Discussions seek answers, not blame
While I agree with Nikkee Porcaro’s sentiment in yesterday’s column, “The maelstrom,” I found her conclusions deeply flawed and troubling. As Porcaro noted, people need to stop seeking targets for their anger in this tragedy. However, people “ranting about gun control laws and privacy issues or pontificating about the reasons Cho committed this gruesome act” are doing exactly what Porcaro recommends: They are “look[ing] to the future while honoring the victims of this past Monday” by looking to prevent such gruesome acts in the future. If we learn nothing from what has happened, then these victims have died in vain.
The language and the tenor of the discussions people are having right now may sometimes become inappropriate. All of us need to remember that we are looking for answers, not people to blame or hate, but discussions of why this happened and how to prevent it in the future are paramount. Without a great deal of thought and discussion, nobody can possibly find a way to prevent this kind of tragedy in the future. Porcaro’s stated solution is a glaring example of the need for discussion, because “balanc[ing] people’s privacy rights with a stronger, more effective detecting system to identify troubled people” fails to recognize that Cho was identified as troubled several times by people working at the university. This tragedy has shown definitively that detection alone is not always enough.
I do not pretend to have answers, but I do know that we need more discussion about all the issues related to this terrible tragedy. As flawed as Porcaro’s conclusions were, her premise was quite correct: We don’t need blame, we need change.
Katherine Randle
Faculty Research Assistant
Teachers value profession over money
As I looked through the Salary Guide in The Diamondback yesterday detailing many of our teachers’ annual salaries, I came across a great revelation: Teachers really do love teaching. Seeing that many of our teachers hold certifications such as doctorates with years of experience, there is no question that many of our teachers can go work in their industries and make potentially at least three or four times their current salaries. In some cases, many of us will be making twice as much in our first year as some of our current teachers are making today. But why is realizing all of this important?
It is important so that all of us can really appreciate some of the great professors we have today in our various classes. Most of these professors made a decision a long time ago that they loved teaching to students and loved helping us grow academically. Many of them have spent their entire career teaching because they loved working with students more than anything else in the world, including money. So as we all attend our classes tomorrow, and you are listening to lectures about the time value of money, Newton’s Laws of Motion and the War of 1812, sit back and think to yourself how lucky you are to have the teacher in front of you who cared more about helping students like you learn than about any amount of money.
Kunal Mahajan
Junior
Finance
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