On Mar. 27, 2008 Josh Waggoner, a 17 year old rollerblader from Decatur, Georgia, died from a severe head injury he suffered while attempting to grind a handrail on his skates. Josh Wagonner is the second stunt rollerblader to die from a head injury in the last decade. The other rollerblader, Richard Taylor, died several years ago when he tried to swerve away from a moving car while speed skating down a steep and curvy hill. Neither Taylor nor Wagonner were wearing helmets.

From ages 12-17, my life was about rollerblading. I skated my practice rail for hours on end every day after school, and the skate park was my sanctuary on the weekends. During my five years of rollerblading, I only wore a helmet for the first year and a half. Turning 13 years old meant not wanting to look like a little kid on skates anymore. Therefore, I buried my helmet in the bottom of my backpack.

It was harder to get away helmet-less at the skate park; so fortunately, my head remained protected there. From ages 14-17 I suffered three concussions, all of which (luckily) took place at various skate parks where I was required to wear my helmet.

I also suffered from several broken bones while street skating without my helmet. I broke my right ankle, my right leg, and fractured both my wrist and my tailbone.

While I also remained aware of the great risk that I was taking by not wearing my helmet when skating, I also managed to put the danger factor out of my mind, and convince myself that I was untouchable.

I’d think to myself: a broken bone here, a mild concussion there, I’m still alive today, and no one’s keeping score.

I don’t want to keep a helmet-less rollerblader/skateboarder death toll score on this campus, but sometimes I fear I may be forced to start.

Guilford’s campus is filled with steep, winding brick paths that rollerbladers, skateboarders, and longboarders alike speedily zip down every day. And now that it’s spring and the weather is lightening up, more skaters seem to be cruising down these paths every day. And it gets worse.

If you were looking for proof that this generation of technologically advanced multi-tasking is going to manage to kill us all, then look no further. Not only are these skaters mindlessly riding around without helmets, they are more oblivious to their surroundings than ever as they text message and make phone calls while swerving around innocent bystanders.

Once again, I find myself puzzled by an illogical paradox of conflicting ideologies/lack of common sense at the uber-socially conscious Guilford College. Often times, there seems to be an inherent disconnect that exists between passionately caring for the oppressed and underprivileged, and simply taking care of ourselves, the (relatively) privileged college students.

We’re preaching about stopping genocide in the Sudan, we’re protesting the war in Iraq, we want to elect a President who’s going to provide universal healthcare. Yet, at the same time, we fail to take the most basic safety precautions when it comes to preserving our own lives.

In sum, helmet-less skaters, I ask you this: please forfeit buying booze for a couple of weekends and invest in some protective head gear.