January 27, 2009

I hear them trying the door. I hear futile beeping as student I.D.s swipe hopelessly against impotent entry swipers. I hear shoes against metal door frame, deep-throated groans. I am not sure where my moral responsibility lies in this matter. The residents of my dormitory ("Courts Hall" as they refer to it in university-issued marketing material) have been locked out of our most convenient points of entry for days now. The result of either a computer glitch or the hyper paranoia of a secluded campus in Tennessee facing Code Orange security status, these "swipers" allowing students dorm entry after 10:00 PM provided they possess the appropriately coded key card just don't work. The doors stay locked both day and night. Mine is the room closest to the door. The noise I hear as I sit at my desk attempting to prove the validity of certain logical mathematical arguments is unpseakably annoying. At the premier sounds of disgruntled Courts residents, I popped up from my spot and allowed them in (doors will open for exiting purposes only). But days later I sit, hardened. I ask these folks silently to read the Crayola marker text on a large piece of orange construction paper taped to the door they so feverishly battle: "USE FRONT DOOR."

I don't know what this says about my progress with that thing called peaceful coexistence.