{"id":2427,"date":"2018-10-01T01:47:53","date_gmt":"2018-10-01T01:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/?p=2427"},"modified":"2018-10-01T01:47:53","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T01:47:53","slug":"monsters-chalk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/01\/monsters-chalk\/","title":{"rendered":"monsters, chalk"},"content":{"rendered":"

I got a flyer in the mail yesterday from the Akron Police department letting me know that a sex offender was moving into the area. \u00a0The flyer included a picture, a description, the nature of his crime, as well as his exact address.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two streets down from my house.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I looked at the detail, though, it showed that the crime took place nearly 20 years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

And I\u2019m not quite sure how I feel about that. <\/span><\/p>\n

On the one hand, yeah, it was a pretty serious crime. \u00a0On the other, he got caught and paid his debt to society – whatever that means anymore. \u00a0\u00a0And so if he\u2019s out of jail – do we keep punishing him? Does that make our society safer that we continue to vilify him?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If I was a parent I’m pretty sure I’d be singing a different song – but if he was a thief or a murderer, I wouldn\u2019t have gotten a notice. \u00a0Which seems like an odd standard.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And if he’s really still dangerous, then what good did prison do?<\/span><\/p>\n

So, now I know that a sex offender has moved into my neighborhood. \u00a0I don\u2019t feel any safer knowing. <\/span><\/p>\n

——————–<\/span><\/p>\n

As a public institution, the University of Akron is required to allow people to come onto campus and speak in public spaces – provided they don\u2019t disrupt our normal operations or pose a threat to campus safety.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, a notice went out to the faculty, staff, and students about someone coming onto campus and that any counter-discussions should be done peacefully. \u00a0But no details on what it was about. <\/span><\/p>\n

I was busy through that day and didn\u2019t get anywhere near the venue – and it was just as well. \u00a0Based on the complaints we got, it was a preacher who was basically against anyone that didn\u2019t fit his narrow view of how humanity should be. <\/span><\/p>\n

And he was loud and vile about it – and pretty crazy.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s the kind of thing that would have made me sick to my stomach to have witnessed, but when I went through that area the next day I saw something extraordinary. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All along the walkway leading up to that area, students had grabbed some chalk and written messages of hope and love on the ground. \u00a0It was amazing – such an outpouring of support and kindness for everyone he had been attacking.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As I walked along that walkway, I felt loved.<\/span><\/p>\n

The chalk washed away at the next rainstorm, but those messages – written by kind students who supported each other – lasted far longer than his hate. <\/span><\/p>\n

So, thank you, UA students, for standing up to hate and caring about each other. \u00a0You did good.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I got a flyer in the mail yesterday from the Akron Police department letting me know that a sex offender was moving into the area. \u00a0The flyer included a picture, a description, the nature of his crime, as well as his exact address. Two streets down from my house. When I looked at the detail, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2428,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2427\/revisions\/2428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}