12-12-2005
On Saturday night there was an incident near the Trinity campus. 4 young men climbed out of their car and jumped a student walking alone. The attack occurred almost exactly where I had left off my classmate 2 nights earlier. This whole business scares the hell out of me.What I want to know is, why doesn't it scare anyone else? We're sitting on a powder keg at the college, and people are, through apathy and arrogance, inadvertantly throwing matches.
We get letters from the university president when a student is robbed or attacked, but no comment when incidents of racial profiling happen almost daily on or near the campus. Students complain about the "bad neighborhood" surrounding the school (by which they mean Black or Latino), but nobody volunteers to personally help solve the problem with some positive interaction. Town-gown relations have never been worse. How about accepting more local kids into the school? How about dreaming up some way to have social contact with your neighbors right outside your gates? Trinity students are rumored locally to be arrogant , preppy, and superior-acting. Guess what, people, some rumors are self-fulfilling.
I have vivid memories of the Watts riots in the '60s. I was stupid enough to drive down to LA from San Francisco to see for my own eyes what was going on. Unlike Watts, when our neighborhood goes up in flames, we'll go with it. The apathy of the school, and especially the students, to the problem is maddening to me. This is the second time I've warned about the wolf (the first time didn't even draw a comment), and he's getting hungrier.
Later- I hope.
On Saturday night there was an incident near the Trinity campus. 4 young men climbed out of their car and jumped a student walking alone. The attack occurred almost exactly where I had left off my classmate 2 nights earlier. This whole business scares the hell out of me.What I want to know is, why doesn't it scare anyone else? We're sitting on a powder keg at the college, and people are, through apathy and arrogance, inadvertantly throwing matches.
We get letters from the university president when a student is robbed or attacked, but no comment when incidents of racial profiling happen almost daily on or near the campus. Students complain about the "bad neighborhood" surrounding the school (by which they mean Black or Latino), but nobody volunteers to personally help solve the problem with some positive interaction. Town-gown relations have never been worse. How about accepting more local kids into the school? How about dreaming up some way to have social contact with your neighbors right outside your gates? Trinity students are rumored locally to be arrogant , preppy, and superior-acting. Guess what, people, some rumors are self-fulfilling.
I have vivid memories of the Watts riots in the '60s. I was stupid enough to drive down to LA from San Francisco to see for my own eyes what was going on. Unlike Watts, when our neighborhood goes up in flames, we'll go with it. The apathy of the school, and especially the students, to the problem is maddening to me. This is the second time I've warned about the wolf (the first time didn't even draw a comment), and he's getting hungrier.
Later- I hope.
posted by Papa Bill | 3:49 PM
2 Comments:
It took me awhile to "get" the so-lo pun!
I try to stay away from cities for the most part. Hartford is the hardest part of my 81 to 84 to Mass Pike ride home.
You're completely right Bill. Trinity really seems to have a policy of ignore and ignore. They warn students, but do very little to solve the problem. So what kind of programs might help the situation?
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