I'm a proud fence hopper. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. My crib borders the school-I'm not walking around. For me that means fence hurdling.
Thankfully, I think that my sneak entrance is in a rare nook on campus where there isn't a camera. Still, I've spotted my share of lurking P-safe guardians protecting LMU's border. The other day, I was off my game. I was tired and I approached the leaping point aloof. Luckily, half way across I noticed a P-safe officer.
"Hey," he called, rapidly approaching, "wait right there!" Of course I didn't stay. I squirmed back to free land before the officer could tase me into a coma.
Oops. Was that too soon? Surely our intelligent, on-point, Loyolan readership is familiar with the YouTube sensation Andrew Meyer. He's the 21-year-old, free speech martyr, who was mangled by half a dozen campus policemen who tased him between cringing cries. This only occurred last week at the University of Florida, after he asked John Kerry a question that proved to be taboo.
Whether you think he "really should have just shut up" or that Meyer, "deserved to be jailed," those officers threw a damaging jab at campus free speech and students' rights. Meyer's overtly non-confrontational, non-violent query did not warrant violent removal much less suppressive force. If you listen close, John Kerry is actually answering his question between his hopeless screams for justice.
Maybe this time last year, that student would have still been tased. A university is the place for tough questions and protest. This incident wasn't even scratching the surface of a public threat. Yet, Meyer's passionate inquisition spooked the officers. "You never know who has a gun, man," a friend, told me after watching the video. This suspicion of fellow college students never existed before the VT massacre.
Virginia Tech blew minds. It was like the 9/11 for college campuses. The unspeakable reared its ugly head and let slugs fly. Horror started coming to class. It's as if even our LMU campus has become a microcosm of the United States-irrationally handicapped with unease.
Maybe not the students themselves, but the institutions are threatened. Civil and student liberties are being jeopardized in favor of the illusion of safety. History has taught us that constant fear directs the fearful toward acceptance of radical thinking.
Would every student carrying a concealed firearm be considered radical? My noble home state of Utah doesn't think so.
Utah's concealed weapons law allows students and faculty on public high school and university campuses to have hidden firearms. My cross-country coach in high school came strapped with a 9mm to every race. "There are crazy people out there Alex," he once told me, turning the holster over in his hands on a school bus.
The rattling effects of VT sparked questions about preventive measures. What if a professor or student could have shot and killed the shooter before he was able to take so many lives? Utah's radical thinking suddenly seemed like a buoy, with many college institutions drowning in fright.
While I wish I could trust these vigilante pistol packers, I doubt their marksmanship will allow them to heroically take down a focused assassin in the face of danger. I bet he shakes, and shoots another student or himself, ultimately heightening the risk. The imaginary calm, cool, collected hero-student would be more like the one-in-a-million, fit for a movie script character.
These attitudes yield a, "if it moves shoot it, if it talks tase it," state of mind that is truly terrifying. Recent coverage in the Loyolan investigates our Bluff-land security measures. With cameras rolling, the atmosphere at LMU is starting to feel more like a compound than a campus.
Fair enough-we go to a private school, we pay a lot to be protected, but at what cost? More importantly, these constraints may deem themselves capable of causing more severe problems in university ideology. What we actually should be scared of is fear-paralyzed academia.
At this rate, college campuses could become like airports-closed mouths, lowered eyes, but always deep in suspicion. "Feeling safe" to me is starting to feel like "feeling muzzled." The dangers of academia falling into the same abyss of blind fear that our nation is shrouded in, isn't merely detrimental-it's threatening the advancement of learning.
Will events like this tasing be remembered like this generation's UC Berkeley free speech protests? How long before LMU administration allows us to pack heat? When does safety become repression? As the grip tightens, the egg will crack. I just hope we notice before the yolk leaks out completely.
