Calling All Hawks

An Elective on Perspective

                                                     by UMES Junior Brittany Johnson 

Calling All Hawks

I can’t take reading anymore emails about fatal events that took place on campus. 

This is a hawk alert. 

I’m calling all of my hawks; near, far, freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, short, tall, etc. Why? My hawks are in trouble. The humanity of people can no longer be relied upon to yield morality and decency. Humanity is becoming inhumane. 

Anytime a man can come to college for a diploma, and leave as a flagged email, you have to question things.

Is this civilization? There’s nothing civilized about being stabbed in the chest while in a parking lot when you have a quiz Monday morning. He had a quiz Monday morning. How do I know? He was in my class. We had a quiz Monday morning. Judging from his GPA, he would have passed it. You’ll never understand how present someone’s presence is until you have to take their name off of the roster. Three years of tuition, studying, and prayers from a mother back home that was all for naught.

I’m asking, why are you here? No, really. The street life is popular. If that’s what you want, stay on the streets. Travelling and shooting is great, join the army. Having sex all day, although exhausting I’m sure, is pretty freaking awesome! So, join a brothel. But, if education is what you want, go to college. If you want to learn a better way, make a better future, and leave a better trail, take college seriously. 

Do you bleed maroon and gray, or do you just wear it? If you bled it you would count every diploma as important as yours and wouldn’t hinder anyone else’s access to it. 

But, I digress. This is college; conflict resolution isn’t a prerequisite.

I need my hawks to be present for not only ourselves but for one another. This campus should be so that if anyone wanted to hurt someone on university grounds they would have to conquer a campus of fighting hawks. Or maybe we’re called the fighting hawks because of what we do to each other. The worst part about the situation is that there were no gains, only losses. Four lives were irreversibly affected. One was lost, and three are wandering. What can we do? The people who weren’t even there? We can handle our business better so that no one else’s mother will have to be called on a Saturday night to be informed that their child is no longer a student here. Tuition is high but that’s not a way that parents wish to get out of paying it. 

There’s a cycle. Who’s going to break it?

 R.I.P Edmond A. St. Clair; aka Trini Wes.

You’ve just taken, An Elective on Perspective.