Hell of a Friendship Bracelet

Friends' plan to swim English Channel in limbo over visa

The Channeling Peace Initiative

We are all fortunate to have friends who care about us, for whom we would jump in our car at three a.m. just to talk them out of something stupid (or join them in doing it). We commemorate friendship in any number of ways, with pictures and notes passed in class, with yearbook comments and friendship bracelets.

Swimming the English Channel? That is a hell of a friendship bracelet. But for those who know Usman and David, who can expect anything less?

The Channeling Peace Intitiative has been a source of hope and inspiration for those of us who have been a part of it, from the passerby who visits the site periodically or who may have stumbled on the story on CNN to the friends and family who are closest to these two awesome men, and those of us who have sent letters of support or additional documentation through available channels to help push for Usman's emergency visa.

The window is closing for the swim to take place, so in a few short days there will be a resolution to the legal/administrative question at hand. But I say this to you: this venture has already been a success. As Usman said in his interview: "Even if I have to swim in a lake in Pakistan while David swims in the English Channel, it's still a powerful symbol."

Because they took on this project. Because they have the support of parents and friends from Pakistan, the United States, and worldwide. Because an entire college community -- students, faculty/staff, and alumni (mad love OWU!) -- are standing behind them as they work toward a goal far greater than making the strokes and taking the breaths to make it across the English Channel...

They are tying knots in the world's biggest, most visible friendship bracelet.

And that's a hell of a thing.

Rants and Raves home

Making the Standards Stick

Celebrating Cronkite while ignoring what he did

As usual, Glenn Greenwald gets to the root of the issue. What made Walter Cronkite a legendary journalist and a man worth remembering was his understanding of the role that journalists should play in checking government behaviour and informing the people of what they need to know.

I have been writing since I was a little girl, and I had dreams of being a journalist -- writing hard-hitting accounts of current events and calling for action to preserve justice and our way of life. Or, sitting in front of a camera as did my hero, Edward R. Murrow, and cutting through the frippery to get to the heart of an issue. "What is right is not always popular; what is popular is not always right."

True journalism is not about being popular -- it is about being right.

Sadly, however, Greenwald has accurately surmised what is going to happen in the ongoing memorial to Walter Cronkite. After all, in order to show admiration for the man it is necessary for those who do what he despised to downplay the fact that he, in fact, despised it. Indeed, we have the dangerous habit of sugarcoating or plainly disregarding the truth when it is inconvenient, be it in our obsession with scandal and rumour rather than important world concerns or our slavish eulogizing of celebrities whose lives only gained meaning through the cult followings they gained.

So instead of a eulogy, I will take some important lessons from Uncle Walter: stand up for what is right, even if you are standing alone. Speak the truth, and shame the devil. Don't sell your honour or allow it to be taken from you. And whatever decisions you make with your life, make sure you can look yourself and all others in the eye at the end of the day.

Rest in peace, Uncle Walter.

Rants and Raves home

Accountability, part 1: Act Like An Adult

Judge Throws Out Conviction in Deadly MySpace Hoax

...are you serious?!?!?!?!

I don't know what disgusts me more, that Lori Drew wasn't even prosecuted for her real crime -- using social networking to goad a young, depressed and impressionable girl to suicide -- but that now it seems she won't even serve a prison sentence for the crime for which she was convicted! Judge George Wu decided, rather than sentence Drew to three years in prison or the less-appealing probation, that simply overturning the conviction is the best route to follow.

I would not want to be the Meier family right now.

Despite the lack of precedent in a case like this, I believe that the justice system has a clear responsibility to hold adults accountable for their actions when they refuse to hold themselves accountable. A decision like this spreads the message that it is okay for an adult to coerce and manipulate a child using whatever means necessary for no reason more than that child fought with your child.

A lot of the argument in this case hinges on whether you believe that Drew knew about Megan's depression and treatment for such, and I believe that she did. How could she not, when by all accounts her daughter and Megan were friends, and she spoke with Megan's mother about it? What's more, even a teenager who isn't diagnosed with depression or another mental disorder is going through the trials of adolescence and all of the hormonal changes therein. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that even the most seemingly well-adjusted teenager would consider a desperate option when the "person" she trusts the most tells her that the world would be "better off without" her.

Adolescents are cruel, vicious, insecure creatures. The damage they cause to one another in an attempt to gain some stability of self is appalling, and should be discouraged by the ostensibly wiser adults around them. Instead, we end up with "adults" like Lori Drew, who resort to similar adolescent tactics to drive a girl as deep into despair as it is possible to go.

The only hope in this case is that the ruling is not final until Wu submits the written copy, and maybe by then he will realize the ramifications of sticking by this decision. In the meantime, I can only hope that Lori Drew will receive the worst punishment possible for what is truly a heinous crime and that other adults will learn from this and act like adults -- not overgrown children. The results can quite obviously be deadly.

Rants and Raves home