2008 Woodie Awards
Remembering the Bryan incident
Issue date: 3/30/07 Section: Forum
- Page 1 of 2 next >
For me, the Bryan Incident hangs over the festivities of Serendipity this year like a cloud. I remember vividly, only two months ago, the week when many students were demanding dramatic alterations in the way our community functions. Different groups worked with different visions of what would make Guilford better, but energy for change poured forth in abundance - in the forums at New Garden Meeting, in the panel discussions, in the walkouts and on and on.
That desire seems mostly to have gone underground now. But, really, one important way to reduce the likelihood of more Bryan incidents, is for the large majority of you to focus your attention differently on how you consume alcohol and drugs. I don't want to say that alcohol or drugs are inherently evil. I also don't want to ask you to feel guilty about cultural behaviors and attitudes you have inherited.
But, without the element of massive consumption, I believe the Bryan Incident would likely not have occurred - or at least not have turned so profoundly ugly. Without that element, verbal, sexual and physical violence on this campus, along with vandalism, would decline substantially.
We use the term "alcoholism" in America to describe a disease. But, the suffix "ism" properly refers to a practice ("favoritism"), a state of being ("pauperism"), a characteristic behavior ("heroism"), or a system of thought ("pacifism") - not a disease. I want to use the term "alcoholism" in a new way. So, needing a word for this disease (and with apologies to experts in medical terminology), I would like to coin a phrase for the disease: "alcoholitis."
The word alcoholism, to me, can now powerfully describe a cultural practice,
characteristic behavior, state of being and system of thought that crosses most of the boundaries currently separating athletes and non-athletes; liberals and conservatives, Southerners and Northerners, etc. Alcoholism governs much of student weekend life at Guilford and on most of America's college campuses. But does it need to?
That desire seems mostly to have gone underground now. But, really, one important way to reduce the likelihood of more Bryan incidents, is for the large majority of you to focus your attention differently on how you consume alcohol and drugs. I don't want to say that alcohol or drugs are inherently evil. I also don't want to ask you to feel guilty about cultural behaviors and attitudes you have inherited.
But, without the element of massive consumption, I believe the Bryan Incident would likely not have occurred - or at least not have turned so profoundly ugly. Without that element, verbal, sexual and physical violence on this campus, along with vandalism, would decline substantially.
We use the term "alcoholism" in America to describe a disease. But, the suffix "ism" properly refers to a practice ("favoritism"), a state of being ("pauperism"), a characteristic behavior ("heroism"), or a system of thought ("pacifism") - not a disease. I want to use the term "alcoholism" in a new way. So, needing a word for this disease (and with apologies to experts in medical terminology), I would like to coin a phrase for the disease: "alcoholitis."
The word alcoholism, to me, can now powerfully describe a cultural practice,
characteristic behavior, state of being and system of thought that crosses most of the boundaries currently separating athletes and non-athletes; liberals and conservatives, Southerners and Northerners, etc. Alcoholism governs much of student weekend life at Guilford and on most of America's college campuses. But does it need to?
Be the first to comment on this story