Dec 19 2007
Penn ST student who wore VT victim costume discovers that choice=consequence
Well, I can't pretend to be surprised, after the fiasco over Bill Maher's Steve Irwin costume last year.
Penn State Students Dress as Virginia Tech Victims
It started with a picture on Facebook and has now created a firestorm of outrage.
Two Penn State students, dressed as Virginia Tech shooting victims, at a Halloween party have enraged people from the Virginia Tech community, as well as the entire country.
10 On Your Side has seen all of the controversial pictures. They are of two Penn State students and are extremely graphic. Both are wearing Virginia Tech t-shirts and elaborate make-up. Both have bullet holes in their bodies.
OK, aside from being tacky, this is unimaginative and lame. Honestly. And why? Political statement about violence and guns maybe?
Naw. Shock value.
We talked with one of the students who wore the costume. He said the outfits were worn to a small party and meant to be private.
"It's not that it was funny, it's that we are notorious and infamous in the state college, so we have to do things that push the envelope just for shock value," he said.
Now, obviously at VT they have a different attitude: Outrage, and I cannot blame them.
The Virginia Tech Shootings were not so long ago that we have dismissed them from memory. But even if we have collectively "gotten over it" as some suggest we should, this is still tacky.
The thing is, tacky is not illegal. It may be unpleasant, it certainly is uncalled for, but it is not illegal, nor should it be. I think that we as a society spend too much time worrying about being offended.
There are those who contend that such displays, while vulgar to me, are merely someone's free speech. And frankly, that's fine with me. If they want to throw away the power of their free speech on something as stupid as a bloodstained t-shirt, then so be it.
But freedom cuts both ways. If they are free to be callous, I am certainly free to call them assholes. If they are free to disrespect the dead, I am free to say they should apologize. They are under no obligation to do so, of course. But I do have the right to say they should.
And there is another consideration: Free speech involves free will, which implies choice. You make a choice to exercise it, and how to exercise it.
And we all know that choices have consequences:
Penn State student loses job over Tech victim costume
Nathan Jones, one of the Penn State University students who dressed for Halloween as a Virginia Tech shooting victim, said the controversy has cost him his job.
In an e-mail Friday, Jones said he was asked to resign Thursday from his post at Bank of America or be fired.
"They were worried that my name may be attached to the Bank of America brand, and that this controversy would lead to a scandal," he said.
Photos of Jones and another Penn State student were posted on Facebook and caused a national outcry.
In interviews with several media outlets, including an on-camera piece on CNN this week, Jones refused to apologize.
"Things are going to be hard now, especially since I have no outside support. ... However, even though I will be starving over the holidays and my credit cards will all default, I still will not apologize," he wrote.
I have never been a big fan of jobs and personal lives overlapping, so. I would be more sympathetic to this guy...particularly if he had the guts to apologize. There is no shame in an admission that offense was caused, and you are sorry it did.
But with this guy on CNN being completely unapologetic, well, what did he expect? If you brag about something offense on National TV, your employer might consider that a bad thing.
Choice meet consequence.
Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Mark My Words, Rosemary's Thoughts, Adam's Blog, The Bullwinkle Blog, The Amboy Times, Chuck Adkins, The Pet Haven, Conservative Cat, Faultline USA, third world county, Allie is Wired, DragonLady's World, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, Pirate's Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Celebrity Smack, Wolf Pangloss, Right Voices, and OTB Sports, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
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