For better or worse, it often takes a tragedy to recognize certain aspects of the world around us. Just as so many tragedies have changed how we see the world, Martha Childress getting shot last fall brought safety concerns in Five Points to the fore.
We saw leaders from the university, city and state government and the community rally to search for answers to violence in Columbia, for ways to make sure all of us can work, live and play safely.
As we continue to work through those big-picture questions, let’s not forget the details of how Childress and all of us transition back to normalcy, as a community and as individuals.
Now that the unimaginable has happened, we are forced to take a look at how we operate day-to-day. Put another way, are we as a community cognizant of the challenges others face? And are we doing enough to support them?
We have been asking: Does Five Points have enough police officers walking the streets at night? Are we doing enough to prevent or mitigate the kind of misery that drives people into gangs?
But let’s not forget other questions: Does every door have a handicap-accessible button that works? As individuals and a community, are we doing everything we can to offer help to those who might need it?
Questions like those can seem trivial, but the details add up to, and they’re the pieces that make others’ experiences at Carolina.
Issues of accessibility have been around long before Childress was hurt last fall, and they won’t cease to be a concern. They call for a different way of looking at the world around us, conscious of events and societal norms that are essential for a functioning society, even if they don’t directly affect the lives of everyone.
Changing the way we think about the world, considerate of everyone instead of the majority, isn’t easy to do. It requires both empathy and effort. It requires those who aren’t discriminated against to think about those who are. It requires us to try to see the world the way others see it and be proactive to make theirs an equitable reality.
Again, this isn’t easy. In so many issues, we have reacted to tragedy, failing to prevent them in the first place. Doing so requires monumental effort and constant vigilance.
When Childress returns to USC this year, she deserves to face as few obstacles as possible, just as all 30,000 of us do.