Laura Donovan's Blog

Today, five students wearing Arizona Environmentalist t-shirts stopped me and asked, “Excuse me, do you have five minutes for the environment?”

I do, in fact, care about the environment and over consumption, but I refuse to support any group that coats their questions with manipulation and guilt. If I were to say, “Sorry,” I sound spoiled and uninformed simply because I don’t agree with this manipulative tactic. It would be more polite and effective of an environmentalist to instead say, “Can I talk to you about the environment, please?”

As I walked past the Student Union Memorial Center with a friend, some guy with a clipboard approached us.

“Do you girls have a minute for the environment?”

“Sorry, we’re late for class,” I said truthfully.

“Seriously? That’s really bad.”

Do the Arizona Environmentalists expect students to respond positively to coercion and disrespect? I know it sucks to approach apathetic students on the mall. I’ve tabled for the College Republicans, but I’ve never scolded someone for declining my flyer.

Moreover, environmentalists have to realize that they can’t guilt trip others into caring about something. As my sagacious mother always says, “You can’t change people. You can only change the way you react to them.” Environmentalists can make up for the uninvolved by effectively seeking out those who actually want to save the world.

UA students de-iced their windshields before driving to campus at 7:30 this morning. Eager to hop on one of twenty-five shuttles to the Arizona Capitol in protest of the proposed 40% education budget cuts, Wildcats braved the 48 degree Tucson weather and woke up early to vocalize their objections in Phoenix.

Luckily, the Wildcats arrived at the Capitol in high spirits. The temperature was perfect, and ASU and UA students set aside all conflict for a few hours. Students didn’t make time for even friendly rivalry. For once, all three universities depended on each other to speak up.

Before setting foot on the state capitol, UA students practiced their chants and engaged in heated political discussion on the bus.

“[Students'] future doesn’t matter to older voters because they don’t have a future,” one student said, and History junior Samantha Gardner made a similar observation-

“The older voters complain about education taxes, but how are we going to get any smarter?”

“Save our schools, save our state,” students cheered as they marched to the protest, where some yelled with signs of high creativity and shock value.

An unidentifiable UA student held up a poster of a woman “pregnant” with the words “higher education” in her stomach. At her feet was a coat hanger. Among the hundreds of signs waving through the air, this one left a lasting effect on all students, many of which found it comical while I saw it as tasteless and inappropriate despite the drastic circumstances.

Most signs were clever while others got the point across in one four-letter-word: “F*** you, too.”

By 12:15, most students crowded around the stage, jumping and cheering in black t-shirts to Kanye West’s “Stronger” on the intercom. Moments later, the DJ played Will.i.am’s “It’s a New Day,” which is an homage to Barack Obama.

Most of the speakers were vehemently opposed to the proposed budget cuts, so the protest as a whole was made up of thousands of upset students and citizens, uniting together to save the future of Arizona higher education. In spite of the rage and frustration everyone felt, there were no fights, pushing, or shoving among protestors. Before the event ended, a group of NAU students gathered in a circle around the stage and danced.

NAU students didn’t want to leave, even as they were told they had two minutes to get to their buses. As soon as the D.J. stopped playing Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin,” NAU students flocked toward the street, UA students following close behind.

As superficial and vacuous as my fellow classmates sometimes seem, they truly surpassed my expectations at the Capitol today. Of all three Arizona public universities, the UA had the biggest student turnout. Regardless of what happens with the budget cuts, the Arizona Wildcats cheered the loudest and tried their hardest to fight against this absurd proposition.

After a terrorist attack, a war, an economic crisis, and a series of mishaps, George Bush will leave office with the lowest approval rating since Jimmy Carter’s presidency. He may have “run this country into the ground,” as many say, so Obama is expected to clean up the mess and save the world. How does he start his own presidency? By hosting the most expensive inauguration in U.S. history. What a wonderful way to fuel the bad economy.

The gathering will need top notch security, but Obama doesn’t need to show up in a Custom Cadillac Limo. If Bush’s inauguration cost $43 million, Obama has no reason to triple that number for his own, and Bush shouldn’t have had to announce a state of emergency to make more money available for Obama’s inauguration. If Obama is going to promise better education, a stronger economy, and a better lifestyle for the less fortunate, he should be ashamed of how unnecessarily pricey his inauguration is, even if he isn’t in full control of the costs.

