I received a lot of email about this story, and was unsure about posting it. Now that I see it, I'm glad you put it up yourself. It's a horrible reminder of the fragility of the communities we often live and teach in.
Honestly, there is violence everywhere. There are murders and heinous killings everywhere. I am not looking at this blog to see stuff like this. I REALLY wish I could "hide" a post, as I don't need to see this. How is this article part of the mission of this blog? I don't want to read the details of this brutal, senseless killing. I am angry I had to. I am not sending this via e-mail as I don't care who else sees it and knows that I feel this way.
ps, I am also happy I did not have to look at a picture of a poor dead horse, and bravo to the people who got it taken down.
I think we need to be reminded that there is, indeed, violence everywhere. We sometimes take for granted the mental and emotional state of the hundreds of students around us. We often assume they are intelligent, rational, emotionally stable human beings (romantic relationships notwithstanding) when, in fact, some of them are capable of this. We easily become complacent in our security, and I think it is short sighted to find this reminder to be in poor taste, and overly sensitive to actually be angered by it.
I don't agree. I don't need this reminder. I don't enjoy reading violent crime details. I am wondering who actually needs this reminder---who is that out of touch? Violence hits every community. Who does not know this? Is this a blog for reminding us of the fact that we live in a violent world? I would not be a part of that blog since I don't need that reminder. I know. I have experience with that. Anyway, I just vehemently disagree with you.
I apologize to Bella and anyone else who was offended.
My only defense is that I'm horrified at the casual and numb response our culture seems to have about violence against women. I do not agree that simply living in the modern world means we no longer need these reminders.
If one professor becomes more aware of the young people we live and work with on campus, I think there's some value in knowing the story.
But I do agree that the details were disturbing.
Through my ex-wife's practice, I occasionally act as a driver for a private battered women's shelter near where we live. I offer that as my defense for posting something that has upset Bella and others. I do apologize again.
Why did you even bother to read the story after you saw the title and the disclaimer? You're the kind of person that sees a "Wet Paint" sign and still needs to touch the paint to be convinced. *sigh*
Holy god.... that quote at the end of the snippet gives me chills. She was so far sub-human to him that he put her down after he injured her. Like a raccoon he accidentally hit with his car.
Not even accidentally hit... it's like hitting the raccoon and then getting out to kick it some more because that would be more humane. What kind of thought process is this excuse for a human being even using?
This poor woman! And her family. And his family! And men and women who are growing up in this kind of a world where we routinely have women killed by unstable, immature, impulsive men on a power trip.
Hiram has a disclaimer in the first sentence! You don't have to read any further than that.
I think the story is indeed upsetting, but I'm glad to be aware of it, and happy that through the story I was able to learn something about a young woman taken too soon, and the people who loved her.
I second Kimmie, and I'd add that bringing up campus violence in a forum like this one can (must) go beyond spreading salaciousness for its own sake to ask two questions: first, what went wrong for this to have happen in this environment (which is similar enough to the one where we work), and second, what can be done to prevent this from happening there or anywhere in the future?
At Eastern State where I did my PhD, I was in a fellowship focus group that had a meeting scheduled soon after the Virginia Tech shootings. The graduate dean cleared the old agenda to lead what I thought was a very illuminating discussion focused on precisely these questions. It was an interesting perspective on campus violence from an administrative POV, and it was encouraging to see that these issues are indeed considered at the upper levels of campus management, even at a place where that event hadn't happened.
It's when violence is swept under the rug and out of sight -- or when campus leaders brush off events like these by saying "that would NEVER happen here!" -- that we risk further tragedy.
This is typical of the flaws in this site, the heavy handed censorship. An insider is appeased at the expense of the important story of violence on campus. I am through with this site, and I encourage the rest of you who are free thinkers to leave as well.
Disgraceful how this post was edited just because one of the inside group doesn't like it. Why do the rest of us 20 or so who read the page have to be denied information that is important and instructive.
