campus voice
2 Wednesday
thewichitan.com
February 29, 2012
Experts shouldn’t stereotype There are just too many students who don’t fit into the “it” crowd. Labeling every introverted stuChardon High School was dealt dent is simply implausible and not a a tragedy Monday when a teenager solution to the dangerous shooting opened fire on students with a semitrend. automatic handgun. T.J. Lane, the student identified Three students died and two other as the shooter, was described as a students were wounded. “good kid” by the family lawyer. As per usual in a situation like “He’s been doubling up on his this, experts are speaking up to help classes with the intent of graduatfigure out why the teenager open ing this May,” said Lane’s lawyer. fired on innocent students. “He pretty much sticks to himself It can be easy to label potential but does have some friends and has shooters as the loners, outcasts or never been in trouble over anything weird ones. that we know about.” But who is so much of an expert Lane was not a student at Charthat he or she can pick out the dandon High School. He was attending gerous loners from the people who Lake Academy, an alternative school just enjoy solitude? for at-risk youth. School administrators cannot He wasn’t suspected to be dangersimply put a watch on students who ous, yet he opened fire on a cafeteseem strange or appear to be outria full of high school students. casts. It seems nothing differentiated our view
Lane from any of the other students at the school, yet Lane was the one who killed three (so far) and wounded two others. Should all the at-risk kids be put under surveillance because of Lane’s actions? It is simply impossible to pick out the traits of a killer from a crowd of kids. Each person has something different that makes him or her tick. Currently there is no known motive for the shooting, which proves even further that school shootings are hard to stop unless there are obvious signs of violence or cries for help. Experts may have good ideas when it comes to looking out for the safety and prosperity of the greater population, but not every good idea is an idea that works.
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editorial board
Editor in Chief: Chris Collins Managing Editor: Brittney Cottingham A&E Editor: Anastasia Reed Op-Ed Editor: Kaja Salsman Sports Editor: Damian Atamenwan Web/ Photo Editor: Hannah Hofmann PRINT Advertising manager: Rachel Bingham ONLINE ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brandi Stroud Copy CHIEF: Kristina Davidson COPY EDITOR: Mollie Collins adviser: Randy Pruitt INSIDE LAYOUT: Cora Kuykendall contributors: Orlando Flores Jr., Josh Hayter, Tolu Agunbiade, Andre Gonzalez, Stefan Attanassov DELIVERY: Brian Meurer INTERN: Kassie Bruton
Copyright © 2012. The Wichitan is a member of the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association. The Wichitan reserves the right to edit any material submitted for publication. Opinions expressed in The Wichitan do not necessarily reflect those of the students, staff, faculty, administration or Board of Regents of Midwestern State University. The Wichitan welcomes letters of opinion from students, faculty and staff submitted by the Friday before intended publication. Letters should be brief (350 words or less) and without abusive language or personal attacks. Letters must be typed and signed by the writer and include a telephone number and address. The editor retains the right to edit letters.
