Worth a Thousand Words (Give or Take)

Gregory Petersen

gp420718@ohio.edu   

Yes, I know, I should have known better than to trust a viral image. Let me start this blog with a plea for forgiveness.

I live in Cincinnati, so I am not far from Covington Catholic High School. I am familiar with the school, and I have been there to play basketball. I know people who claim the school as their alma mater, and I know people who choose not to. I know former teachers as well.

I am familiar with the reputation of the school, and I certainly have an opinion of it. The recent events at the Lincoln Memorial certainly are not the way I like to see the Cincinnati area represented in the international media.

That said, when I first saw the inflammatory image of Nick Sandmann, a Covington Catholic student, making a smug face at Nathan Phillips, a Native American elder, it quickly confirmed the negative feelings I have harbored throughout the years. There was nothing in the initial images that I found surprising.

While I held the negativity, I also held my tongue. That is one of the few areas where I can take pride.

More of the incident was released. More video was made public by the media, and then there were multiple people, all with deeply-held beliefs, feeling they had the real story.

There are many takeaways here, but none of them feel good. My first thought here is especially discouraging, and that is that there are no good guys. A group called the Black Hebrew Israelites was near the Lincoln Memorial, and exchanged in hateful rhetoric with the Covington Catholic youth, who were quick to return the hostility.

Here is the underlying problem: a picture says more than a thousand words, especially when it can be so easily distributed. The above picture and video were seen all over social media, and the president, who is no stranger to social media, weighed in.

What does this picture show? I do not think it is possible to look at it and not have some sort of emotional response. Is it a picture of a group of kids who were bullied and overwhelmed by the approaching Nathan Phillips? Is this a group of kids going out of their way to disrespect someone? It can be hard to be objective here, and this picture does not make it any easier.

Are these students victims or aggressors? Are they both? So, with that, there will be more videos revealed, and it is hard not to condemn the actions of Covington Catholic when one of them is seen mocking rape at the Lincoln Memorial.

Ultimately, the truth will come out, but that is completely secondary to the opinions that divide us. The real truth, sadly, is that there will be more instances like this. Hopefully we can keep from the next time being sensationalized.

I just hope I can learn a lesson here. Negative feelings toward a school can lead to prejudiced feelings, and I want to be better than that. While I still do not condone the actions of the students, there were levels of provocation. That, and they are young. People can do stupid things when they are young, and this is something I know all too well. Fortunately, my youth came before You Tube.

What is the greatest problem here? There are so many emotions and thoughts encapsulated in the image that something is bound to explode. So it is important to look at all elements, and not draw too many early conclusions, no matter how difficult that may be.