University of Virginia Library

Slowly But Surely

The Black Students Alliance, in recognition
of the tragedy which occurred at Southern
University in Baton Rouge on Nov. 16, has
announced the intention of initiating a
scholarship fund in memory of Denver Smith
and Leonard Brown, the black students who
died there. We applaud this idea.

Like other violent confrontations which
have marred the tranquility of universities in
recent years, it will be some time before the
true story is known in its entirety. What
caused the clash is probably both as simple as
momentary unbridled emotion or hate, and as
complex as the sociological undercurrents
which predated the event. No matter, though,
for the two slain students...they are simply
and sadly the victims of the fearsome
philosophy that bullets speak louder than
words.

Without passing judgment, then, on any of
the principals in the episode at Southern, we
nevertheless join in mourning these deaths. It
is an awful commentary on the state of the
Union when we find ourselves
commemorating casualties of campus violence
with anything. It is like creating a memorial
for a friend who died from a common illness,
and that illness is apparently still virulent in
America.

Nothing of value to anyone emerged from
the shootings in Baton Rouge, but the BSA's
idea to initiate a scholarship fund is a good
one and merits the University's support. If, in
response to this or other similar disasters,
there will be a black student at the University
in future years with financing through the
proposed scholarship fund, we will at least be
building on our foolishly violent present.

We can, and must, stop now (again) to
think seriously on what is happening to a
nation where mass protests often seem the
only effective prod to bureaucratic
decision-making and where strong-arm
counter-pressure is often the only reliable
means to silence unwelcome opposition. Can
we really babble about world peace while we
use warfare to settle our personal and
institutional disputes? Are we trying to run
when we can't even walk?

If we give to posterity not only a
scholarship but a lesson of how not to solve
problems, we will leave not a shadow of
suspicion about the goodness of our
intentions, even if they are stained by the
occasional sickness of our actions.