On campus: Liberty vs. security
By Kassie Kallner
IV Leader Staff, May 3, 2007
The victims, family members and the Virginia Tech
community suffered in a way that should have never been imagined, much less
perpetrated.
The United States grieved for yet another school shooting,
this time on a much larger scale and at the college level. But this time it
seems like something is different.
Much like the aftermath of Sept. 11 2001, and the events at
Virginia Tech on April 16 2007, have impacted our nation on a deeper level. And
at the core of every discussion of what should have been done, what should be
done next and what we need to change will be one central theme: liberty versus
security.
What rights should we have to give up to ensure safety? How
do we keep our individual freedoms but deal with problems like these? No matter
what rights we relinquish in order to take more precautions, our society will
never be free from tragedy.
Many of the faculty, students and administration I talked to
in preparation for the articles about Virginia Tech that appear in this issue
expressed that no matter what we do, no matter how spectacular our safety plans
are, if someone wants to hurt people here at IVCC or anywhere else, they will
find a way.
So at this time, it is important to review security plans.
There may be something more we can do. We must learn from this incident and
progress as a society. But we must not alter the existence of campus life--they
are a sanctuary for free expression, growth and the ultimate academia
experience.
We must not damper the campus experience for more safety
restrictions that may or may not prevent someone who is intent on hurting
others; the value of a free society is too important.
The horrible truth is that bad things happen to good people.
Everyday when we wake up in the morning, get ready for the day ahead of us and
walk out our doors into the world we are putting ourselves at risk. But more
times that not we return to our homes safely at night. And the prevailing light
at the end of the tunnel is that there are more good people than bad people.
There are thousands of amazing things going on at campuses
across the world everyday. We should never forget what happened at Virginia Tech
and we should take security at our schools very seriously.
We should do everything necessary to ensure the safety of
everyone who walks onto any school’s campus on our country. But we should not
change our way of life so drastically that our liberty and expression as
students, professors and U.S. citizens is taken away.