{"id":1846,"date":"2019-05-14T18:55:06","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T22:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/?p=1846"},"modified":"2019-05-15T22:32:35","modified_gmt":"2019-05-16T02:32:35","slug":"healing-wounds-of-cruelty-and-rage-at-unc-charlotte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/?p=1846","title":{"rendered":"Healing Wounds of Cruelty and Rage at UNC Charlotte"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I had written my students, to ask how they were doing. It was just two\ndays after the April 30th<\/sup> shooting at UNC Charlotte, where I teach\nin the Department of Religious Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One student in my small seminar class on antisemitism wrote: \u201cI\u2019m\nfeeling very numb to everything. \u201cI\u2019m staying off social media for a bit\nbecause students are arguing and it\u2019s exhausting to look at.\u201d She wrote that\nshe had met classmates at the vigil. One had told her that she \u201cwas sad because\nshe\u2019s not walking and the last time she\u2019d be in that auditorium would be for\nthe vigil. I don\u2019t know if we have the time or not,\u201d she added, \u201cbut I\u2019d like\nto give her a graduation ceremony with our class during what would be our\nfinals period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I sat at my desk and cried. Then, I got ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the next days, our graduation plans grew in shape and size. I suggested that other students play the roles of chancellor, provost, the dean. One student was going to call the names of the graduating \u201cclass\u201d (I\u2019d learned that we had another student who wasn\u2019t walking, either, though he was also graduating). I sent all the jokes our chancellor tells at every single graduation ceremony to the student taking on his role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I committed to bringing regalia. The student who\u2019d had the idea said\nshe could make cords in school colors out of yarn and print up mock degrees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I told my department chair and asked her to play the photographer. I invited all the faculty to join our little class for our graduation ceremony. I invited other students, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the class got to our room early. We piled food on one table and\nstudents hung decorations for the \u201cclass of 2019\u201d on the wall. I stood guard\noutside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the two graduating students were allowed to enter, we all gave a full-throated cheered. We dressed them in the regalia. We took them outside. One student was charged with lining up all two of our graduates; the others took their places. The chancellor-student started her speech. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Now I want to explain why we don’t have a commencement speaker\nhere today,\u201d she said. \u201cWhy am I speaking instead?\u201d She paused for dramatic\neffect. \u201cBecause we cannot release the students into the world if they are not\nproperly sedated.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Our chancellor gives the commencement speech (using her phone, of course).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHave you been to graduation?\u201d called my department chair. \u201cHow did you\nknow he says that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The student who\u2019d had the idea in the first place spoke next. \u201cI was in\nDr. Thiede\u2019s office before the shooting,\u201d she said, \u201cand we were talking about\nhow I needed to get loud.\u201d Then she got loud — with joy, with praise, and with\nhope. She spoke about what students needed to do, who they needed to be in the\nworld. Every word she said landed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One by one the two students walked the line, shook hands with the \u201cdean,\u201d\nreceived their \u201cdegrees,\u201d and were told to stop for the requisite picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThrow your caps in the air!\u201d someone shouted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They did. High.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

UNC Charlotte will not be the same. We will have to ask whether to keep\nthe Kennedy Building, where the terror took place, standing or whether to tear\nit down. We will need to figure out how to get loud ourselves, how to do what\nwe must do to protect the young people who come to learn with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our graduates threw those caps with certainty. We celebrated with all\nthe affection we felt for them, for our class, for our school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We taught ourselves at UNC Charlotte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goodness and kindness can heal wounds of cruelty and rage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is two weeks to the day that two UNC Charlotte students, Ellis Parlier and Riley Howell, were shot and killed. Four others were injured. This post is dedicated to Alexandria Osborne, the student who had the idea for our graduation ceremony, as well as all my other students in our class on antisemitism; they are courageous human beings.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A student wrote me: she had met classmates at the vigil. One had told her that she \u201cwas sad because she\u2019s not walking and the last time she\u2019d be in that auditorium would be for the vigil. I don\u2019t know if we have the time or not,\u201d she added, \u201cbut I\u2019d like to give her a graduation ceremony with our class during what would be our finals period.\u201d
\nI sat at my desk and cried. Then, I got ready.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[507],"class_list":["post-1846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-unc-charlotte-shooting"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adrenalinedrash.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/IMG_1547.jpg?fit=4032%2C3024&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1846"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1858,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1846\/revisions\/1858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}