[The following was originally sent as an e-mail to the Kirkland House list.]
hey KIRKLAND,
this is not to spawn another heated e-debate, but after reading one article and one email today, i must share my concerns. alas! lest the gods cannot cure these insouciant follies, i must be ASAP (as succinct as possible):
Two recent incidents: 1) The assault and abuse outside of lowell house following Hungama last month and 2) A few shuttle-related altercations, one of which recently led to the abrupt firing of a bus driver. There seems to be a general lack of a space or an appropriate medium to resolve these types of incidents. They're often talked about be it at meals or in passing, but even petitions and organized discussions have their limitations in a highly individualized and in-group focused community that more often than not only displays due respect and appreciation towards official and well-established entities on campus (i.e. - professors, university officials, etc.).
1) I was very surprised that there was no follow-up news or announcements about the racially/religiously-charged incident outside of lowell.
- Is this the only time that a student has experienced discomfort or harassment outside the main gates of a lowell house neighboured by the Fly and surrounded by numerous other final clubs?
- Most people upon learning about this most likely brushed it off as another series of unintended drunk actions that didn't really mean anything, but what must it come to for us to regard a physical and verbal racial/religious attack as SERIOUS? Does someone have to become injured or KILLED?!
- Many people probably also felt there was nothing they could do about the situation and that authorities would address the situation. Ladies and gentlemen, that it's been almost a month and still no updates from the crimson means that the situation has been "addressed."
2) I was very infuriated upon reading today's crimson front page, and was even more enraged when i recalled that just a few days ago, there was a prominent article about how two football players involved in this bus driver incident had been suspended for the upcoming season opener. In that article, the head coach repeatedly accused the bus driver of initiating the whole conflict.
- WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?! We all know the football head coach has very little impact on campus and that when he makes controversial accusations, there will be no ripples in this image/reputation-conscious harvard community.* We also know that all football players are very non-confrontational and that they NEVER engage in verbal disputes that verbally instigate others to respond. One of the players was also quoted to have been hit in the chin that resulted in his sunglasses falling off the top of his head - he claims he was a defenseless student.
- ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Did he actually say that and did it actually make the local press?! Boo-hoo, a student clearly unable to handle physical interactions has sunglasses knocked off his head. Well here's a news break for ya, the bus driver is a father of three, with one child in college. You and your innocent buddies who are entitled to everything (especially boarding the shuttles with grills and tables, and also alcohol as long as you remember to run straight to the back of the bus to knock out a NEMESIS) are suspended for one game that happens to be the season opener, so we'll double its value to two games. THE BUS DRIVER LOSES HIS JOB.
- Again, most people are brushing off the seriousness of this incident because it again involved people under the influence of alcohol and the absence of a SERIOUS injury or death. This article should have been titled "Bus Driver Fired Without Hearing" rather than in an adversarial manner pitting him against harvard by saying "Ousted Driver Sues Harvard."
And while we're at it, the capital of Taiwan is spelled TAIPEI. Not TEIPEI. It's a good thing most people don't notice when mistakes are made and problems go unaddressed. Or wait, maybe we do notice but just don't have the time or care to do something about it. Maybe there's actually very little we CAN do about ANYTHING here.
this is ABSURD.
*^~*EXASPERATED EXHALATION*~^*
-STEVE LIN
(*The coach makes a very immature defense of his team. It reminds me of kindergarten when when timmy calls ronnie a poopy-pee-face and then ronnie gets in trouble for pushing timmy onto the floor?!?! Usually, the consequences are fairly equal with ronnie getting time and timmy getting soap and a slap, but they both eventually apologize, right? And who usually apologizes first? Hmm...well, of course, it should be ronnie, because the incident "started" when ronnie made contact. What the heck then do we make of the COLD WAR?)
For further information, here is the article regarding the incident outside of lowell:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=512817 and here are two articles regarding the bus driver incident:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=513441 http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=513358
