As the attached story details, there is a growing campaign seeking the firing of an administrator for her private FB post asking that people have compassion for the attacker who injured several on campus and stop sharing the photo of his bullet ridden dead body on FB. She in no way excused or condoned his actions, but is now facing death threats and outcries for her removal. My son is one of the students who already has received his acceptance notice from OSU and I know that if the school bows to this angry mob, it will negatively impact his perception of the school and very well may negatively impact his decision of whether to accept his offer. I’m curious what others think and would suggest that those of you who are opposed to what seems to me like a witch hunt might want to consider expressing your support for this woman’s retention direction to Ohio State. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/12/01/a-school-official-called-for-compassion-for-the-ohio-state-attacker-people-are-demanding-she-be-fired/?utm_term=.09937a95325e
My son is a freshman at OSU so he was there on Monday and experienced what it was like to be sheltered in place in a classroom they felt the need to barricade. He is free to make his own decision but if it were me I would not want him signing that petition. I applaud the cop that did what he had to do to end the violence. However, I am sad that it required taking another life to do so and I hope that having to do that does not weigh too heavily on the cop. And while the assailant brought his own death upon himself, I still don’t feel like anyone’s death should be celebrated. I’m not saying I’m sad about his death per se just that I don’t feel the need to celebrate it and would also never consider sharing a photo of his dead body.
That being said, if I were an employee of tOSU would I post something on Facebook telling people I would unfriend them if they shared a picture of his body - NO and would I tell them they need to have compassion for him - NO. But I also wouldn’t expect to be fired for doing so. This is similar to a thread I posted in Parents Cafe about a doctor who posted something on her personal facebook page that was at best a derogatory comment about Michelle Obama and at worst a racist comment and whether it was appropriate for her employers to discipline her for that post. It’s becoming so difficult to draw a line between what level of influence someone’s “off-hours” behaviors should have on their employability.
There is no good answer here but in the end I don’t think what this person posted justifies her being terminated.
Why would any parent send their child to a University that expresses compassion for the killer of their students on campus or to a University that burns American Flag and disrespects our veterans?!
Because 1.) the university did not express compassion for the killer - a citizen who happens to be an employee of the university did and 2.). Because the first amendment protects anyone’s right to burn the American flag and a university cannot overturn the first amendment. Is there an example of a university that encouraged or facilitated flag burning?
As humans we should have compassion for every soul. Young people who go on killing sprees at schools and colleges are mentally messed up and emotionally broken. Having compassion for their soul doesn’t say good about them but it says good about you that your soul isn’t as dark and apathetic. It doesn’t take away blame from one who killed or honor from ones who got killed. Some blame goes to society, mental health system and educational system for not helping these students in their emotional struggles. We can’t save everyone but we can take that compassion and use it to improve conditions to stop others from falling in deep emotional ditches.
Freedom of speech is absolute, but as parents we can vote with our wallets, particularly if the freedom of speech only allows one type of voice to be heard. We do need better mental counseling on campuses, but I truly doubt it would of stopped this man, who clearly was brainwashed before he entered our nation.
@WorryHurry411 I could have used this a couple months ago when I was doing my essays. JK
Couldn’t have been said any better, nice job!
@3CsinLife That’s a mental issue as well. Every young person can’t be brainwashed no matter which religion or race or cause, they pick mentally fragile and emotionally isolated young people and brain wash them.
I agree with @WorryHurry411…compassion does not mean condoning in any way any violent action…it is more a way to imagine the tragic aspects of the human condition that could result in such awful behavior …none of us can know what convoluted combination of factors has lead to any one event. Having said that, I can also imagine the outrage of people reeling from the event and how they could find the idea of compassion revolting. It is much easier to stomach the compassion when you are not directly touched.
Every person can’t be brainwashed?! Every person no, only the majority…Brainwashing is not limited to religion…in the Soviet Union for example 90% of people thought that Stalin was a great man and the entire country cried when this monster died.
If the OSU president called for the arrest and prosecution of the officer who shot and killed the man, then there would be an issue to be upset about.
