WAG - Mizzou Makes CNN
There we were, under the MORE TOP STORIES banner, next to the story about former Attorney General Janet Reno’s testimony. How’s that for fine company?
How’d we make the big leagues? By doing what many people do to get there, lie.
Well, I suppose it was only sending out an email instructing people to lie. No, this is not another wrinkle in the Ricky Clemons saga, though I feel we’re overdue for another twist.
This is a story concerning legacy, Greeks, and blood.
Almost sounds like the start to a Homeric epic? Not quite. It seems some startling details about an email sent out to sorority girls planning to donate in the Greek Week blood drive.
Here is a telltale excerpt from the questionable email:
“I don’t care if you got a tattoo last week — LIE … I don’t care if you have a cold. Suck it up. We all do. LIE … Even if you are going to use the ‘Do Not Use My Blood’ sticker, GIVE ANYWAY.”
Also:
"We're not messing around. Punishment for not giving blood is going to be quite severe."
As you might imagine, many people have taken an interest in this email.
Skipping the obvious sorority girl jokes, for I’ve heard too many lately, let’s cut to the core of the issue about the stakes involved.
It has been noted that MU has a lot of emotion and ambition wrapped up in the donating blood. The blood drive is one of the major scored events of the week, as evidenced by anyone who has watched the Greeks scour for blood volunteers on behalf of their house, and there’s a lot of personal pride involved.
Additionally, MU held the world record, according to the Guinness Book of Records, for a single day in 1999 where the campus drive took in 3,156 units of blood (a unit = 450 ml) -- enough to temporarily earn recognition from the as the largest single-site, single-day blood collection.
However, that record was recently trumped in India where a blood drive organized by Shah Satnam Ji Green 'S' Welfare Force Society held at Sachkhand Hall, Shah Satnam Ji Dham, India, on December 7, 2003, attracted a record 15,432 donors. The drive yielded 12,002 units in 12 hours.
We haven’t neared our record levels in years, for we always seem to run a few hundred short when it comes down to cases of usable blood. I wonder if this drive had a different, potentially looser set of requirements for donation – because we can afford to be stricter in the USA – but that’s just splitting hairs.
It has been suggested that the blood drive be separate from Greek Week in the future. My problem with that is that the numbers would probably drop. It isn’t fair that people do this for the wrong reason, but harnessing these people’s emotions and steering them toward good isn’t a bad thing.
Telling people to donate when they shouldn’t is ridiculous, and we’re going to pay for it for some time, but we shouldn’t forget the legitimate people who are trying to do the right thing. I don’t know if many people followed the idiotic directions of the email, due to matters of common sense or the follow up clarifying email that was quickly sent (though it didn’t stop the controversy), but I do hope it spurned people on to donate blood for the right reasons.
If anything, they might be the ones who help the people get in the right spirit of things, for there is room for friendly competition, and be of the right mindset next year.
We’re gunning for your record, Shah Satnam Ji Dham! And no simple-minded sorority girl controversy is going to stand in the way of my vein.
You’ve been warned.
'Wow_Some_do_try_to_squeeze_it_from_a_stone'
