The Voice - Student Newspaper

Spitting is not cool, it's hazardous

By Mary Allan
Reporter, The VOICE

Spitter! Hello, Swine flu!

I am so mad I could spit!

This was one my genteel mother's favorite sayings, and when she said it, you knew she was mad, because in her day civilized people did not spit.

My, how times have changed, and not always for the good.

It seems that spitting has become an acceptable form of expression on the Glendale Community College (GCC) Campus because people are doing it all the time.

As I walk along the sidewalks at school, I find myself weaving, trying to avoid little puddles of spit. Not that I think stepping in spit will make me sick. In fact, studies have shown it is not any worse that sneezing in spreading germs.

However, it can be bad enough with TB being a contagion that can infect when airborne.It just seems ooogey stepping in it. Nevertheless, germs are part of the point. Nowadays there is much emphasis on doing what one can to avoid illnesses. Antibacterial products. Coughing in your sleeves, encouraging ill people to stay home from school and work.

I can have some sympathy if an ill person shows up to work,

I have been there. If a person accidentally sneezes and does not have a hankie ready, well I guess I can cut them some slack.

However, spitting is not accident, is a premeditated offense, and not forgivable as far as I am concerned. Spiting has been a form of expression for centuries; it was always considered a form of insult.

You can find inference to being insulted by being spat at in the Bible and in classic literature.

Now, when the GCC students in question (mostly young men) spit, they generally are not spitting at people.

However once you let one fly, you do not know where it is going to land. So why spit?

I cannot believe all these people are chewing tobacco. I think that spitting has taken the place of cigarettes is connoting a bad boy image. Moreover, since cigarettes are falling out of favor with just about everyone, things are changing.

Gone are the days when dangling cigarettes from the lips ala Bogie-style are sexy, or does flicking your cigarettes before one stomps away or smacks some guy in the jaw mean you are tough. Nowadays just spit to look cool.

Well whatever the reason is, stop it! It is disgusting! It looks bad, sounds bad; it is offensive and harmful, the H1N1 Virus is usually spread in airborne droplet.

And in this day of the swine flu pandemic spitting in any direction should be a crime.

Please send comments to mallan@gccvoice.com