@Fab: Could you weigh your hands and let us know how heavy they are? Three pounds? Five pounds? One kilogram? If we're taking bets, then I say 13.6 ounces per hand. I'll bet fifty dollars.
Yes, TT, you were clearly DENIED the opportunity to click through to the story or to use the Goggle to find the information to really get to that salaciously drippy, violent story which is SO IMPORTANT to you that you don't mind rubbing everyone's nose in how fantastically important the reminder of VIOLENS ON CAMPUS is. Get a clue and grip. Or go away. Something. Dick.
This is usually where we all go wrong. We focus on what the blog is and not the content. People who are new figure we're just a bunch of malcontents who can't be a community and they go somewhere else. We always fuck this up. I would never have the patience to try to keep the damn boulder from teetering over the peak or rolling back on top of me.
Scary, and heartbreaking. Actually, I don't know whether it's more heartbreaking that this happens on college campuses (which tends to make the news), or that it happens off college campuses, and doesn't make the news, especially if the participants are darker-skinned and/or poor. Given that misery on college campuses is often all too closely linked to closer societal misery (despite the illusion some people -- parents, especially -- have that colleges are or should be safe, or at least safer, places), I think it has a place on the blog, though I also think Hiram's decision to make the details more avoidable is a wise one.
As for Whittemore, though I genuinely believe that education can lead to better thinking about ethical as well as intellectual issues, there's a limit to how much good it can do. In this case, it mostly seems to have helped him come up with an especially stomach-turning justification for not stopping once he saw what he was doing/had done. A simple "I lost it" would probably be more honest. I also wonder whether drinking or drugs were involved. Admittedly 21-year-olds aren't known for having a fully-functioning ability to inhibit inappropriate impulses, and some people are always going to be better at it than others at any age, but in these cases it often turns out that something else helped lower the bar.
That might account for (but not excuse) his hitting her once. I actually know one woman who is happily married to a man who shoved her once during an argument in their late teens (she told him immediately that that could never happen again, and told him to leave their mutual household. He did, came back several weeks later and apologized, and they figured out how to fight fair, and safe). Of course, one blow can be fatal, too, but in most cases I'd guess it would leave one or both parties shocked enough at the transgression of the boundaries of civilized behavior to say "this has got to stop now." But something more more seems to have happened in this case, and I'm inclined to think either substance abuse or an inhibition problem that goes beyond the normal range must have been involved. It's also possible, of course, that the killer is a psychopath with some idea of how to sound normal; his remark about killing her so she wouldn't suffer is seriously twisted, whether it's actually what he was thinking or what he thinks he should have been thinking.
We need to do better than this. As a society. We need to make these things not okay to do. I know we think they're already not okay to do; but too many people still think they are, or they wouldn't do them; or suffer them; or allow them.
I can't understand the mentality of the people saying "See? See? This is why I'm never reading this blog again!" Well, good riddance to ya. I think this is what makes the blog great. This is neither a blog solely devoted to having a laugh about The Misery, nor solely about moaning about true campus misery. It is good that I can sometimes find humour here, and sometimes read about some truly awful stuff happening on our campuses. It wasn't a picture of a dead horse. It was about a murder in a COLLEGE RESIDENCE, and so it was a good piece of kindling to spark a roaring discussion about campus violence, fer chrissakes.
I received a lot of email about this story, and was unsure about posting it. Now that I see it, I'm glad you put it up yourself. It's a horrible reminder of the fragility of the communities we often live and teach in.
ReplyDeleteI saw the story, too, and am glad it's been posted. I mourn these young woman who live on our campuses and that nobody can keep safe.
DeleteHonestly, there is violence everywhere. There are murders and heinous killings everywhere. I am not looking at this blog to see stuff like this. I REALLY wish I could "hide" a post, as I don't need to see this. How is this article part of the mission of this blog? I don't want to read the details of this brutal, senseless killing. I am angry I had to. I am not sending this via e-mail as I don't care who else sees it and knows that I feel this way.