@3CsinLife How many of them were killing others in his name? You can’t make murderer out of every person who would cry for your death.
In someways, all of us are being constantly brain washed by diffrent interest groups in name of religion, jobs, country, race, ethnicity, political ideology, oil, wars, sports teams etc etc. Pitting groups of people against other groups is what rulers, generals, corporations, marketers, leaders,captains, priests,mullah does to get what they want.
@WorryHurry411 Crying because Stalin died doesn’t make you a murder. It does underscore how easy it is to brainwash few hundred million people.
That’s my distinction, people who are capeable of crossing the line and ones who aren’t. Most people can’t justify hurting or killing other humans. In every billion, there is just a minute percentage who can or will do evil deeds for any reason. That’s the reason human race still exists.
@WorryHurry411 ‘Minute percentage’ can do lots of damage when the majority of population in their country or community are brainwashed and support their actions vocally or silently. It is only when we speak out against atrocities committed in the name of any religion, regime, etc do we have a chance to build a peaceful future on our planet. As for ‘most people can’t justify hurting or killing’…the majority of Germans before WWII didn’t think they could be responsible for 100 million death on our planet. But history knows otherwise. When we forget history we are forever doomed to repeat it.
@WorryHurry411 and @3CsinLife, I don’t see why there necessarily has to be a conflict of ideas here (unless the polarization is between being either a complete pacifist vs. militarily aggressive.) Can there not be middle ground? It is possible to speak out, or act (as did the policeman in an effort to save lives) against atrocities while still having a heart of compassion and decency toward an enemy, whose life you don’t understand and can never fathom. If not, you join the mindset of that enemy. In this case at OSU, (even though understandable for people to feel rage) inciting mob-violence against a person calling for compassion is just re-inflaming the wound. It is truly a vicious cycle for humanity with no end in sight if people act primarily in the rage of the moment. There may be unfortunate, necessary, principled acts of violence justifiable by police, military or other defenders, but I think it’s wrong to encourage anyone to find glee in it (such as posting photos of a bullet-ridden body.) But inciting violent acts of revenge (and I would find posting such photos as a form of entertainment as encouraging such) have no end, and always spread to hurt innocent people. This is why there are parts of the world where the violence has never abated for thousands of years…someone always has to get back at someone else. In my opinion, if evil does exist it’s core has something to do with a lust for revenge and the enjoyment of it.
Exactly. An eye for an eye philosophy would cause nothing but mass blindness.
@inthegarden It is easy to call for compassion toward an enemy when it is not your son or daughter who was hurt or killed simply walking on college campus or attending Christmas party or being in a gay club. This is not about Inciting violence which is never acceptable, this is about not coddling people who want to end the Western Civilization.
I agree 100% that it’s difficult to be objective if you loose someone but it’s usually not the the ones grieving who feel this rage of revenge. It’s always angry mob who does. You can see same thing with black lives matter and other cases too. Compassion is about saving more from going that route. It is about making world a better place for all. Western or Eastern side, there are always extremist of each side who use every dead body as a reason to cause millions of new dead bodies.
3Cs, I am not promoting coddling. I agree that sometimes terrible decisions have to be made to defend one’s home, family, civilization. (My husband’s parents/grandparents escaped Nazi Germany just in time, and my own father fought in WW II.) I can understand that the individuals actually losing a loved one to senseless violence will feel intense rage. I would! (I still have a hard time forgiving traumas that are trivial in comparison.) I just think that a large group of people reacting in the rage of the moment is not the way out, however justifiable it seems. I can’t see that taking pleasure in revenge tit-for-tat actions is the way to save Western civilization. Decisions and consequences, yes. I can imagine there are plenty of policemen and soldiers in the world who have to kill, know that that is the only action to take, but regret having to do so, and who still find compassion for the flawed human being in their gunsight. I imagine that THAT may be the type of compassion the OSU employee was feeling and advocating, using her right to free speech on her personal Facebook page. She does not deserve death threats in return. The man was already dead, and no longer a danger. IMO passing around the image of a gun-riddled body to incite emotion serves no purpose and demeans all of us.