Doppler Shift

There has been a blue freight train approaching for many years. And a few weeks ago, it passed us in a whoosh, leaving us in it's red wake.

Twenty-three years ago I was a member of student government at a small college in Upstate NY. Outside of enjoying marginal power when it came to funding, I really didn't do much except to make sure paperwork was in order for the various activities for clubs. Most funding decisions were made during regular business hours, and larger distributions were always discussed and decided at large, full board or full council, meetings.

At this particular college there were two main Spring events - Spring Weekend and Black Spring Weekend. Both had festivities and celebrations - music, fun, and activities. Due to the increasing number of clubs and sports asking for funds, the monies for these two spring traditions were becoming less and less. There was a big push by the white members of the executive council to lump all the funds into a huge, well funded, multi-cultural weekend, where everyone had a least some representation. It would have been great - rap was at it's infant stage and very fresh, rock was coming back, and disco was on the decline.

Enter blue shift.

Not surprisingly, the black student leaders were utterly threatened by this suggestion, claiming it was (I'm paraphrasing it) akin to the evil white machine taking away their traditions and it was grounds for taking matters into their own hands. In a move that shocked me, the black leaders called a secret meeting, inviting only those people necessary to get a quorum. I happened to hear about a meeting...and as a staff member, I always attended. When I walked into the room, I was one of two white faces in the room. I didn't feel uncomfortable in that, but I was utterly sick to me stomach when I realized what was going on. Under the watchful gaze of the faculty advisor (the other white person) the meeting was rapidly called to order, and in a matter of minutes, funding was allocated and approved - with seemingly no discussion.

I was floored - here was politicking and backroom dealing at its worst. I had never witnessed people being so greedy and have utter disregard for doing things above board. I got harsh looks when I tried to protest, and I seem to recall being told that this is how it's always done and how it has to be done. I was hushed up because I dared to speak, and I recall one female member took great delight in dressing me down - practically calling me a racist for daring to oppose the motion. I prided myself on honesty, truth, and true equality. Yet here were people saying no, we want to be separate and have our own celebrations with no ties to anyone else. They wanted equal funding to Spring Weekend, even though the black population on campus was only 25%. What could have been a great event - two groups coming together, true unity - was turned into the something ugly. Very ugly.

The senior ranking member of the executive council - whose girlfriend had ripped me to shreds - pulled me aside within minutes of the meeting being adjourned. He said he knew I wasn't a racist and that his girlfriend was out of line. She just didn't know me, and had a thing against white people. But, he further explained, this is how black people have to gain power in order to achieve equality.

And just like that, I experienced red shift.

Equality.

Power.

Two very interesting social constructs.

What is equality? What is power? It depends on where you are standing.

If you're angry others for injustices (real or imagined) - you gain power to dictate equality.

If you're honest - you use your talents to gain financial equality and get social power.

If you're honest - equality means giving people a fair shot, not because of their skin color but because of their character and quality.

When Imus said his remark - one he has said before, mind you - Sharpton and Jackson brought the full force of their power to bear on his employers and sponsors. MSNBC and CBS, perhaps looking for a way to unload Imus, immediately ditched him. There wasn't even a pretense of standing up to Sharpton...they just caved. Or as Imus would put it - folded like a cheap camera. Imus has probably had some sort of protest coming for years - mostly from women. How he has escaped being noticed is no secret - who watches or listens? Okay - name any women you know who do. Very few, right?

What could have been a springboard to a great racial discussion ended in a power flex, and an all too predictable outcome.

So, who has the power? That's obvious.

How are they using it? I haven't seen much in the way of discussion outside of what Sean Hannity is doing with Sharpton.

Like it or not, we're living in red shift until this whole racial thing balances out.

How are we going to change this? Raise your children to celebrate and respect difference, and above all - celebrate with others.

What does this mean for society at large, and stepping back into Mr. Farber's column, this means the mob rules.

And that, my friends, is a frightening concept.

Farber on WABC

Note to all: Barry Farber will be on WABC Sunday, April 29th at 7PM filling in for Brian Whitman.

Campus Safety Net

After more than a year of not writing, it's time again to pick up the laptop and start blogging away. I'll start from the latest Barry Farber column and work my way back.

Campus Safety.

Like Mr. Farber, I agree that there are some relatively simple, low tech ways to get the word out to instructors and students on university campuses. Even with a minimal security force, campus and local police can be deployed in groups of two or four to buildings and conduct sweeps. Loud speakers on police vehicles, megaphones, alarm systems, or simply runners...there were several ways last weeks tragedy could have been minimized after the first two deaths in the residence hall.

But I want to go beyond his argument and look at two underlying problems I see in this case.

First, directly after the two slayings in the residence hall, the investigators thought they were dealing with a murder / suicide. Unless I'm mistaken, there is usually a weapon close by the alleged murderer's body. In the absence of this, it is probably best to err on the side of caution and assume that a killer is on the loose. I realize at the time that the police were given some erroneous information about the person or persons involved with the first shooting. Regardless, at this moment SOMEONE should have suggested locking down the residence halls - all of them, not just the one where the murders took place. In theory, this could have been done by 8:15 AM...the residence director of AJ calls the RD's of neighboring dorms, and they, in turn , inform their staff and other dorms. Residence Life is trained to handle these crisis's. They can't get the job unless they've gone though rigorous vetting and show an aptitude for handling those social outliers.

Lock down phase #1 done. The academic buildings are another matter, and this could have been done with the suggestions listed above.

This brings me to my other problem with this horrific incident. And that is, where was the Resident Assistant / Adviser on Cho's floor? RA's are the first line of defense, and offense - as witnessed in the death of Ryan Clark. RA's are responsible for knowing the people on their floors, dealing with social and personality issues, as well as maintaining some sort of parental-like watch over their residents. You'd have to be blind not to notice that this guy was odd, and it's the sort of thing that would come up at a weekly, or monthly staff meeting IF everyone was doing their job correctly. If Cho's dorm would have gone into lock down, there is a chance that the staff in his dorm might have been able to alter the outcome of the day - but it probably would have come at the expense of their lives. Cho was bent on killing, and it was just a matter of how many.

Safety Net

My daughter is an RA at a large, metropolitan college. She has a student on her floor that she has expressed concern about in the past, far before Virginia Tech. She noticed that this person had no friends, which is very odd on her campus. She did the everything she's been trained to do - spoken in depth, one on one with this person, shared meals, suggested counseling, and has watched to see if this person has developed friendships throughout the year. When VT happened, this person is the first one she thought of, and she made sure to check up during the next few days. She reports that all is fine.

My sister-in-law is a middle school, creative writing teacher. A couple of months ago, one of her students wrote a graphic, violence filled story and submitted it to the student publication she directs. She told me that this story went beyond anything she ever read before, and the violence was directed at the child's authority figures and spoke of harm inflicted upon the child. The very next day, she marched into her superiors office and announced 'We have a problem.' Within short order, the child was interviewed, and placed in a facility that could better deal with his social and personality problems.

Our safety nets are often those who are outside the judicial and law enforcement realms. They are regular people - our extended family, our neighbors, our friends, our bosses, our co-workers, our teachers, and on and on. They are people who raise their hands and say, 'whoa' regardless of the consequences.

If more people had said 'whoa' in the last 100 years, how many lives would have been spared?