The Collegian

Issue date: 9/26/06 Section: Opinion

Old people should not be permitted to drive at night. Allowing the elderly to drive is a dangerous idea. You never know when they might crash into something and ruin the plans of an entire community.

This, of course, happened a few weeks back, on the night of the famed Oasis dance here at Saint Mary's. It was to be the big dance where everyone gyrates around in Ferroggiaro Quad to the latest crunk jams, sporting flashy Hawaiian shirts (or other, more creative outfits). Alas, this was not meant to be.

About two hours before the dance was to begin, the village of Moraga was stricken with a power outage. Apparently, a woman crashed her car into a power line, cutting the power to most of the town. Everything, from the Saint Mary's campus to the Rheem shopping center (the heart of the town, as I like to say) went out. Power came back off-campus around eight, but Saint Mary's remained in the dark. Program Board had to make the unfortunate declaration that Oasis was cancelled, much to the chagrin of most of the Saint Mary's community.

A lot of people were puzzled by this development, because the power came back to Saint Mary's around nine, when Oasis was scheduled to start. Really, though, Program Board had no other choice but to cancel it because paying the hired entertainment to sit around in the dark and wait for the power to come back on would not have been a very good idea.

As it was, it was somewhat of a tough situation, and it robbed Saint Mary's students from being given the opportunity to do something they do not normally do: get drunk, dance around, and make fools of themselves outside.

Normally, such activities are only carried out between the Triscuit walls of the dorms. To prevent the students from being able to do this in an outdoor setting is just unacceptable. For seniors such as myself, cancelling Oasis also means no more chances to watch aggressive security guards kick out wasted students, which was very entertaining last year. I guess I'll just have to wait until spring to witness that hilarity at Gaelstock.

Thanks to that old lady, though, my dreams (and those of many others) were crushed on that fateful Friday.

Saint Mary's does not need the Oasis dance party. Students drink and carry on regardless of the location. Perhaps the hired DJ and colorful lights make the event worth it, but those could easily be replaced by an iPod and someone's dorm room. While the Saint Mary's community was saddened over the cancellation of this sacred event, it really should not have been that much of a big deal. Students were undoubtedly looking forward to paying their five bucks, dancing around to songs everyone has heard a million times, and getting leid (in the Hawaiian sense). Thanks to the actions of one elderly woman, everyone's plans were ruined. Elaborate costumes had to be put away, hopes were dashed, and drinking plans had to be re-located to somewhere inside, rather than outside (unless you want to risk getting caught by P Safe). What a shame.

Let's just hope no terrible mishap has the same effect at the next Saint Mary's social gathering. We simply cannot tolerate any more heartbreak.

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