It’s Saturday morning, about 4 a.m., when the fire alarm goes off. I’m taken from my dreams by the air-raid sirens and the urgings of my roommate.

“We’re evacuating the building,” he says.

From a haze of sleep, I respond, “Do I have to?”

My roommate shakes his head and walks out our door, perhaps more sensible than I, but no less annoyed.

The urgency intended by the alarms is dulled by the early hour as everyone in the building tramps outside.

No smoke pours out of the building, no one shouts or yells, so we lazily grab blankets or jackets and plod across the street. I’m thankful for the foresight to wear a sweatshirt and lined slippers — the night is cold.

We stand together, wrathful and tired, amid the flashing lights and siren calls. After about 10 minutes of shared commiseration and violent threats, an authority sounds the all clear, and we shuffle back to bed — nothing major.

Did I even need to get up? The whole affair seemed unnecessary, like abandoning a perfectly sea-worthy boat because someone shouted, “Water!”

Settling back into bed, I wished someone had discovered this was no big deal before pulling the alarm and ruining precious sleep.

I sense a blooming metaphor.

I wish the Arizona Legislature had taken a look around and remained calm when they heard state-budget alarm bells.

Instead, lawmakers pulled funding for Arizona schools — an action they, and nearly everyone else, now regret.

When deliberations over the state budget began, the first signs of the stimulus were just cascading over the horizon, and many pushed for a wait-and-see policy.

However, the conservative majority in the legislature decided waiting wasn’t an option and slashed into state services.

Well, the stimulus just arrived to help Arizona schools. Too bad the legislature decided not to wait — their rash cuts have made schools ineligible, based on the minimum funding levels required, to receive federal money.

Now, lawmakers in Phoenix are considering retuning funding to ASU and the other state schools in order to meet the stimulus requirements and grab the extra help.

Maybe we should have just stayed in bed.

No one can dispute the dangerous realties of a budget in freefall. The general attitude among lawmakers, both state and federal, has been to take action. However, the two levels worked in opposite directions.

While lawmakers at the federal level tried to push through help, believing most government services were too crucial to simply cut, state lawmakers simply cut them.

There’s an important difference between quick action and rash action.

Quick action is grabbing a coat before running outside. Rash action is running outside in your boxers.

Rash action may have left Arizona out in the cold before lawmakers truly understood the situation.

I’m not asking for clairvoyance, but simply ignoring the stimulus and proceeding to cut funding, particularly to higher education, shows an extreme lack of foresight.

It also shows where Arizona’s conservative lawmakers keep their values: In their fiscally minded constituents, not the state’s future.

Next time you hear an alarm and don’t act, please don’t blame Channing at channing.turner@asu.edu.