This Just In – As we all know, the shooting death of Dr. Zijie Yan on campus Monday was a dizzying, traumatic event on levels not yet understood. I won’t use the name of the shooting suspect here. It would be impossible to name everyone traumatized by this event, so I won’t try.
While it was necessary to cancel classes and do the necessary things for immediate security, the issue next is two-fold. BEING safe and FEELING safe. Esse Quam Videri, is more on point than ever. To BE safe is more important than to SEEM so.
The first priority for campus security is to ensure that the threat is over. I don’t claim to know what the pieces to the puzzle are to determine that, but for the sake of discussion only, let’s say that the arrest of the suspect has ended that threat.
Now our challenge is to manage the post-traumatic stress (a long-lasting and serious challenge) and find ways to take action and prevent a recurrence.
The Daily Tar Heel took a great first step in demonstrating the breadth of the trauma in posting its front page filled with text messages between and among people who were in Chapel Hill on Monday or love someone here. No pictures. Just words. This was a stellar piece of high impact journalism.
How does campus life resume? I hope that this will be an opportunity of UNC to break out of the typical aftermath-of-shooting responses. The bell tower ringing and moment of silence for the murder victim – absolutely appropriate.
Also appropriate is for student activities and normal college life to resume. These students deserve that. My suggestion would be that every sporting event or other large gathering be an opportunity for two things: Voter registration and fundraising for gun safety organizations.
Voter registration drives all year long, at every event, are an important way to empower students and Chapel Hill residents alike. UNC-CH can turn grief and trauma into action and empowerment.
An extra 50 cents or a dollar raised per person at a football game could lead to some real numbers for organizations that promote gun safety and raise awareness that events like this affect thousands of people, sometimes for months and years after the headlines are long gone.
Campus-wide, day long demonstrations are also justified. The University could dedicate University Day in October as a day of remembrance and action, encouraging students, faculty and staff to participate in demonstrations and demand action from the NC General Assembly to improve the safety of all students in our state.
When the students returned in 2018, they arrived in the aftermath of the tragic events in Charlottesville, Virginia. As was entirely predictable, they pulled down Silent Sam in support of their fellow students and to prevent that symbol from being a focal point of white supremacy here. I’m grateful to them for their direct action.
Let’s stand for Dr. Yan and honor his memory with constructive action – demanding reasonable gun safety laws and representation that reflects public sentiment. That’s not radical. It’s a desire to BE safe, rather than to SEEM so.
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
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Yes…it’s obviously the guns fault. Thing jumped up and shot someone on its own accord. We need more gun laws because that would have stopped this kid from killing his teacher….please.