Photo of the Day, November 20, 2009: Red Leaf
Bite Size News, November 20: Who Needs The Money? Edition
Boston Seventh Strangest City in U.S.
Friday Happenings
Now that a partially dissolved piece of sodium metal has been deemed the culprit in the burning of several Charles River cleanup volunteers, the local news is playing up the MIT ritual known as the "sodium drop."
MIT students like to drop stuff. Sometimes they drop pianos. In this case, at the start of each school year, students get the sodium from somewhere on campus, tote it to the Longfellow Bridge, and drop it bit by bit into the Charles. The sodium ignites upon contact with water, and the fire is pretty.
After hearing about what happened to the cleaning crew, WBZ took it upon itself to tell the fire marshal about what the MIT whippersnappers were up to.
The sodium drop has been a source of controversy for a while. Back in 1997, Michael Halle, a former student wrote an editorial declaring "Charles Deserves Respect, Not Sodium." Halle argues that it's taken a lot of hard work to get the Charles clean (or at least clean enough for the Charles River Swimmers), and MIT students need to respect that fact:
There's no denying the human fascination with things that burn or blow up: it seems to come from somewhere deep inside the soul. But when the pursuit of that fascination results in the pollution of the environment, or the death of aquatic life due to the percussive force of underwater explosions, the cost of fun becomes too high.
A video of the Sodium Drop had been removed from YouTube. They forgot to take it down from Google video, however.
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Playing up is a rather tame description. Borderline sensationalism is more like it.
Granted this incident was unfortunate and those who organized it should be held responsible should they be found out(like any other incident which is the direct cause of someone's action), the eco-nuts are really taking this as some sort of personal insult, which they are only doing because every Boston news network is plastering this story all over the plac.e
Thus is the sad state of modern society - let one mishap occur, no matter how long you have been in operation, and people emerge from the depths of the Charles for the sole purpose of cutting you down.
Sensationalism? Please. I don't think people are reacting too strongly to this incident at all. The so-called brightest minds of our generation are dropping something that explodes into our city's river every year with the consent of not only MIT, but the city's police and fire fighters, as well?
How is continued coverage of the incident, the public's interest in answers, and concern for a river many of us have worked hard to protect, "sensationalism"? People were hurt as a result of this tradition. Damage was done to the Charles River Cleanup Boat, which is out there doing what everyone says should be done, but very few actually do -- clean our river. (Taking care of your environment does not make you an "eco-nut," for god's sake.) As a leading educational institution, MIT has a responsibility to make it clear to their students and to the public that playing with exploding things is not acceptable -- and that goes double for the police and the fire fighters that condoned this annual event. Clearly, they did not have the situation "under control" this year.
People who prize maintaining tradition over listening to logic and reponding sensibly are dangerous, stupid people.
Before you go too far overboard about how terrible it is to pollute the river, keep in mind that the byproducts of the chemical reaction are extremely benign, especially in the quantities we're talking about.
Also, playing with exploding things is totally acceptable when done with adequate safety precautions. In this case, perhaps more precautions are needed, but there's no reason the event can't continue.