The Observer, October 12, 2007
Volume XL, Issue 7
Political Connection: Immature vandalism should not have spurred drastic reaction
Late last Wednesday afternoon, I noted that the Spirit Wall was festooned with brightly-colored handprints and a dove with an olive branch. "Peace" was the message, and it was painted up mere days after a "terrible anti-Semitic message" was featured on it earlier that weekend.
Wow! It's amazing how a picture of a (circumcised) penis and a Star of David can really get a campus caring about world peace, tolerance, diversity, and loving each other again.
As we all have heard through The Observer, e-mails from JSG, and through the good ol' Case grapevine, someone drew a penis and a Star of David on the Thwing Spirit Wall. The outcry from what I thought to be the rational student body befuddled me. "Intolerance! Anti-Semitism!" people cried, with such fervor I thought that the P.C. Police might just haul the Student Executive Committee away. While I concede that decorating the Spirit Wall with male genitalia next to a Jewish religious symbol is not particularly an amiable or friendly gesture from the artiste by any means, it seems that the vandalism was, at best, merely rude and simply a puerile display of ignorance. I've seen more mature scrawl on bathroom doors. No doubt the perpetrator was just an immature, unintelligent prankster wanting to get a rise out of a few students, not some neo-Nazi trying to resurrect the Third Reich.
While I neither condone anti-Semitism nor hate the idea of world peace, I was a bit saddened with the reactions displayed by the student body. One was the sentiment expressed in this very newspaper. In last week's issue of The Observer: "Almost more upsetting than the message itself is the fact that it was not removed from the wall until Monday afternoon. The Student Executive Committee…must take responsibility for monitoring the content of the Spirit Wall in the future. Whether it's a once-a-day verification that all messages appearing on the wall are acceptable for display, or a security camera to help better identify those who choose ignorance over decency, something must be done to prevent another incident like this one from occurring." A security camera? Seriously? I'm not trying to turn this into a freedom of speech issue, but doesn't installing a security camera for the sole purpose of catching a brainless vandal who might draw something "not so nice" sound like an overreaction?
Of course when violations of the wall's rules do occur, they should be taken down. There really is no discernible reason why we should all be forced to gaze upon such an eyesore. But I also believe, like Eleanor Roosevelt, that "no one can make you feel inferior without your consent." Why do we need to take drastic preventative measures to keep what seems to be mildly offensive graffiti at bay? So that students are protected from offensive speech? Offensive speech, while maybe not a positive contributor to the campus environment, is certainly not something to be up in arms about. Why? Because a truly mature, well-adjusted individual does not need to derive their self-esteem from the opinions of ignorant people. In lieu of this incident, the mature course of action is to simply paint over the offensive material, instead of to broadcast public-bathroom-stall-worthy vandalism by creating an enormous uproar. Drastic and angry reaction is not an antidote to prejudice, but realizing that it should not affect one's life and dismissing it as beneath one's own standards is.
Secondly, I am saddened that Case students are more reactionary to a prankster's graffiti than any real cries for equality heard all around the world. It is no secret that many on campus have fallen prey to the apathy associated with the Case bubble. Did you know this coming Saturday is the 65th anniversary of the suicide of the Byaroza Judenrat, an entire Jewish council that decided to take their very lives rather than cooperate with the deportations during the Holocaust? The sacrifice these people made – to die rather than live without freedom – is something that the entire world should know about. But they generally don't.
I quite frankly find it pathetic and frustrating that people should donate so much publicity and time to a silly drawing on a school wall while ignoring history, culture, and even current events that shape the world we live in. Yes, calling for peace is a beneficial thing (goodness knows we need more of it in the world), but the fact that it takes a stupid scribble instead of the much more dire circumstances in the world for Case students to appreciate its fragility is a very unfortunate thing indeed.
I have no doubt that the intentions of those that painted the mural for tolerance and peace were well-placed and pure; however, I feel that such a response to such a tiny misdemeanor only cheapens such a noble cause.
Tulsi Roy is a sophomore biology/history and philosophy of science major.
