Advocate: "A person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy," as defined by Dictionary.com.
In the past month, there have been three major news stories that have really struck me. Two of these have been mass shootings. First at UCLA and the second being at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The third major headline being the Stanford Rape Case.
Since when is it alright to put the blame on a victim of rape saying that they asked for it? In the Stanford case, she was passed out behind a dumpster. She didn't know what was happening yet, she asked for it! Somehow her being drunk also allowed her give the ability to give consent? Yet she was unconscious. This just does not add up nor make sense, and in my opinion is just wrong. Someone has to be in the right frame of mind to give consent in the first place and even if one doesn't say no then it does not mean that they necessarily asked for it. There are cases where a victim doesn't say no because they are to afraid to or they are just caught up with what they think is love.
Then there are the mass shootings that occurred. While I didn't follow the shooting at UCLA very closely, I have followed the shooting that occurred in Orlando since it's so close to where I have been staying for the summer. Shortly after the Pulse shooting as investigations were occurring, it was reported that the shooter scouted out Disney Springs in Orlando. This just sickens me. I could not even imagine the sadness that would have occurred if he did actually hit this location (a place that is supposed to be one of the happiest and one that families with young children gather around). I am in no way shape or form trying to desensitize what did occur because the Pulse shooting was awful as well and there is a lot of sadness surrounding the shooting, especially when a lot of great strides have been taken in order to accept and respect people who identify as LGBTQ in the past year.
As an up and rising student affairs professional pursuing my graduate school degree in Student Affairs Higher Education, I have found it very hard to be an advocate in the times where our world seems like it is filled with so much hate. Recently as I have been doing some reflecting, I remember being a child and just thinking everything was happy go lucky in the world and there was no bad or evil. I remember thinking that up until 9/11 happened. But even still at that young age, I didn't fully comprehend what it all meant. Now, what is happening with these shootings our children are seeing crime and hate on a daily basis. Seeing hate and crime being targeted at a certain group of people makes our children grow up to be hateful to that population as well (in my opinion at least). When will the United States finally be able to be at peace and harmony again? Will it ever? I will say despite the hate that has happened in the past few years, the United States has become a better place then where it once was. Yet, there are still a lot of strides to make and as a student affairs practitioner, I plan to help stride to be an advocate for these groups and to attempt to teach our children what respect is, and to love.
