Bai Cost of coffee and doughnuts too high Ban drive thrus, save hidden costs By Trevor Doré, Opinions Editor im Horton’s has truly created TT: monster. They have found a way to get people to line up daily, simply to buy a coffee and doughnut. To see this monster in living colour, you don’t have to look any further than right here on campus. Some days, the line up for the Tim Horton’s counter extends all of the way through the cafeteria doors. Students and teachers alike are willing to be a couple minutes late for class as long as they can get their fix. I do understand that some people need a coffee in the morning. Without it, they are simply not able to function, communicate with others, reason or go about their everyday routine. I do not, however, understand the line up. Why do people continue to stand in that ridiculously long line up? It happens at every Tim Horton’s across the Lower Mainland and probably across the entire country. their cars? Is it because they don’t want to get out of their vehicle and enter the cold B.C. climate? Or, perhaps they are simply too lazy. Than again, maybe the real reason is because it is still too early in the morning; they haven’t had their coffee and are therefore unable to reason. Tim Horton’s provides a drive thru, so why not use it? If only these people knew that if they simply got out their vehicle and walked into the store to make their purchase, they would be in and out in half the time. Instead, they idle their vehicles while they wait for their caffeine fix. This idling is not only harmful to the environment, it is also a supreme waste of time. We already complain about having to wait in gridlock traffic and the effects that it has on the environment, the economy and society. So why wait in a drive thru line up? Just think about what could be accomplished if we added up all of the time spent in the drive thru and spent it with friends and family, We already complain about having to wait in gridlock traffic and the effects that it has on the environment, the economy and society. So why wait in a drive thru line up? Thankfully, unlike many other locations, the campus Tim Horton’s does not have a drive thru. If you have driven by a Tim Horton’s on your way to school in the morning, you will know exactly what I am talking about. Inside the shop, Tim Horton’s employees work frantically to fill orders and divvy out the black stuff, while there is not a single customer in sight. This is because all of the customers are sitting in the drive thru line up. Waiting cars often number in the tens and twenties. Bumper to bumper, they sit, waiting for their coffee and doughnut. Why do these people sit in 16 exercising or even working. Drive thrus also increase the actual cost of coffee and doughnuts. While we might not see this increases reflected in the final price, it will be reflected in damage to the environment, the economy and society. While doing away with coffee and doughnuts would be a travesty, banning drive thrus might be a good way to cut down on the damage. Another solution may be to add an extra fee for every drive thru order. Why not create incentives for people to walk, instead of drive through. And while we’re at it, why not also encourage the use of reusable coffee mugs? By Shane Scott-Travis, Nexus (Camosun College) VICTORIA (CUP)—“I met Death today, and we are playing chess,” says a steely Max von Sydow in Ingmar Bergman’s classic 1957 film, The Seventh Seal. lf only death—thought to be one of our greatest mysteries — could be solved in such an imaginative and imperative scheme as chess. Death has, without exception, always been a fixation of the Western imagination. Our artists and philosophers have battled and braved its beauty and heartache to no end. Our most popular religions are, in many ways, lauded death cults promising an affluent afterlife, with fear of eternal damnation thrown in for added zip. Romantic and starry-eyed notions of death are misrepresented in most schools of religious thought. This is particularly true in Christianity, where a desire for death is sublimated and visualized in iconic figures like Jesus Christ, who, as a martyr, experiences glorification and transcendence after dying. “I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work,” Woody Allen has famously said. “I want to achieve it through not dying.” While it’s deeply rooted in our makeup and our survival mechanism to fear death, it doesn’t necessarily Don’t fear the Reape r follow any logical design to hold such apprehension and unease. A little levity, as Allen suggests, can be useful. Throughout history most people have believed that after we cast off this mortal coil, we are reborn. This may not be the most rational of beliefs, but it comforts a lot of people, and it sure soothes the sting of losing those you love. We endlessly beat ourselves up over ideas of oblivion, big thoughts on blackness and saying our goodbyes. What if we’d been conditioned from infancy to embrace the grave instead of fear it? Imagine if our parents and public schools had insisted that death is a natural and not disagreeable process, that it be discussed and deflated? If this belief were in place from the kick- off, would there be a single one of us unprepared to grieve when we lose a loved one? All the emotions of lament and loss and the ethereal bottom line would be eased and excised. Monotheistic religions such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam are largely occupied with control, despotism and influence. Some religious groups—like Catholicism— control choice, conception and death until it’s something akin to fanaticism. Dictating choices on abortion, prolonging death and using words like “sacrament” are all casualties before literal lives are lost. Circling the body on its deathbed like carrion birds, demanding repentance, seems spiteful, doesn’t it? And to what end? Our most run-after religions, movies and television shows affirm again and again a fear of death and with it a rancorous alienation that is, quite frankly, absurdity and applesauce. “For those who seek to understand it, death is a highly creative force,” said the late psychiatrist Elisabeth Kiibler-Ross. “The highest spiritual values of life can originate from the thought and study of death.” Now, finally, that’s something constructive to kick around before giving up the ghost.