Golf courses not as productive as gardens

Burn all golf courses! This idea may seem wrong and extremely radical, but for any human with a conscience, a soul and a love for humanity, this idea may not be so extreme after all. What wastes needed land, needed water and money for landscaping and maintenance? The epitomes of the leisured class, golf courses, are an entire waste of land, water and good. These wasted resources could be transformed into an oasis of humanity, given the right spirit.

I’m talking about community gardens. A community garden serves as and receives the fruits and vegetables in the garden without cost, save for a few hours of work a month, if any. In areas of high affluence, the garden supply would mostly be given to the local needy. There are over 34 million people in the United States below the poverty line. How many of these people would benefit from a healthy garden rather than resorting to the local “oh-so-healthy” McDonald’s?

Burning a golf course shouldn’t be considered an act of violence or destruction. A golf course needs to burn in order to let the land fallow — the land must recover from harsh pesticides and nutrient draining “care”.

The USF golf course would be a perfect example of how a community garden could work. Once fallowed, it could be designed, planted and harvested by students. This would even work great as a class — which is an excellent source of labor. The food could either be picked on site by students or made available without charge in the Phyllis P. Marshall Center. A large majority of the crop should go to the local homeless population.

There are a lot of homeless people in Tampa. USF could be a forerunner in the movement of community gardens. Instead of wasting millions of dollars in renovation and maintenance, we could be feeding our students whose only meals are often pizza and beer. We could be feeding our homeless, whose only meals are sweet smells coming from the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. We could spend more money on classes and education and take care of our fellow brothers and sisters. This movement exists in our hearts — recycling, conserving, donating, helping — the feeling of a better human world manifests. So I say, burn the golf courses, plant the trees, feed the hungry and bring humanity back into our city.

Anthony Schmidt is a junior majoring in anthropology.

A special thanks to the University Police

I would like to express gratitude toward the University Police for their work with residents whose vehicles, including mine, were broken into. The people responsible made off with audio equipment. I would like to thank all of them for their care, concern and hard work thus far and for their continued work to do their best to make sure that those responsible will have to face up to their crimes.

Every day, the UP continues to show professionalism and provide assistance and safety to students. Even though some– if not all — of the victims won’t get our audio equipment returned, I believe that we all have a greater appreciation for the UP and the work that they do — work that we see and do not see everyday.

So when you see one of their vehicles around campus, be glad that we have officers that care enough to take care of this campus and the students that go here. Also, if you have the time to stop by their base office and just say, “Thanks for all you do,” I know that they’ll appreciate it (they’re located on Maple across from the Greek houses and behind Auxiliary Services).

While I am on the subject of safety and crime, make sure to lock your doors, make sure that you make full use of any security devices you may have on your vehicle and follow any safety rules that you may get from Parking and Transportation Services or UP. Also, be sure to be on the side of safety when you go to wherever you call home.

Alex Wilhelmsen is a freshman majoring in mass communications.