Wesleyan, I think we have a problem. My issue is this: Some people in the community, for whatever reason, feel that it is all right to alienate other members of the community. I say this because it is true—people this semester (and semesters past) have been deliberately made to feel uncomfortable by others around them. To clarify this issue, these actions are NOT acceptable! Regardless of the circumstances!
The purposeful alienation of your fellow students (and others as well) will never be an effective way to create understanding within this or any community. Purposeful alienation will never lead to a community mending its differences. I am being purposefully vague here, because these statements should apply to EVERYONE on the campus—gender orientation and political beliefs aside.
In saying this, I am not asking that people back down and forget about the issues that are important to them. Rather, I’m asking people to think before they act and, only then, to choose the most productive plan of action in confronting the community about their grievance. Put simply, what the Wesleyan community needs is discourse—we as a whole must start talking to each other about our issues. This is to mean that surely, confrontation will occur, but it should not need to occur in a way that makes anyone overly uncomfortable. Only once we have achieved this discourse will we, both individually and as separate interest groups on campus, begin to truly understand the perspectives of others.
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