It’s one of those things I never thought I’d write. All of the times I thought I might find myself writing this sentence, I said to myself, “Tosh, Jeff, you’re being silly.” And yet, I cannot escape the conclusion that I have reached. I must ask you, please, when you read what I have to say, that you consider my judgement sound and my taste solid.

Ready?

Hot Fuzz is, on every level, better than Shaun of the Dead.

I know, I was surprised too. Pleasantly, of course — it can’t be a bad thing to have your expectations blown away. Would this be a good time to go ahead and mention that the remainder of this post might or might not contain spoilers for the film? Consider yourself warned, anyway, because, yes, it does.

(Yes, it does contain spoilers, I mean).

Wow. What a great and wonderous film. It’s like they took all the good stuff of Shaun of the Dead, quadrupled it, then smashed it all into a movie that is, despite not being about zombies, much gorier. I found myself on the edge of the seat for most of the film, laughing, guffawing, and having a great time. There are things about the film I didn’t get — half a dozen blokes going ape on a sneezeguard with machine guns and shotguns can’t smash it, but a train of grocery carts shatters it into thousands of pieces? — but there were things I thought touching: like the fact that Danny’s flat is a wreck … except for his clean and tighty DVD closet. Score!

I’d really like to go see this film again before it is out of theaters. Did I mention it was laugh out loud funny? Well, it was.

That’s the headline of an editorial by Jennifer Baker in the Towerlight this week.

I’ve never been so disappointed in Towson University as I was this past week. I’ve always known that Towson has been a school lacking in school spirit. However, I never would have imagined the lack of caring this past Friday.

Virginia Tech alumni and students declared this past Friday “Maroon and Orange Affect Day” - a day were students were supposed to wear maroon and orange to show their support for those attempting to deal with the tragedy that happened at Tech. As I looked out my window, maybe one out of every 30 students was wearing maroon and orange. The faculty that I saw seemed to be wearing every other color of the rainbow.

Especially given the fact that this past Friday was also Destination Towson, you would think that the University would have made a larger deal out of showing that this school cares about the events that occurred. No such luck. Even the chairs of the academic departments were lacking support.

As I sat down last Monday watching the events unfold and talking to my friend at Tech, I was worried that students at Towson would let this go unnoticed. These fears were diminished when I heard that The Towerlight was going to have very thorough coverage. But with limited circulation, the efforts they put in were cut short. I know that if I had not heard about the issue through Facebook, I would not have sought out a copy, and probably would not have received one.

Perhaps you may not understand why I am so upset about this since we are Towson students, not Virginia Tech students. But think about this: If the headlines said “Massacre at Towson,” how would you feel if no other schools wore black and gold? And yes,
this could have happened here. It could have happened anywhere.

And here, my pathetic response:

Dear Jennifer,

If the massacre happened at Towson, I really don’t think I’d care much who if anyone chose to wore black and gold on some random day chosen to show support. Then again, it might depend on whether or not I was dead. And if someone I knew or cared about had died in this hypothetical massacre at Towson, I don’t know that seeing people wearing Towson’s school colors would really matter a great deal to me one way or the other.

I wasn’t on campus Friday, so I don’t know how many people weren’t wearing VTech’s colors. I worked. And I didn’t wear maroon and orange. I don’t have many clothes in those colors (maroon means red, right?), but just because I wasn’t wearing my heart on my sleeve (proverbially or literally as you will) doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about it, or thinking about the possibility it might happen someday on Towson’s campus, or how such random violence could, possibly, in the future, affect my life.

No, Jennifer, it doesn’t. What’s the saying? Judge a person by their actions and not their words? In this case, you have to judge a person not by their actions (not wearing VTech colors) but by their heart. I realize you’re probably not psychic, and probably can’t look into people’s hearts, but from my experiences on campus last week, a lot of people have VTech on their minds, and in their hearts.

Does it surprise you that the outward acknowledgement of the massacre might be lacking? For all our bluster and jokes about the massacre in my classes, all of this masked a deep worry that such a tragedy might someday come to Towson — after all, we’re on a college campus not much better protected than VTech’s was. Don’t think the thought isn’t running through everyone’s mind on campus: could this happen to us? As you point out, of course it could. Do you really expect people to drag this out of the deep dark closets of our inner-psyches and display it for everyone to see? Doubtful.

-Me

Your Personality is Very Rare (INFP)

Your personality type is dreamy, romantic, elegant, and expressive. Only about 5% of all people have your personality, including 6% of all women and 4% of all men You are Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving.

I do enjoy being nice and unique … or, failing that, “very rare” works too …