A sign appeared this week in a restroom in a university building where I teach and pee. It reminded me of Walter Lowrie.
“DO NOT throw gum or trash in the urinals,” the sign admonishes. “Please place all trash in the trashcans. Thank you!”
Translation: “Guys! Please stop being dopes. Have a nice day!”
Walter taught history at the university I attended. I majored in history, and he became my mentor.
Invoking such a man here may seem odd. I’m certain Walter, who died in 2010, wouldn’t object.
Walter taught a class in medieval European history, a class so small that professor and students met around a table for discussions he always made engaging. During one discussion, he explained how historians often must infer from scarce evidence to portray life hundreds of years ago.
He offered this example: A record survives of town leaders enacting a law barring the dumping of household chamber pots into streets from second-floor windows. What, the professor asked, can historians infer from that?
Uh … people were dopes?
Walter, we dopes are still at it.
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