Journals

Student Athletes Speak Out

April 30, 2012   

Today at about 12:45 I was walking down Martin's Way, tired and mildly frustrated. You know, I had a case of the "Mondays." I look up and see that there are a ton of people sitting outside of Commons--not unusual for a sunny day, but what was unusual was how quiet everyone was. I remembered that today was the day that Student Athletes were anonymously reading aloud submitted stories of sexual assault.

I almost walked past them and went straight for Commons, but I realized I had nothing else to do so I sat for a while. Anyways, I knew a few of the guys doing readings. I was impressed to see so many people lined up to read. Lots of guys from the Football team, and a couple from Lax and Golf, others I didn't recognize. There were also a lot of people listening.

Each story was different, and all of them were anonymous, but not all of them were specifically about an event that happened on Hamilton's campus. They all had a similar tone: "I didn't ever think this could happen to me."

It was pretty powerful stuff, and I only wish that more people could have stopped to listen. Assault is one of those problems that people tend to have an "out of sight, out of mind" attitude about until it directly affects them. It's great that people were willing to stand up and speak for those who couldn't,  to get this issue out there. It was definitely a wake up call for me that there are a lot worse things than a bad case of "the Mondays."

Dew