| Moving Ahead Community looks to begin healing
Tomorrow will mark one week since the shooting at Wedgwood Baptist Church. And as hard as it is to believe, the world keeps going, the shattered pieces are being put back together and people move on, stronger and wiser. Our lives will forever be changed by the tragic events that occurred so near the TCU campus. The safe, little bubble we created was penetrated and students, staff and faculty felt the pain. This time, it wasn't some nameless town. It was Fort Worth, just seven miles from our campus. For some, the healing process will take longer than others. But regardless of how long it takes, closure must be reached. Fort Worth started its slow procession toward healing Sunday, when a citywide memorial service was held at Amon Carter Stadium. Religious leaders from throughout Fort Worth offered support and guidance for those affected by the shooting. The university followed suit when flags were returned to full staff Monday. The Delta Gammas begin their own journey today, as well. They are dedicating Anchorsplash, their week-long philanthropic event, to the memory of their sister, Kim Jones. "This week is dedicated to her," said Natalie Franks, DG public relations director. "This is one of the ways that we've chosen to move on and keep her in our thoughts." This event left a gaping hole in our community. With time, the wound will heal, and the pain will lessen. Until then, we must continue to support our brothers and sisters who are grieving.
Gender plays role in violence When it goes off, the alarm rudely interrupts your peaceful slumber but only for a few minutes until you roll over and hit the snooze button. At last you can close your eyes again. But just as you get comfortable, the alarm goes off again, jarring you into yet another routine day. While you're getting ready, the morning disc jockey interrupts the selection of top 40 billboard hits to bring you news of another school shooting. "Damn," you think, as you continue ironing your khaki pants. "It happened again." Two boys in Jonesboro, Ark., killed five people and wounded 15. Two teenage boys killed 15 people, including themselves, in Littleton, Colo. Here in our own backyard, one man gunned down seven people at Wedgwood Baptist Church during an area-wide youth rally. And the stories go on and on, back into the archives of yesterday's news and tomorrow's distant memories. The newspaper reports are all but predictable. A two-page photo spread shows teenage girls sobbing in each other's arms; teenage boys usually too proud to hug their own mothers are brought to their knees in anguish and absolute grief. But amidst the reports of social outcasts and vicious revenge, there seems to be a recurring theme among these abhorrent murders: All the attackers are male. We then search for a scapegoat; we blame the parents of the murderers, the peers, the media. We cover our eyes and point our fingers at anyone but ourselves. Perhaps these crimes are the result of the upbringing of American children. While girls are playing Barbie and taking ballet lessons, little boys are playing with toy guns and fighting on playgrounds. Doesn't anyone else see a problem with this? Granted, not all girls have Barbie dolls, and not all boys play with plastic weapons, but how many fathers drop off Junior at ballet lessons? And how many girls get sent to the principal's office for throwing punches under the monkey bars at recess? Children are socialized to fit into the gender roles that society has assigned them. Sociology and Criminal Justice Instructor Angela Thompson said the major socializing agents in America are family, schools, peers and the media. Combined, these factors teach children how to conform to their gender roles. Girls laugh together; they cry, they gossip, they share. Girls are taught to talk through their problems and frustrations. But boys learn to keep their problems inside. They learn crying is bad, and fighting back is the answer. They sulk and hide it all until they explode. So why are we surprised when males - young or old - fight back against a society that has cast them out of the social circle? This reaction is, after all, what these boys learn from their parents, friends and educational environment. Violence in the media not only promotes this idea but preys on it. The relentless coverage of these murders doesn't just present the facts about the innocent victims of a deranged murderer. It presents an idea to American citizens, a plan of action for social outcasts. Jean Giles-Sims, a professor of sociology and the director of the women's studies program, said the severity of physical aggression depends on the different circumstances, but males tend to be more violent than females. "There is a good deal more acceptance of boys using violence than girls using violence," Giles-Sims said. "From the time they are very young, male aggression is tolerated more, maybe even encouraged." But the solution is not as simple as telling your son it's OK to cry. And the answer doesn't come in a hug or a new baseball glove. It's going to take a complete restructuring of American society. All socializing agents must take equal action to re-socialize our children. The old "boys will be boys" cliché is no longer an excuse for misbehavior. If we continue teaching children that it's acceptable for boys to retaliate with physical violence, we must be prepared to face more attacks on our social institutions. But when we teach our children - male and female alike - that a peaceful resolution to conflict is the only answer, we can and will reap the benefits of a tranquil society. Wake up America, this is our alarm. We can no longer roll over and close our eyes to the reality of this problem. It's only a matter of time before the alarm goes off again.
