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Question for the week
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Posted: 04/12/07 In March 2006, three members of the Duke University lacrosse team were arrested and accused of kidnapping and raping an exotic dancer. The three -- Reade Seligman, Collin Finerty, and David Evans -- steadfastly maintained their innocence through a storm of public media scrutiny, university chastisement, and community isolation. Yesterday, they were declared innocent of all charges, although the situation is far from over. Last week, radio jock Don Imus used racially charged slurs to describe women on the Rutgers basketball team that played for the NCAA National Championship. He too experienced a storm of public media scrutiny. While Imus has issued an apology, this situation is far from over as well. What has struck me most about these two situations is how the Duke men and the Rutgers women handled the eye of the storm. In both case, they remained calm, determined, and confident of their position. No doubt each man and woman has had personal moments of anguish, but they confronted their situations with enormous dignity. After the verdict of innocent was read, the three Duke men each issued statements. I was impressed with how they put their experience into a universal context as they wondered aloud that if such injustice could be done to well-to-do families with the means to hire high priced lawyers what could happen to the less well off? And what's happened to our legal system when "Presumed guilty" has replaced "Presumed innocent?" The Rutgers women and their basketball coach, C. Vivian Stringer, were no less thoughtful. While various sponsors pulled advertisements from the Imus show and various black leaders called for the show's cancellation, the team members remained focused on using their experience to raise the level of awareness not only of black women but also of women of every color. In the end, Imus got the axe. In time, I hope these young people will not be defined only by these incidents, although I suspect each will be shaped by them. All I can say is that they behaved better than the elders around them who postured and posed and pressed. In contrast to yesterday's blog, it's refreshing to see students approximately two generations younger than I behaving with such maturity.
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