Why We Need More of "Enough is Enough"

On Monday night the first installation of the nationally recognized campaign “Enough is Enough” was kicked off in the Hall of Fame room located in the Cordts Physical Education Center on campus. The preliminary event of the week long endeavor, “No More Violence in My Life” was led by Ms. Robin Wynder, the director of the Diversity Center. Ms.Wynder used the first night of an informative five days to get FSU students to recognize violence as a while.

 

  The workshop under the leadership of Frostburg Alum Robin Wynder and her apparent apprentice Jennifer Cruz, proved to be more like an open discussion than a lecture on violence. The dialogue began with a definition of violence, to which we, 6 young women and 1 young man found to be "anything in which suffering is caused." Shortly after, we were prompted to share our names with each other as well as one good thing we thought about ourselves. After pleasantries we as a small and yet intensely intrigued group were able to identify the types of violence in everyday life.

 

Though the workshop was only a hour preview of an usually 8 hour seminar, the attendees were still able to grasp the way violence is able to affect us without much effort at all. One attendee, Okisha Wheeler observed that, “pretty much everyone whose ever been violent with someone has had someone be violent with them," and with this observation, we all sat momentarily in silence and meditated on the simple truth. As we all we regrouped, we were met with an easy smile from Ms. Wynder, and continued on, now with the grueling fact on our mind.

 

  As a group we were able to identify the roles of people involved in violence: Perpetrators, Victims, and sometimes Witnesses, and then asked to share moments in our life where we considered ourselves to be placed in one of the roles established. The educational nature of the workshop allowed the participants to realize that most of us, if not all, have been placed in roles that we did not consciously place ourselves in. As we shared our stories of being the "bully" the "bullied" or simply the "unsuspecting spectator" a sense of solidarity was established, one that is surely needed here on our homely campus.