Skiff Opinion Editor Laura Head is a junior news-editorial journalism major from Shreveport, La. She can be reached at (lahead@delta.is.tcu.edu). Protesters should consider options before they act The fire of protest is finally burning at TCU. Or at least it did for a few minutes last Thursday. That's when a student burned copies of the Skiff to protest a decision made by the newspaper's editor to hold an opinion column. It's too bad he had to burn the paper the day after seven people, one of whom was a TCU alumna, were killed by a gunman at Wedgwood Baptist Church. How insignificant does one column seem in the face of such a tragedy? Sometimes we think with our heads and not with our hearts. Sometimes we don't think at all. When the editor made the decision to hold the column, he did so because he and his staff were concerned with covering the shooting fairly, accurately and respectfully. A couple of hours before deadline, especially on a night like last Wednesday, is no time to discuss whether to run a potentially offensive column. The editor's decision - to hold the column and discuss the issue the next day - was a fair one. The student's decision to burn the papers, on the other hand, was not fair. Several dedicated people poured everything they had into bringing coverage of the shooting to Thursday's readers. To see it go up in smoke was, to say the least, hard to swallow. The student who burned the Skiff suggested the incident could have been avoided if TCU had a designated area for protests to take place. That sentiment was echoed in at least one unsigned e-mail sent to the Skiff. After all, the University of Texas has one, they said. But UT also has eight times as many students as TCU. I agree that protests are too few and far between around here. But it matters more what protesters are saying and how they say it than where they say it. There are other ways to make yourself heard than to start a fire. It may sound trite, but if you can garner enough support, you'd be surprised at how effective hundreds of e-mails clogging the chancellor's computer can be. Boycott the Main, stage a sit-in, but don't resort to an act that is worse than the one you're protesting. Granted, in this particular case, e-mails or boycotts wouldn't have helped. But a meeting the next day between the editor, columnist and protester would most likely have cleared things up. If that didn't work, the columnist could have written a column condemning the editor's decision. In the process, the protester could have avoided the fire marshall, the administration and a big fine. Peaceful and lawful protests are not a new idea. Ask Rosa Parks. Ask Gandhi. Ask SGA President Ben Alexander. He helped organize a sit-in last semester when the TCU Nationals Cheerleading Squad asked House for more than $1,000 to help fund a trip to a convention in Florida. The administration ended up providing more than $3,000. Burning Thursday's paper did little more than to upset several professors, administrators and Skiff members. It certainly didn't get the column published. The student should be applauded for standing up for something be believes in, just not for the way he did it. Students are good at complaining about the problems on campus. The irony is that complaining doesn't solve them. Too bad burning doesn't either.
Jason Crane is a senior news-editorial journalism major from Shreveport, La. He can be reached at (jlcrane@delta.is.tcu.edu). Church rampage loses impact in light of numerous shootings It happened again. Another person with a gun and cruel intent plunged an otherwise normal U.S. city into the national spotlight. The only differences from other similar incidents were that the city was Fort Worth, and the person with cruel intent struck only minutes from the peaceful confines of TCU. By now, the media have done all the obligatory follow-ups to the massacre. Every day and night since Wednesday, newspapers have published countless articles featuring those ghastly pictures, and television shows have shown the scenes of the emergency personnel as they first responded to the call. Both have run the faces of those who were there to witness first-hand the rampage that killed eight and left few answers. And now, as we go into the week after the tragedy - where no doubt we are going to hear more than we would like to about gun control, the relevance of faith and the state of our nation - I am still finding it very difficult to care about this whole ordeal. From the beginning, as with any tragedy, there was this inevitable sadness for the families of the victims, the victims themselves and the children in the church who will never be able to shake the images of what happened Wednesday. But beyond that, I felt and still feel nothing. I was never shocked, even as the reporters interrupted the 8 p.m. dramas with their live, disoriented newscasts. I didn't feel a sense of "Oh my, this is happening here." Sad, but true, I only wanted to finish watching the television show I was analyzing for class. I don't know what that says about me, except for the obvious desensitized theory. But even as my friends kept throwing that word at me this past week, I sensed there was something more I felt. As the cars and people lined up to attend the citywide memorial at Amon Carter Stadium, I had this feeling I should be there along with this even more pervasive feeling of shame because I hadn't even considered going as an option for Sunday. I never cried over the Jonesboro shooting. By Columbine, it had become just another shooting, even though I still get chills when I think of the boy with the sign that read, "Help me. I'm bleeding to death." By Wedgwood, it was just another mad person with a gun. I haven't felt the need to wear a white ribbon. I haven't started feeling the need to get closer to God. I haven't even shed a single tear. For the most part, this incident has not really hit me as the catastrophic tragedy the media, particularly the local media, have made it out to be. That eight people died is unfortunate and should be enough to make this tragic. But it has become so common recently that now it's hard to care. Seven innocent people with lives full of promise were abruptly taken off this earth, and all I find myself thinking about is the media journal I have due for class and what I'll wear tomorrow. I am not writing to brag and attempt some it's-cool-not-to-care column, but I'm writing because something is happening when people like me - who cry over something like Princess Diana's death - don't care about senseless murders that happen right down the street. This could all just be a testament to how cold-hearted, inconsiderate and completely removed from reality I have become. Or it could be a testament to the fact that I, and the many others who changed the channel on the coverage, are becoming used to the violent world we live in. One of the things repeated in the wake of the shooting was this assumption that churches were supposed to be safe places. It was a church last week; this week it could be University Drive. And even that doesn't frighten me. I looked out my window Sunday and saw the people in the stadium on CNN, and at first I thought all the praying and singing was pointless. Then I realized these people were doing something I am not able to do. They were caring for people they did not know. They were hoping for a better tomorrow. Me, I don't see that happening. What happened here could have happened anywhere. My only hope is that I will be able to care about things like this before it happens to my family and friends.
SheriAnn R. Spicer is a senior radio-TV-film major from Fort Worth. She can be reached at (srspicer@delta.is.tcu.edu). |
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