No one is really safe

There seems to be a weight resting on the shoulders of all of the RCs I've talked to today. Getting a phone call at 5:30 on a Sunday morning and hearing that a fellow student had been attacked and put into the hospital tends to do that.

What kind of world is this?

My roommate was still asleep when someone slipped a notice under our door. I immediately wondered how I would tell her; this is not the sort of thing one mentions casually. I wondered how campus authorities would tell first-years and prospies and transfer students about this attack, and how we as a campus would tell them that this was not an isolated incident. I've been here for only one year, but I remember all too clearly last year's attack, as well as all the Security Notebook entries about the "Oberlin flasher." And some of my older friends here have told me about rapes in the Arb and such incidents. Certainly no one expects an attack on a student anywhere, and in a town as quiet as Oberlin it becomes particularly sobering. It becomes a question of what kind of world we live in.

"I'm a homicidal maniac; I just look like everyone else."

My next thought was that even with the precautions prescribed by campus security, no one is really safe. There are plenty of kind-hearted people on this campus who open doors for others, and the student body is diverse enough that virtually anyone can pass as an Oberlin student. So even if we all lock our doors and keep the outside doors and windows closed all the time, we're still not really safe. We can lock ourselves in our rooms, but the moment we step into the hallway to go to the bathroom or visit a friend, we become vulnerable. And the risk becomes far greater if we should dare to go to a class or the library or to some event.

Even paranoids have real enemies.

Basically, there's not much we can do to prevent this sort of thing. We can lock doors and walk in groups and not stay out till all hours of the night, but there's a point at which it becomes paranoia, and even that won't stop a really determined sociopath. As the saying goes, even paranoids have real enemies. Campus Security can promote "awareness" up to wazoo, but there's no way for every student to be completely aware all the time. What we really need is to change the world, and rest assured that I'll tell the world as soon as I figure out how.

Best wishes for the victim and for all of us.