By: Daniel Christianson

Daniel Christianson — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 15:50:15 +0000

Hey, I have an idea! How about we teach people to love and respect each other, tell them why that’s important, and really dish out some harsh consequences for when people harm each other! Creating safe spaces is a nice idea. So is “distracting” someone, as well as “asking someone who is causing harm to move away.” I’m assuming that those methods are only useful in the moment if people are aware of what’s happening. In which case, saying “Hey, look, a blimp!” or “Please kindly step over hear, so that you are not harming that person” won’t stop a person from being sexually aggressive toward another person. I know Anabaptists don’t like the idea of hands on motivation, but tackling an attacker to the ground and getting in a couple quick well-placed immobilizing hits will send a quick message. From there, the person can be arrested (by the police, who we pay to do the things that we say we shouldn’t do ourselves), convicted and sentenced (hopefully in a non-revolving door court system), which further sends a message to any would-be future assailants that this type of behavior definitely WILL NOT be tolerated on this campus. It used to be called “tough love,” and natural and logical consequences. And the real possibility of harsh consequences for harmful behavior, coupled with positive teaching, used to help motivate people to positive behaviors, and reinforce the understanding that each person is to be a contributing member of society. But now we want to be “tolerant” of everyone, their individuality, and tolerant of everything else, so that people don’t get their weak, sensitive little immature feelings hurt. Thanks to tolerance, problems like this and more are ever rising. We can’t expect things to get better if we don’t teach real selfless love and respect for each other, while at the same time teaching too much false grace and mercy. This idea looks good online. But, I’m sorry, “green dots” and training people to be “proactive bystanders” – a term which seems to convey more virtue signaling than anything by trying to control something through being present, but not really taking an active part – won’t change anything in the end. Let’s turn back the hands of time, and think and do things that really used to work before we broke what didn’t need to be fixed.

By: Anne Nielsen

Anne Nielsen — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 12:32:29 +0000

This a good start, but most sexual violence occurs indoors in private settings. I will be very interested to see how such encounters can be diminished, beyond the obvious triggers like alcohol, isolation.

Comments on: Green Dot is coming: EMU group to attend initial instructor training

By: Daniel Christianson

By: Anne Nielsen