US Airways is notorious for canceling flights, and the sister airline American West is often referred to as “America Worst,” so US Airways’s recent crash into the Hudson River as a reported result of a bird collision didn’t surprise me. At least everyone survived. There is no evidence that any birds were involved, and Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown told the Associated Press, “Right now we don’t have any indication this was anything other than an accident.” Could the airlines be using the “birds” as some sort of cop out?

Interestingly enough, my roommates and I had a discussion about plane crashes while watching Lost last night. I said it was impossible for a plane crash without any deaths. I’m glad to be proven wrong, and my Christian roots tell me that God was on the passengers’ side this morning.

It’s the weekend, meaning Obama’s fluffy news stories are slightly more acceptable. Yahoo! News published an article about Obama’s chili and sausage order at Ben’s Chili Bowl in Washington. Earlier today, The New York Times published an online article about Obama’s pricless Blackberry addiction. This is just today. Let’s not forget that his face is constantly plastered on the cover of celebrity gossip magazines such as People, Us Weekly, OK!, etc. There’s also the exploitation of his stable family.

Obama supporters have faith that he’ll change the world. This isn’t really possible if the media treats him as a celebrity and writes about his shallow behavior patterns, which most citizens have. I love going out to eat and staying connected with friends, but if I were a political official, I’d be embarrassed if renowned New York Times journalists only had my personal habits to write about.

Disclaimer: This is more of a personal blog entry than the others (besides the previous entry), but you may benefit from or agree with my observations about England and France.

I was only in each country for four days, but I gained a lot from the short period of time I spent in Europe. Even though I prefer the efficiency, pace, ethic, and lifestyle of the United States, I still think it’s valuable to travel to other places. If nothing else, one can appreciate where they come from after experiencing the different ways of foreign countries.

Restaurants, Food, Service, and Tipping

My mom hasn’t cooked in more than six months, so she was thrilled at the prospect of dining out for every meal. At our first restaurant, I ordered a small coffee. To my disappointment, it was watered down tremendously. Life everything else, coffee is different in other countries. Most places didn’t have drip coffee, which I’m addicted to, and any faithful coffee drinker knows that one shot of espresso in water doesn’t feed addiction.

The cooks and waiters take their time at restaurants, and meals generally last longer than they do in the United States. The waiters also refrained from handing the customer’s their bill. You have to ask for the bill because the waiters don’t discreetly say “you can leave now” as they do in America. This allows families to enjoy a meal, and it’s relaxing, but frustrating if in a hurry.

I was blatantly told that “customer service is not a part of [European] culture,” so I understand why tipping is unimportant. A British waiter said a 10% tip is considered generous, and no tip at all isn’t socially unacceptable or stingy. An Italian man told me that “Americans are such idiots for tipping the way they do.” I tend to agree with this. If tips are expected, there’s no incentive to give good service.

Walking

College students spend a lot of time walking. If they’re lucky and adventurous, they bike. This is considered sufficient exercise for students who don’t have time to do anything but study and imbibe heavily. I thought I walked a lot until I went to Europe, where the cities were designed for travel on foot. We walked about ten miles a day, and we walked quickly to distract ourselves from the 32 degree weather. We also walked on top of cold cobble stone roads, which require more energy to move past. It would be nice to have a walking culture over here. Everyone would be healthier.

Racism

Europe is widely known as socially evolved. Racism is still pervasive, however. Without generalizing too much, the people aren’t always quiet about their prejudices. One of our British cab drivers went off on a ten minute rant about all the unemployed mothers living in houses for free. He tossed me four articles about similar situations before screaming about his tax dollars going towards too many translators in England. He handed me a sheet with ten different languages on it, and he blamed the “dirty Muslims, Russians, and Indians” for all the unwanted immigration. Then he pointed to an apartment complex for the “greedy Indians and Muslims whose religious practices started the opening of Sunday stores.” There are crazy racists everywhere, but this person would not be tolerated in the US, and he’d surely get fired.

Behavior

We were the loud Americans in both countries, and we’re not very loud people. Everyone seemed pleasant and calm, but reserved. I’m not one of those Americans who speaks disparagingly of the French. Every French person I met was really nice, but I’m also familiar with the language. I spoke to them in French, and they were even polite to my mom who tried hard to speak the language, but just sounded ridiculous. An attempt seems honorable over there.

