Christopher D. Sessums :: Blog :: Toward a Better Understanding of Events at UF

While I do not condone what happened here on the campus of the University of Florida, far too many people are spinning the situation out of control without having all of the facts in front of them (see The Gainesville Sun video and comments). This is indeed a complex situation that deserves time and meaningful attention given the ramifications of free speech, human rights, and police brutality.

Luckily for us at UF, this situation will not go away with the next sensational attention grabbing news event (e.g., can the media focus on health care for more than one day?). Here at UF, the media, students, and administrators will continue to work on getting a better sense of what happened, why it happened, and what we can do to prevent something like this from happening again.

I have wanted to speak up yet I feel I need to be careful as I have only a partial understanding of the facts and events surrounding the Tasering of Mr. Meyer. I found the video clip from Stephen Colbert posted above an interesting slant worth sharing. While Mr. Colbert regularly wags his parodic finger, his nod to student indifference in an age of entitlement is rather thought/discussion provoking.

So rather than marching in the streets, I have succumb to blogging about it -- more fodder for Mr. Colbert's canon [sic]. As always, your thoughts and opinions are welcome.