ReplyDeleteps, I am also happy I did not have to look at a picture of a poor dead horse, and bravo to the people who got it taken down.
I think we need to be reminded that there is, indeed, violence everywhere. We sometimes take for granted the mental and emotional state of the hundreds of students around us. We often assume they are intelligent, rational, emotionally stable human beings (romantic relationships notwithstanding) when, in fact, some of them are capable of this. We easily become complacent in our security, and I think it is short sighted to find this reminder to be in poor taste, and overly sensitive to actually be angered by it.
DeleteI don't agree. I don't need this reminder. I don't enjoy reading violent crime details. I am wondering who actually needs this reminder---who is that out of touch? Violence hits every community. Who does not know this? Is this a blog for reminding us of the fact that we live in a violent world? I would not be a part of that blog since I don't need that reminder. I know. I have experience with that. Anyway, I just vehemently disagree with you.
DeleteI apologize to Bella and anyone else who was offended.
DeleteMy only defense is that I'm horrified at the casual and numb response our culture seems to have about violence against women. I do not agree that simply living in the modern world means we no longer need these reminders.
If one professor becomes more aware of the young people we live and work with on campus, I think there's some value in knowing the story.
But I do agree that the details were disturbing.
Through my ex-wife's practice, I occasionally act as a driver for a private battered women's shelter near where we live. I offer that as my defense for posting something that has upset Bella and others. I do apologize again.
I send my support behind Bella.
DeleteThis is not the place for that.
Why did you even bother to read the story after you saw the title and the disclaimer? You're the kind of person that sees a "Wet Paint" sign and still needs to touch the paint to be convinced. *sigh*
DeleteHoly god.... that quote at the end of the snippet gives me chills. She was so far sub-human to him that he put her down after he injured her. Like a raccoon he accidentally hit with his car.
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
DeleteNot even accidentally hit... it's like hitting the raccoon and then getting out to kick it some more because that would be more humane. What kind of thought process is this excuse for a human being even using?
DeleteThis poor woman! And her family. And his family! And men and women who are growing up in this kind of a world where we routinely have women killed by unstable, immature, impulsive men on a power trip.
Sociopath. Textbook sociopath.
DeleteHiram has a disclaimer in the first sentence! You don't have to read any further than that.
ReplyDeleteI think the story is indeed upsetting, but I'm glad to be aware of it, and happy that through the story I was able to learn something about a young woman taken too soon, and the people who loved her.
Some people see the disclaimer and still can't help themselves from reading. It's like they want to get upset.
DeleteI second Kimmie, and I'd add that bringing up campus violence in a forum like this one can (must) go beyond spreading salaciousness for its own sake to ask two questions: first, what went wrong for this to have happen in this environment (which is similar enough to the one where we work), and second, what can be done to prevent this from happening there or anywhere in the future?
DeleteAt Eastern State where I did my PhD, I was in a fellowship focus group that had a meeting scheduled soon after the Virginia Tech shootings. The graduate dean cleared the old agenda to lead what I thought was a very illuminating discussion focused on precisely these questions. It was an interesting perspective on campus violence from an administrative POV, and it was encouraging to see that these issues are indeed considered at the upper levels of campus management, even at a place where that event hadn't happened.
It's when violence is swept under the rug and out of sight -- or when campus leaders brush off events like these by saying "that would NEVER happen here!" -- that we risk further tragedy.
To answer at least 2 queries, I did not alter Hiram's post. He took the story down and left only the link.
ReplyDeleteFab
This is typical of the flaws in this site, the heavy handed censorship. An insider is appeased at the expense of the important story of violence on campus. I am through with this site, and I encourage the rest of you who are free thinkers to leave as well.
