What do you mean you may ask me about common sense and where it went? Sometimes I wonder if common sense is still in existence in our world today.
First, let me recount here something that happened almost a month ago at the Perdices Stadium oval. A friend asked if I had heard of an altercation between a boy and a girl relating to the use of the oval. It seems it turned into a physical argument, causing an uproar in the Stadium. Eventually, they both ended up at the Dumaguete police station.
Curious, I went straight to the Police station to find out what officially happened. I spoke to the on-duty officer who simply said he was not on-duty at that time, and didn’t know anything about it. (I could have easily looked at the blotter, the police charge notebook.) He rattled off some names of police officers who, he said, may have known about the situation.
I returned to the Police station the next day, and was fortunate enough to speak with the officer who was on-duty the night of the incident. According to him, yes, there was an altercation between a boy and a girl, and that they were able to iron out their differences, and departed without filing any formal complaint.
Again my question, where is common sense here?
So many times, I have personally observed individuals who seem oblivious of their surroundings, with a total disregard for athletes training at the oval.
You see, some athletes at the rubberized oval do what is called interval training. They run repeats of certain distances, such as 400 meters six times. They run at speeds much faster than most of the people using the oval. The purpose is to build up their strength for a specific event.
A problem arises when other people have no regard for these athletes, and will walk or slow jog wherever they want.
You see, athletes customarily use the innermost lane, called Lane 1 of an oval. Lane 1 is exactly 400 meters, and athletes also need to measure the time they run such distance.
Also last week, I observed two troubling instances: a toddler, about three years old, was roaming in and out of the lanes at the Perdices Oval, with runners speeding by her. The mother was nowhere in sight. Where is common sense?
Another instance a few days later, I encountered the same situation, this time it was a small boy. Again, no guardian in sight. So where really is common sense?
My friend Dario Endozo, a long-time triathlete who also writes for this paper, recently asked me where is what we call Track Etiquette?
I replied with a big laugh and just said, “In Dumaguete, wala!”
In the US, we learned the rules of the track early on, when we are doing our physical education in grade school.
The customary code of polite behavior at the Perdices Stadium Oval may be like: Be more mindful when a team is training. Run the right direction. At the Perdices Oval, it’s usually counter-clockwise. Be courteous to other runners by staying on your lane. When following another runner and you need your presence announced, feel free to holler, “on your left!” or “on your right!” Run with a buddy, not the entire class.
Those are simple behavior we can all practice at the track so no one gets injured while trying to live a healthy lifestyle.
But please do let me know if you ever find common sense.
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Author’s email: [email protected]