All right, I’ve heard enough. I read about the restriction of all-you-can-drink specials at bars. I really don’t care whether or not you can drink until you puke. People are going to do that anyway, they just might have to pay more to do it if the city council gets their way.

Which gets to my point. The city government and the old-town citizens of Ames, are here to make a profit.

If the Government of the Student Body wanted to do something of substance, they should make a move to separate Campustown and Ames. Anything east of Elwood Drive, north of 13th Street, west of State Street or south of Highway 30 would stay city of Ames.

Anything inside would be Campustown. Maybe it would show the students, faculty and alumni of Iowa State University how dependent the full-time, long-time residents of Ames are on Iowa State.

I experienced first-hand how the old residents and business owners regard the university. I was thoroughly disgusted, and when I asked my boss why the company conducted business the way they did, he responded with an answer that really fit. He said, “We kiss our long-time customers’ asses and *%$# over the people from the school because they have nowhere else to go and because all of them will be gone in a few years.”

It occurred to me that Iowa State exists to provide education for people, and the surrounding city exists to take those people’s money.

Which is more than likely the way of things in all college towns. But what really pisses me off, even years later and thousands of miles away, is how the citizens of Ames hold themselves above the hand that feeds them.

People of Ames: You exist because of the university, not the other way around. Instead of bilking the drinking population that is the ISU student body or tossing them in the brig, pause. These drunken idiots are your meal ticket. Show some respect, give them a ride home and directions to your church.

Walt Shumate

Alumnus