Taking a second to ‘share’ could save someone’s life
KAJA SALSMAN OP-ED EDITOR
Facebook has over 845 million monthly users. Eight hundred and forty-five MILLION people! When a juicy rumor sneaks its way onto Facebook, it spreads like wildfire. Everyone knows about it: your friends, your family, your friends’ friends, your coworkers and your grandmother who doesn’t even HAVE a Facebook! So why is it that something like a rumor can spread so quickly, yet when it comes to doing good, people have a hard time sharing? I’ll have to cite what brought this column about: Early Friday night I posted a Facebook status. It received many “likes” and many comments. It wasn’t inflammatory, but it wasn’t important either. I also posted a few different comments in a few different Facebook groups I’m in. They all got feedback. On Sunday afternoon (after posting on my own Facebook as well as Facebook groups I’m active in) I posted a link to a bone marrow donor center
website (www.getswabbed.org) No one commented. No one shared. No one “liked”. No feedback whatsoever. I have 1,483 Facebook friends and posted the link on five different pages. One of the pages administrators even deleted the link. Why? I don’t know. It wasn’t inflammatory and it wasn’t offensive. It was an effort to raise awareness and possibly find more donors. When there is a charity event, a fundraiser or a blood drive, people go at a snail’s pace to repost the event or the news. And sometimes they just overlook it entirely. Obviously doing good in the world is not juicy enough news these days. And I’m not talking about those dumb “share this and orphan Cynthia will receive $0.10 per every repost” statuses. I’m referring to the actual events that people need to see. The events that don’t get a multi-million dollar advertising campaign to get people’s attention. News flash: television commercials and billboards cost tons of money. Money is something most non-profits and foundations are severely lacking. It’s not as though pressing “share” on something positive to help the community or help save a life will ruin some bitchy girl’s reputation or run her Facebook friends straight to the “unfriend” button. Or could it be that people don’t “share” because they think if they don’t physically participate they won’t make a difference? The fact is, the more people who
share something on Facebook (like an event for charity or a blood/plasma drive), the more people the event reaches. Awareness is key. If one person asks 10 people to share something, then each of those people can ask 10 more people to share. All of a sudden, that one person that you asked to share turned into 100 people. It doesn’t take much. People seem to be under the impression that their 30 seconds of time is more importantly spent lurking on their 7th grade crush’s Facebook page rather than possibly saving a life. This leads me to my next question. Has society lowered the value of life so significantly that people are unable, or cannot be bothered with, to take 30 seconds out of their day to spread the word on a good cause? Is the value of a human life so low that people really don’t care what happens to another person? I know there are a lot of people on this planet, but each person is important to someone else. People in the hospital suffering from leukemia have friends and family, loved ones and dreams. They have a life, just like you and me. How would it make you feel if your brother or sister was in the hospital on their third round of chemotherapy? Wouldn’t you want people to care? Wouldn’t you want someone to spread the word about saving your sibling’s life? You would argue that it would take them 30 seconds to share it on Facebook. But in that case your loved one benefits from it, right?
Imagine how those families feel right now. People are overlooking good causes and cries for help in exchange for the latest news on Snooki or Lindsay Lohan. Each person who knows about a way to help is one person closer to helping find a solution, to helping find a genetic match to someone who is dying and counting on an absolute stranger. Here in Wichita Falls there are plenty of events listed on Facebook. The 4th Annual Fashion Show for CASA is taking place on March 8th. Currently there are 30 guests claiming they are attending. For the event “The Day After 12-212012” there are currently 1,554,264 guests attending. Obviously it takes a person a second to click a “yes” button. Where are our priorities? Going out for a night of fun and spending all your money on shots and beers doesn’t qualify you as “broke” when someone asks you to come to a benefit concert. It qualifies you as selfish and self-gratifying. I know there is good in each person, no matter what race, religion or background they possess. But why are we so caught up in ourselves? Self-preservation is big these days. What ever happened to being selfless? There are plenty of people who go out of their way to help others. Every time there is a natural disaster tons of people go out to help their neighbors in need. That’s when there’s a disaster. If there isn’t huge national media coverage,
people seem to shy away from helping. Yes, MSU holds plenty of events that benefit charities and those in need. Many times even the students that organize the events are getting something out of them. They have a charity event on their resume that and they fulfill their duty if they are in an organization. I know it’s not all for their own personal gain. There are those who do it because of the good in their heart as well. I’m not one to judge who is who, but I’m just making the observation about the issue as a whole. It seems that what has become more important in college these days is making the grade, creating the resume and having impressive lines to put on said resume. But what about the other people? The people who can’t even begin to worry about a resume? The children laying in hospital beds wondering if they’ll even make it to second grade aren’t worried about looking good on their future resumes. Maybe it takes some sort of personal trauma to spark the drive for a better world in some people. Unfortunately, that’s not really possible. You can’t traumatize every person in order to get them to fight for the cause. It’s time for youth and young adults to become aware of other people. The world doesn’t revolve around you and gossip. Take a second to help someone out. You could save someone’s life. That is much more gratifying than spreading that nasty rumor about your ex-best friend from high school...
JOHNNY BLEVINS