UVA Lacrosse Tragedy

[Reilly]

...

So, only at Duke would we jump from an apparent crime of passion due to a breakup of a love affair and make it into a commentary on culture surrounding a sport, or social organizations. ...

The speculation about culturals surrounding various sports and whether they are a good or bad influence on participants seems oh so ridiculous to me. This is a story of two former lovers, who were fighting as a consequence of an apparent breakup, and one of them killed the other instead of himself. They write novels about such things, make movies about them. They are profoundly sad for all involved. ...

1. I agree. The tragedy here is one of self-worth, one of the human condition. The alleged murderer seemingly had a bruised ego (perhaps perpetually bruised), not enough self-worth. He lashes out. It could’ve been at himself (tragic enough); unfortunately, it was at another (doubly tragic).

2. The ‘connection’ of self-worth to lax culture is a thin thread – it is just enough to fuel the speculation about the culturals. There is a notion of white privilege/inflated self-worth around lax, just as there is around Duke. Not saying there should be that notion or that notion is correct. Perhaps that notion of white privilege is simply imposed by outsiders and is the outsiders’ perception; maybe it’s historical and is waning. But as we see with Duke hate, and the quick-to-judge media and academic reaction to the Duke lax hoax, that notion of white privilege is out there – and so folks will seek to blame it.

3. Alcohol can be a great elixir, but alcohol fuels the bad. I wish a cultural norm when the guy gets jilted is that he goes out for a 10-mile run instead of a 10-hour bender. Listen to the country station to see it’s not: “I started shooting doubles when you walked in.” Alcohol is in the mix here.

4. In addition to the speculation about culturals surrounding certain sports, there is also the speculation about the responsibility of the institution (as well as the institutional culture). The notion that the school is to blame somehow or that matters were preventable and that ‘procedures’ need improving.

Let’s compare VT, UVa and Duke.

VT suffers mass murder. Some of the media are calling for the president’s head. Greta van Susteren incessantly asking ‘why wasn’t the school on lockdown’ (like you can put a city of 20,000 on ‘lockdown’). Hokies – rank-and-file Hokies – circled the wagons around their administration. The inherent conservatism (conservatism in the sense that human nature is enduring; there’s not somebody else or some institution to blame; the individual pulled the trigger) of Virginia Tech came through at that moment, saying, “no, we’re not sacking the president and administration.” Did the president and administration make every perfect decision or decision you wished they had? Not at all. Did the institution somehow drop the ball earlier and miss warning signs? Perhaps. But ultimately the institution was not to blame for the tragedy.

Virginia sees one athlete allegedly kill another. If we want to talk about the culturals, and examine drinking culture, and believe that the institution could have and should have prevented this tragedy (‘why didn’t they know the past history’), then Virginia should cancel the seasons and issue a press release saying “this is not a time to be playing games” but rather time for self-examination. But Virginia has that same inherent conservatism as greybeard and that VT displayed – human nature doesn’t change; the individual and his human condition is the ‘cause’ here – yes, we can try to change institutional and cultural things around the margins to prevent these things marginally, but that institutional and cultural improvement or lack thereof is not the real culprit.

Compare the reaction of VT and UVA to that of Duke – the Gang of 88 reaction; Brodhead’s ‘leadership’ in the face of elite media criticism. Duke’s reaction was to fuel speculation about the cultural – to blame the cultural and the institutional, not the individuals (and in the lax hoax, the right individuals to blame are the complainant with the make-believe story and the outside-the-lines prosecutor looking to secure a pension via election). The tragedy of the lax hoax was the railroading of the innocent, and it was fueled in part by giving in to the ‘cultural-and-institutional-are-to-blame’ mentality.

[greybeard]

Seriously, man, get a sense of perspective. "A low point in American journalism"? Really? This may be a big thing in the Duke community, but NOT in the totality of American journalism.

Okay, I'm game. Tell me one.

This was the entire National media not getting that this was a shame from the moment, two weeks after the accusation was made, that DNA evidence COMPLETELY REFUTED THE ACCUSER'S CLAIM THAT ANYBODY ON THE DUKE LAX TEAM HAD SEXUALLY ASSAULTED HER. This went on in the National Media for more than a year, just about daily, and is still resurrected as the Duke lax "scandal" by many in the media until this day.

Tag, you're it.

[slower]

Okay, I'm game. Tell me one.

This was the entire National media not getting that this was a shame from the moment, two weeks after the accusation was made, DNA evidence COMPLETELY REFUTED THE ACCUSER'S CLAIM THAT ANYBODY ON THE DUKE LAX TEAM HAD SEXUALLY ASSAULTED HER. This went on in the National Media for more than a year, just about daily, and is still resurrected as the Duke lax "scandal" by many in the media until this day.

Tag, you're it.

Let me just be clear about what you're saying. Are you seriously alleging that this is "a low point in American journalism", spanning the years from, let's say, the Hearst-induced Spanish-American War, through all the 20th and 21st-century stories about politics and war and other NATIONAL and GLOBAL events?

I just want to be clear about what it is you're trying to express.

Just tell us, in what SPECIFIC sense is this "a low point in American journalism"?

[Reilly]

The Baltimore Sun on the alcohol angle:

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news...he_link_t.html

[-jk]

I think everyone has had their say. We're neither reliving the lax hoax nor reopening the ppb.

I'm closing this one down.

-jk