Languages

A lot of people complain about how uneducated Americans are. Europeans are often multilingual, so why can’t Americans master other languages? It’s easier for the Europeans to speak other languages. Spanish, French, Italian, and many other languages are spoken in Europe. English is the dominant language in the US. We border Mexico and that’s pretty much the only other language in proximity besides Canadian French. I’m sure we’d all speak more languages if we bordered other countries. There’s only so much you can learn in a classroom environment.

The most valuable skill I’ve gained in college is my ability to function off almost no sleep. It’s unhealthy, but extremely useful. It was helpful this past Monday when Continental Airlines delayed my flight for more than 24 hours and basically forced all passengers to spend the night at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

Continental Airlines flight #11 to Houston was scheduled to take off at 12:40 p.m. on Monday January 5, but we didn’t even board until 1:30 p.m., so the flight was going to be late redgardless. There was a light snowfall outside, but nothing that would close down an East Coast or Midwestern airport. The pilot said he couldn’t take off, so everyone sat on the jetway for about seven hours. The jetway workers outside were throwing snowballs at each other while passengers inside the plane complained that they hadn’t been fed.

After seven hours on an idle plane, the pilot decided to delay the flight until 11 a.m. the following morning, frustrating the 300 people with destinations and lives to get back to. Over the intercom, the flight attendant immediately said, “We will not be giving you vouchers for food or hotels. All the hotels in the surrounding area are booked up.” We later found out the Air France passengers got hotel vouchers, so the airport’s priorties became clearer.

Exhausted and insulted, my mom thought about  ditching the flight all together and going to London Heathrow  to fly back to San Francisco. It would have cost us, but my mom had a job to get back to after a 9-day vacation, and when there’s a will, there’s a way. We were trapped by Charles de Gaulle, however. The airport workers said a “technical problem”  prevented them from releasing our bags onto baggage claim, when in reality the staff went home after having snowball fights. We were stuck in Charles de Gaulle airport without bags, food vouchers, hotels, or the option of buying food at the airport (everything was closed). Everyone decided to sleep in the airport, which was unheated.  The airport put everyone in a dangerous position. It’s unsafe to sleep in an airport, not to mention uncomfortable.

The flight was delayed for more than two hours the following day. We sat on the jetway again and the pilot said we were experiencing “deja vu,” so I asked the flight attendant if we were going to get stuck at the airport for another night.

“Are we going to Houston or not?”

“That is the intention, yes.”

I told him that the airline was disrespectful and inflicting harm upon passengers, and he responded, “Customer service is not a part of this culture. This isn’t America. Sometimes planes go, sometimes they don’t. They go when they go in this country.”

After the flight took off, the attendant walked up to my mom, pointed to me and asked, “Is this your daughter?” When she said yes, he turned to me with his arms crossed and asked, “So, are you still mad at me or what?” It’s one thing to provide marginal service, but another to be rude and harass customers.

It would have been nice to know that service is unimportant in Europe, where passengers don’t have Passenger Bill of Rights like they do in the States. It kind of made sense while I stayed in the city, where a 10% tip is more than generous. I would still take efficiency over disaster any day.

The French passengers were pleasant and didn’t appear as angry as the Americans. One French man said to me, “I hope they don’t delay it another day. It wouldn’t be a good thing to miss another day of work.” The Americans said something along the lines of, “How can they do this to us? We’re missing work during an economic crisis.” It’s probably better to remain calm, but theres something to be said about being assertive and demanding respect.

Such airline disasters are rare, but they exemplify incompetence. Continental Airlines should have had a spare crew to fly us out to Houston. Instead, the crew sat on the plane until they reached a point in which they’d be working overtime if the flight actually took place. The airport can blame the weather, but other flights took off that night, and why were they willing to give Air France customers vouchers, but not customers using U.S. based airlines?

Flights get canceled all the time, and this isn’t the first time someone had to spend the night in an airport, but this wouldn’t have happened in the United States. Any U.S. airline would have at least provided vouchers of some sort, and the workers wouldn’t have packed up and gone to bed at 8:00 p.m.

This is an example of how a ridiculously slow pace can do more harm than good. Continental lost customers that night, and many people swore they would never return to France again. Everyone with jobs lost a day of work, and worst of all, their health was disrupted. Many complain about the workhorse ways of the United States and praise European idealism, but at least Americans don’t use slow pace as an excuse to mistreat people.