by Alec Williams
I have slowly begun to realize a bad habit of mine: I make my opinion of a topic on the spot and it is very unlikely that it will change. One of these topics happened to be trigger warnings and safe spaces on college campuses, I had made my mind up that these were for young people who could not handle real talk.
For context, safe spaces are systems set up by colleges to protect those who might become offended or negatively affected by discussing sensitive subjects like war, rape, abortion or a variety of other topics. Also known as trigger warnings, which is a topic being discussed that could trigger something, such as a memory from a past traumatic event, and a professor will warn the class before the lecture begins.
But, college is supposed to be about challenging yourself, interacting with topics head on, even if you disagree with it. Why should a college enable this type of behavior? Why are we pandering to these people who cannot face talking about something head on? These were the thoughts that swarmed my head whenever this issue came up… Until I spoke to Vincent Fronczek.
Fronczek is a golden scholar on campus, meaning he’s an older student, about my grandfather’s age with snow white hair and a soft voice; he is also an artist. He spoke to me concerning safe spaces when he found out I was writing something on it.
He explained how much safe spaces helped him, because he is also a U.S. Army veteran who fought during the Vietnam War.
His professors at CMU would pull him aside before a lecture if the subject matter could bring something up within him, something related to his time in the war. Whether that be discussing war itself, death or several other topics that could trigger his post traumatic stress disorder(PTSD),hewasnotified ahead of time.
It was in that moment that I pulled my head out of my ass and realized that these safe spaces are not really meant for the people out there who are sensitive for the sake of being sensitive. They are meant for people like Fronczek: war veterans, rape victims and those who have gone through the processofabortion.
Yes, there will be some people out there who abuse this and use it to get out of being offended on a daily basis, but it’s a very small price to pay for making sure the victims of trauma, in any form, do not have to deal with unnecessary pain.
As long as it does not affect the education of others, how is it our business to decide someone has to go through another moment of grief? At the very least, I cannot sign my name on that.
Until we as a society can think of a better way to protect these people, I see no better alternative. We will continue to argue with each other about being too sensitive or not sensitive enough, but for now, how about we just meet in the middle?
