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       Most people turn to violence when something does not go          
 their way, or someone says something they do not agree with. It        
 does not take brains to solve a problem with your fists; it just makes
 people look immature, and uneducated. Fighting and violence is         
 more prevalent at Bloomsburg than in many of the students home         
 towns. It seems that people are to busy or to drunk to just sit down
 and talk things out like reasonable people.                            

       Violence plays a major roll in the novel Flatland. 
 It seems like someone is always disagreeing with someone, and creating a 
 conflict, as when the square resorts to violence by sending his        
 hardest right angle into a violent collision with the stranger, only
 because the square would not let himself be convinced of the           
 mysteries of Spaceland, or if an infant whose angle deviates by half a
 degree from the correct angularity is summarily destroyed at birth.
 If we destroyed all the mentally retarded people at birth because      
 they have flaws, and are not like everybody else, or if everyone       
 attacked people just because of something they said that we did not
 believe--if this happened all the time, we would completely destroy
 the world.                                                             

       The college scene is really horrible when it comes to violence.
 Members of fraternities and sororities are terrible at staying calm,
 and controlling their temper, because of alcohol, and other drugs.     
 When a person drinks he becomes this monster of violence, a            
 fighting machine. People lose all senses of right and wrong when       
 they have the beer muscles on. A slight bump of the arm at a party     
 can trip the switch of a drunk, violent person. Even the weakest       
 person can experience this amazing feeling of power if she drinks      
 excessive amounts of alcohol. In small towns about the only            
 violence there is to see is in the bars, and taverns. Usually it is the
 uneducated, lower-class people just blowing off a little steam. Life
 in a small town is for the most part simple. People get up in the      
 morning go to work every day, and then come home to the same           
 people and have dinner. Most people in a small town know each          
 other fairly well, and sometimes even call each other by their first
 name, but the one thing that is nice about a small town is that most
 of the time people can solve their problems with words rather than     
 violent actions. Do not get me wrong, every body sometimes has         
 the urge to just flatten somebody else.                                

       One of my best friends from home was up here at Bloomsburg       
 University for a weekend visit. We made plans to out to a fraternity
 party with a couple of my newly made friends. The party itself was     
 fine, but on our walk back to my dorm room my friend was jumped        
 by three frat brothers that belonged to the fraternity that we had     
 just left, for no reason at all. These guys did not just punch him a
 few times, they literally used his face for a punching bag, and their
 was nothing I could do to stop it. This brutal beating probably         
 would not have taking place if alcohol was not involved. Without        
 the alcohol these guys probably would not have been so angry, and       
 bored enough to just beat up on some innocent bystander.                

       Everywhere college students are being lectured by highly          
 qualified people, in college orientations, and in classes such as       
 Psychology, and child development. Students are given handouts of       
 all kinds, an the only thing these handouts are good for is kindling
 for a campfire. College students need to be shown something tragic,     
 something that will stick in their minds for the rest of their lives.

       Rape is on the uphill on college campuses. It is a proven fact
 that when a guy gets a couple drinks in him he begins to bet rather     
 friendly with the female race. This is also true for females, when      
 they become intoxicated they like to dance, and even flirt around a     
 little. This is not a bad thing as long as both people understand the
 limitations, but as soon as one person disagrees with the other, this
 is when the violence begins. Males all of a sudden forget what the      
 word no means, and end up in court because he just could not stop       
 himself, and a female is practically helpless in this situation. This is
 the kind of situation that should be shown at orientation, not just a
 handout of five or six pages on why alcohol, and drugs are bad for      
 you.                                                                    

       It seems to be the cool thing to do when college students get     
 drunk to drive around and have a good time, but after all the fun is
 over someone usually ends up in the emergency room. It happens          
 all to many times in college, one gets to graduate, and tell the story
 to the new freshman class on how his best friend went out and got       
 drunk, and tried to drive a car. The one who graduates also gets to     
 live with the painful memory of helping kill his best friend            

       It is a proven fact that on a college campus individuals are      
 going to consume alcohol responsibly, and irresponsibly. Those          
 people who do it irresponsibly are the people we need to watch for;     
 they are the people who will pick fights, or cause trouble. These       
 people live by the same rules as the square in Flatland did. They are
 stubborn, and self centered, and nobody is going to change their        
 minds.                                                                  

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