One little thing before we turn off the lights and get out of here. I was hanging out with my old roommate Kirk this last weekend. He is doing his post-doc in Colorado about one hour from Littleton, Colo.

I was telling Kirk about the IRHA’s considerate gift of $2500 to the victims, and this raised an eyebrow.

Apparently, Littleton is a fairly affluent suburb of Denver.

Now, I am all in favor of gestures. In fact, I think our society would be a lot friendlier if people made gestures everyday besides the ones we make while driving.

I think tipping your hat and saying “please,” “thank you,” “sorry,” “excuse me,” “don’t mind if I do,” “Omigod, I think I hit someone with my bike” and “are you gonna eat your fat?” all contribute to a more polite society in which tragedies are less likely to occur in the first place.

Taking a moment of silence is appropriate regardless of your religion or personal philosophy, and if you are in a movie theater, for god’s sake, shut up!

I am all in favor of helping folks out, and when Christmas comes around, I am the first one digging in my pocket for change to give to the Salvation Army.

I spent last Thanksgiving volunteering at a church because making a gesture IS important and makes me happy and all warm and fuzzy.

But when the subject at hand is giving away IRHA funds to people who have suffered a tragedy, we need to be a bit more thoughtful and frugal.

The long and short of it is that the people of Littleton don’t need residence hall money — we do.

These are the same folks who decided that KURE didn’t need to get money from the halls because there was no obvious connection?

I’m sorry guys, but if you can see your way clear to giving a huge chunk of chance to strangers in Colorado just to make your consciences feel better, then you should be more than willing to fund a student radio station in Friley Hall that the entire university gets the use of.

The $2,500 will pay for nearly half of a funeral. As far as gestures go, this is a big one.

I don’t fault you for your compassion; I am impressed by it.

Maybe a radio station seems trivial in comparison to a high-school shooting. I don’t claim the two are in the same ball park.

But it is OUR radio station.

It’s a tradition at Iowa State.

It’s a valuable communications source and a training ground for those interested in communications.

This campus has gotten a lot of good use out of that station over the years, and to gut its funding like a trout so that we can all feel like we are doing something about a situation that we can do nothing about is foolish.

Well-intentioned but foolish.

I would urge IRHA to reconsider this donation.

I am sure there is something we can do to help the people of Littleton besides throwing money at them.

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Greg Jerrett is a graduate student in English from Council Bluffs. He is the opinion editor of the Daily. Remember to take your raincoat with you.