Some Ohio college students want to carry guns on campus

The Columbus Dispatch had a story on Tuesday 10/23 about a protest from some students who want to be able to have concealed weapons on campus. When Ohio adopted a concealed carry law they exempted university and college campuses. Students who feel such a prohibition is wrong, protested by wearing empty gun holster around campus.

“You can carry (a gun) in several places, but Ohio prohibits you from carrying at a university or college,” said [Evan] Peck, a senior majoring in math and sociology.

“But this campus is the one place where I spend the most of my time, and I should be able to protect myself.”

Mark Noble, a National Rifle Association instructor, said he hated leaving his gun in his car when he took classes at Ohio State.

“Thieves know that if you are a student, then you are not allowed to carry a weapon and so they’ll target you,” said Noble, 31, who graduated in June and is the chairman of the Franklin County Libertarian Party.

“But if they changed the law, then thieves wouldn’t know who is armed and they would move on to other targets.”

Protesters want guns on campus 

I don’t see the point to it.

It seems they believe that we are still in the Wild West. I lived in the campus area for about 6 years and never once felt a need to have a gun or carry a gun. I was never bothered or attacked. There aren’t bad guys waiting behind every bush.

It just seems a bit childish as if carrying a gun is like some kind of gage of manliness or something. It would be better to just get a tattoo. Besides unless the person is ex-military or a frequent hunter I doubt people carrying their guns would even be the deterrent they think they would be.

Ohio State Final Four Then and Now

The Ohio State Buckeyes men’s basketball team has made it to the 2007 Final Four to take place in Atlanta this coming weekend.

I hope they make it to the final and they win it all. The best match up would be Florida vs Ohio State but they have to take care of Georgetown first.

Some sports reports have said this is the first final four for OSU since 1999 – which is technically correct. However, recruiting violations by the former coach caused the NCAA to force Ohio State to vacate that records related to that appearance so in essence that appearance doesn’t exist. (see: Ohio State University and Former Men’s Basketball Coaches Penalized for Infractions)

The last official final four for Ohio State was 1968. The starting 5 on that team were Bill Hosket, Steve Howell, Dave Sorenson, Jody Finney, and Denny Meadors.

Hosket has been involved in broadcasting Buckeye games and is still well known to OSU fans from that era and today.

Dave Sorenson is a name I know well. He attended Findlay High School before going to Ohio State. He was twice named first team All-Buckeye Conference, was Ohio Player of the Year 1965-66, and was named Buckeye Conference MVP. He remains among FHS’ all-time leaders in career, season and game scoring.

At Ohio State he ended his collegiate career (1966-1970) 2nd in scoring (8th all-time) and rebounds (7th all-time) behind the great Jerry Lucas. Sorenson also scored the winning basket that beat Kentucky in the 1968 Southeast Regional Final and was named that region’s Most Outstanding Performer.

Sorenson was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers and played for them until 1972 before joining the Philadelphia 76ers for a season. He also played in Europe before returning to Ohio.

Sorenson died from cancer in 2002 at the age of 54.

So as a tribute to Dave and Ohio State and their visits to the NCAA Final Four, I added Dave to my Famous Findlayians page.

Thanks to Kathy for reminding me about Dave

How I lost my virginity in the College Republicans

I friend of mine posted a link to an article about College Republicans:

Swimming with Sharks: In the College Republicans, young GOPers learn to fight hard against Democrats–by practicing on one another. 

The article describes the tactics CRs learn and use for the campaigns of the Chairman of the group and how it seems real familiar to those who follow real elections.

It reminded me of my short stint with CR back in the mid 1980’s and I thought I would share my story:

I grew up in a white bread conservative town where most of the city and county leaders were Republicans. Most of my friends in school were sons and daughters of Republicans. Even though the GOP didn’t really do anything for me as someone who was poor, lived in a trailer, and was on welfare from time to time, this was the Reagan Era and everyone was in love with the old coot.

I went to Ohio State in the fall of 1986 and when I made the move I wanted to be more political. Naturally I joined the College Republicans. It included the sons, daughters, nieces, and nephews of the big wigs of the Ohio GOP. The vice president of the group was the son or grandson of a former congressman.

I attended my first meeting and found someone else from Findlay there. In fact Jim was in my class at Findlay High. Not much about the meetings really stick with me other than at the time there was a governor’s race. Jim Rhodes, one of the most famous modern Ohio governors was trying again to be governor. Ohio had term limits and so he had to sit out for 4 years while his Lt. Governor – Democrat Richard Celeste ran the state.

Celeste was the last Lt. Governor from an opposite party as the constitution had changed to allow the Governor to pick their own Lt. Governor rather than the previous lesser vote getter getting the job.

Rhodes picked a youngster (compared to him) named Bob Taft to be his Lt. Governor. Yes, THAT Taft family – President, US Supreme Court Judge, two US Senators.

The OSU College Republicans invited Taft to speak at a meeting.

The day came and people filed into the classroom being used for the meeting and just before the event started a guy wearing an Army jacket and sandals sat in the back of the room. The CR suits were buzzing about this “hippy” in their mists but for the moment they left the guy alone. The meeting was public after all. They didn’t want any bad PR.

So Taft was introduced and began to speak about what he and Jim Rhodes would do to the state if elected. It was the usual “create jobs by cutting taxes.” A couple of minutes into the talk the “hippy” pulls out a sign from under his coat and holds it up. He doesn’t say anything. He just holds the sign up in protest. (I forget what the sign said but it was opposite what the GOP stood for of course.)

CR goons swarmed the guy looking like they were going to beat the crap out of him but Bob Taft told the guys to back off and let him protest – that he wasn’t afraid.

During the rest of the talk there were 3 goons standing near the guy staring at him waiting for him to do anything more than hold the sign. Taft finished with some Q & As then the meeting broke up into small talk. That’s when the “hippy” left.

Most of the chit chat was about the protester. “How dare he disrupt our meeting.” “We need to keep the riff raff out.” “Can you believe it, sandals AFTER labor day.”

It was on that day that I started not to have good vibes about CR or Republicans. I didn’t want to be part of a group that tried to control speech or who had shallow ideas about people. I was a poor person from a trailer – just image what they would say about me if they found out.

The other incident that finally caused me to quit CR was the OSU group sponsored a Reagan Birthday Party event as a fundraiser for CR and way for GOP members to mingle with the CRs. It seemed too much to me like when the Nazis use to celebrate Hitler’s birthday. They would sing songs about the fatherland and have a big cake.

Also being exposed to different viewpoints at Ohio State, I learned how closed minded and insular my hometown had been as I was growing up. It had been that way all along but I really didn’t see until I contrasted it with living in Columbus and meeting so many different people with so many different backgrounds. For example: I was shocked to learn that in other areas of the state there was subsidized housing. We were stuck living in a trailer for years because Hancock county had one apartment complex that was subsidized and the wait list stretched into years.

I didn’t go and join the College Democrats though because of my bad experiences with Political Correctness. That is another story.

My friend Jim stayed in CR and last I heard, after college, he was legal counsel for a state agency under former Governor George Voinovich (now our US Senator). Me, I worked as a security guard for a property management firm.