ReplyDeleteDisgraceful how this post was edited just because one of the inside group doesn't like it. Why do the rest of us 20 or so who read the page have to be denied information that is important and instructive.
I did not censor the post. The original poster redacted the text from the news story and provided a link instead.
Delete@Fab: Could you weigh your hands and let us know how heavy they are? Three pounds? Five pounds? One kilogram? If we're taking bets, then I say 13.6 ounces per hand. I'll bet fifty dollars.
DeleteYes, TT, you were clearly DENIED the opportunity to click through to the story or to use the Goggle to find the information to really get to that salaciously drippy, violent story which is SO IMPORTANT to you that you don't mind rubbing everyone's nose in how fantastically important the reminder of VIOLENS ON CAMPUS is. Get a clue and grip. Or go away. Something. Dick.
DeleteOh, TT, you liar. You ain't never gonna leave. Who will deliver unto us the TRUTH we so sorely need, if you do?
DeleteThis is usually where we all go wrong. We focus on what the blog is and not the content. People who are new figure we're just a bunch of malcontents who can't be a community and they go somewhere else. We always fuck this up. I would never have the patience to try to keep the damn boulder from teetering over the peak or rolling back on top of me.
ReplyDeleteScary, and heartbreaking. Actually, I don't know whether it's more heartbreaking that this happens on college campuses (which tends to make the news), or that it happens off college campuses, and doesn't make the news, especially if the participants are darker-skinned and/or poor. Given that misery on college campuses is often all too closely linked to closer societal misery (despite the illusion some people -- parents, especially -- have that colleges are or should be safe, or at least safer, places), I think it has a place on the blog, though I also think Hiram's decision to make the details more avoidable is a wise one.
ReplyDeleteAs for Whittemore, though I genuinely believe that education can lead to better thinking about ethical as well as intellectual issues, there's a limit to how much good it can do. In this case, it mostly seems to have helped him come up with an especially stomach-turning justification for not stopping once he saw what he was doing/had done. A simple "I lost it" would probably be more honest. I also wonder whether drinking or drugs were involved. Admittedly 21-year-olds aren't known for having a fully-functioning ability to inhibit inappropriate impulses, and some people are always going to be better at it than others at any age, but in these cases it often turns out that something else helped lower the bar.
Physiologically they aren't quite developed in the impulsive department at that age. Not using this as an excuse by any means.
DeleteIt's just so sad. Her poor parents.
That might account for (but not excuse) his hitting her once. I actually know one woman who is happily married to a man who shoved her once during an argument in their late teens (she told him immediately that that could never happen again, and told him to leave their mutual household. He did, came back several weeks later and apologized, and they figured out how to fight fair, and safe). Of course, one blow can be fatal, too, but in most cases I'd guess it would leave one or both parties shocked enough at the transgression of the boundaries of civilized behavior to say "this has got to stop now." But something more more seems to have happened in this case, and I'm inclined to think either substance abuse or an inhibition problem that goes beyond the normal range must have been involved. It's also possible, of course, that the killer is a psychopath with some idea of how to sound normal; his remark about killing her so she wouldn't suffer is seriously twisted, whether it's actually what he was thinking or what he thinks he should have been thinking.
DeleteWe need to do better than this. As a society. We need to make these things not okay to do. I know we think they're already not okay to do; but too many people still think they are, or they wouldn't do them; or suffer them; or allow them.
ReplyDeleteI can't understand the mentality of the people saying "See? See? This is why I'm never reading this blog again!" Well, good riddance to ya. I think this is what makes the blog great. This is neither a blog solely devoted to having a laugh about The Misery, nor solely about moaning about true campus misery. It is good that I can sometimes find humour here, and sometimes read about some truly awful stuff happening on our campuses. It wasn't a picture of a dead horse. It was about a murder in a COLLEGE RESIDENCE, and so it was a good piece of kindling to spark a roaring discussion about campus violence, fer chrissakes.
ReplyDelete