c. 2026 Cheryl Keller, Rod Ice
All rights reserved
(9-26)
Mermaid Says:
Whatever happened to just being a decent human being? I was in the middle of my early Saturday morning…coffee, cinnamon raisin toast, and a little phone scrolling. I do try to limit my screen time for obvious health reasons, both physical and mental given our current political environment. I think emotional health is critical and “doom scrolling” just leads you down a rabbit hole that before you know it, hours have gone by and your mental state has quickly deteriorated from having a great day to I am going to die tomorrow and the world is imploding.
I need to say one thing before I continue this writing; that this article is not about the details of the incident that transpired, it is about the responses of the parties involved. I also need to say that it concerns a lawsuit that was filed and that it goes hand in hand with the words "allegedly" and “innocent until proven guilty”, etc. Lastly, I do not typically write about triggering content, or such content that is this heavy, but this story has hit a nerve; not just from a woman’s perspective, but also a mother’s, and definitely from a mother of boys.
This particular morning, I happened across a video post discussing an incident at Cornell University. It concerns a lawsuit that was recently filed by a young woman who was intoxicated and went to a male friend’s room, was convinced to do drugs, and then when she passed out, was raped. Not only raped by her “friend”, but he then posted in his fraternity group chat about her being “available for sex” and multiple additional young men answered the post, showed up and raped her as well…for hours. Not one of these young men, nor the other young men who the post went out to in the entire fraternity seemed to think this was wrong. No one came to help her, called to report, responded with any human decency to say this is not right, nothing. To add insult to injury, as I kept watching, Cornell’s response was to expel two of them and have the other five write an essay. Yes, you read that correctly, write an essay.
Someone’s daughter was assaulted by multiple people, and no one was arrested, and the trusted institution involved felt that an essay was an appropriate response. I am sitting here in disbelief. As a mother…and one of two boys…I am just at a loss for words. If it is one thing I taught my boys, it is respect for women, and not just women, but people in general. Respect, compassion, love, common human decency - how to treat another human being. How can anyone think that this behavior is acceptable, that this behavior does not require a more devastating consequence than a mere essay? Have we as a society devalued women that much? I just don’t understand, and it strikes that nerve, that anger that fuels this writing.
I have written many articles where I have touched on human interaction and just being a decent human being; treating others well, but this one hits me as a woman much harder. I get tired of hearing when a woman is assaulted, questions that surround what she was wearing or what position she put herself in - the where or the time of night. I rarely hear that the assault should never happen, period. That if consent is not given, clearly, you cannot take it, you cannot act on it. Where is the repercussion for these young men who decided on their own accord to take what was not rightfully theirs to take? Where is the moral compass that steps in and says “this is not right”? How and when did they lose the ability to look at another human being and treat them with basic human decency, kindness?
What happened to this young woman should never have happened. Those young men should be held accountable for exactly what transpired - rape. Expulsion, writing essays, not enough; subsequent criminal charges need to be brought and punishment through the court system swift. As for Cornell University - private, Ivy League - you are not above being held responsible. Not only should your assets take a hit, but your reputation as well. Safety for your students needs to be a priority and not swept under the rug with a hand smack such as doling out paper and a pen for an essay.
Walrus Responds:
I must begin by saying that I have a personal connection with Cornell University. I was privileged to enjoy an apprenticeship at Channel 13 in Ithaca, New York from 1979-1980, where I had the opportunity to study television broadcasting and production in a hands-on environment. I still have friends in the area, and one of them works in a limited capacity for the Cornell Daily Sun newspaper, which has reported on this story. A tragic failure of order and discipline allegedly transpiring in 2024.
With that having been said, I will confess that my writing partner has addressed this issue in compassionate and logical terms. All I can do is echo her sentiments, and endorse them completely. It is astounding to me that in our world of modernity, such disgusting incidents still occur. And it is particularly troubling to see such conduct being precipitated in an environment of higher education, such as Cornell. There is no justification for what happened on any level. Indeed, it speaks to the dark nature of humanity in general, even among the people of an advanced and privileged society such as our own.
I will refrain from tangential references to politics and sociology which could be made here, even though they may be merited. As a nation, we sometimes seem to gloss over the importance of stifling these harmful behaviors, and punishing the perpetrators, in favor of convenient rationalizations about ‘one side versus the other.’
We have allowed certain notable and powerful individuals to avoid scrutiny, over issues like human trafficking, sexual harassment, rape, public prevarication, financial improprieties, and outright corruption. Each bout of ignorance, whether great or small, has an effect on the rest of us, I believe. There ought not to be excuses accepted for any of these sins. But we know from our own history that in times of partisan rancor and tribalism, these sad truths may come to pass. It is a trail of evidence we leave behind us like footprints in the mud or snow.
We ought to do better. We need to do better. We must do better.
But until we cross that threshold from antiquity and inequality, to a realm of permanently elevated standards, it seems that we remain stuck in that doom loop. Literally scrolling and scrolling in a search for nothingness.
I pray that somehow, that sobering reality will change.
From the Cornell Daily Sun: https://www.cornellsun.com/article/2026/09/tccsuykuvb4z
No comments:
Post a Comment