Vet Barred From College For Essay

[Generic Other]

Run time: 04:32 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KOLQ_A1gNc   Posted on YouTube: November 24, 2010 By YouTube Member: TheYoungTurks Views on YouTube: 3183   Posted on DU: November 24, 2010 By DU Member: Generic Other Views on DU: 880

 
I am conflicted on this one. He sounds scary. But we created him.

[wxgeek7]

1. Agree with TYT

I agree with TYT 100%!

I think it's not unreasonable for this vet to sue this communty college.

[whathehell]

2. The headline is a bit misleading, isn't it?...He's allowed in -- with conditions.

Like you, I feel conflicted about this too...It seems wrong to bar a vet who served his country. On the other hand, as you said, he does sound a little scary.

[baldguy]

3. Was he having fantasies about killing students or faculty in particular?

Has he acted on any of these fantasies?

[reggie the dog]

4. I think he belongs in the classroom

once he gets his ba he can go to officers training school and then serve his country again. i just hope that by then his superiors will have pulled the troops out of afghanistan and iraq. he wrote about something my dad told me about. he was a marine in vietnam and he told me that being in a battle was a huge rush and that nothing in civilian life came close, he didnt want to relive it, when he came home he didnt go back but as the years went on he said he noticed that nothing quite gave him the same rush as those firefights had.

[T Wolf]

5. Psychos who get off on killing innocents have no business being around people. Keeping

this asshole away from good people is the least that the college should do.

I certainly would not want my child anywhere near him.

[reggie the dog]

6. he is not a psycho as you say

he was honest about something that happens to some soldiers, some soldier get a huge rush in a battle and from hunting those hunting you. He does not talk about killing innocents, he is a soldier, sent to a war and talks about engaging the enemy. I would sit next to him no problem. He is on meds and in couseling. I don't see why it is wrong for him to talk about the issues he has as a war veteran who has seen combat and tells of what it has done to him.

[tomg]

7. As a college writing teacher who

has had a very wide range of students in the classroom ( including vets, returning adults, esl, learning disabilities, formerly incarcerated, at the time incarcerated, and more straight, conservative middle class kids than I ever want to see in one place again), I strongly agree with TYT on this one. Obviously, the college administration has an obligation to reach out and offer help and, simultaneously, to do all that it can to ensure the safety of all of its students. I think in a rather awkward way, that is what they are trying to do . In fact, as a college teacher, I find that walking that line between the rights of the individual student and the legitimate concerns of the community when we have students who are/ could be having serious psychological difficulties is very difficult.

The fact that this young man wrote about it, that he then felt comfortable enough to publish it in the college newspaper, that - from the short snippet read - it seems like a well-crafted work, says more about the health of this young guy. Yes, the admin has to check it out. Yes, it seems ( and I don't have all the information) the admin really overreacted.

In fairness to the administration ( and I am generally not favorable to academic admins - I have done negotiations), they are honestly trying to meet an obligation. And, as usual, they are screwing it up.

[herbm]

8. To me a vet, it shows one reason why there should be a draft in war.

Everybody else has no idea of what it takes to make someone ready to do whatever they've been told to do with no hessitation. They use a lot of people who for whatever reason join up, reconstruct them to follow orders and then set them loose to survive the real mean streets Iraq and Afghanistan and then bring them home a parody of the citizen soldier of the Revolution.

This guy was talking on the problem, joining in with society and participating. Getting the demons out where he can deal with them has actualy put him into a postion of hiding them from now on. And that's the danger here.

Its the quiet marginalized ones that will kill themselves and maybe a spouse and you, too.

[MrModerate]

9. I guess my question would be -- and this is theoretical . . .

What would the college do if they approach him as Cenk suggests, and he turns them down? Says "thanks but no thanks, I'll handle my issues myself."

Then the college is between a rock and a hard place because -- as Cenk himself says in this piece -- the guy could snap at any moment. Of course, there's no way of knowing whether that's true without some sort of evaluation, but what do the risk management people in the college administration recommend at that point?

But thowing him out until/unless he's evaluated seems unjust.

[howard112211]

10. They have to respond to this in some way.

If this guy actually did go spree shooting, the first question being asked would be why the school ignored warning signs and yadda. However, kicking him out might not be the best way to do this. Demaning that he go get counceling is reasonable though, imo.

Overall, I think the state should be responsible for dealing with this type of situation. One of the problems is that whenever the question is raised of whether certain veterans might pose a threat to the rest of society, it offends many people's sensitivities, so no sound way of dealing with this is possible.

[Enthusiast]

11. I have observed the most

incredible extreme effects of adrenalin close-up, first-hand.

These effects are amazing and even become addictive in many people. The bomber groups coming home from WWII formed the "Hell's Angels" motorcycle club partially to compensate this loss of combat adrenalin in their daily lives. It can become an insatiable urge.