the pretense of caring about the people with whom you live and study. Think before you act. We all need to.
Here's my final thought for the week: If it is not yours, do not take it, eat it, borrow it, break it, hide it, keep it, or give it to someone else.
Just leave it for the person that owns it.
