The 1,000th execution since 1977 in the United States will occur this Friday at 2 a.m. in North Carolina. Because of this upcoming event, a public discussion was held in Hughes-Trigg Forum in order to express feelings about individual and state sanctioned violence. The forum hoped to encourage discussion among the student body and also posed some questions as to whether or not the execution sentence is morally right.
Three different speakers led the student filled forum. The first to speak was William Finnin, the head chaplain and minister to SMU.
He began by asking students to consider how individuals and society resolve issues and whether or not it is proper. He believes “we as humans do a poor job trying to resolve violence that is now prevalent throughout America.”
Finnin encouraged students to figure out how to break the violence cycle. A few ideas were then presented from the students for ways to reduce this problem.
Dr. Cathey Soutter, coordinator of psychology services for SMU women, had several points to make about the violence that occurs in America, especially among women and children.
Soutter emphasized the number of women and children who are victims of domestic and relationship violence. She expressed that the No. 1 threat to women and children “are not strangers but someone that they have an intimate relationship with or someone in their very own home.”
Soutter, who is also a psychologist, explained if someone is able to “feel like they own you, then they control you and are able to use you.”
She also suggested that students can contribute to violence by doing small things that they may not think matter. One example is experiencing road rage while driving on the freeway and not stopping to think how it may be contributing to the problem as a whole.
Soutter asked what would happen if someone were to take it to the next step. “When you push acts and thoughts about others are you then free to treat them how you please? Does this start the violence?” she said.
Rick Halperin, a SMU professor of history and human rights, wrapped up the forum by saying, “Our lives can change through the actions of others.”
He shocked the students with the statistic that 25,000 people are murdered a year from handguns alone.
He emphatically expressed his opposition toward the death penalty, saying he wants criminals to be punished – however he does not feel as if death is the best option.
He posed a question, “What is the worst thing that you have done parents.
“I used photography to get through my brother’s death. I started taking pictures of children in my village, because that helped me feel closer to my brother,” said Kalaganti, speaking in her native Telagu language.
Bender said he saw his photography as “an opportunity to give children a voice, through powerful images.” During a five-day basic course, “We talk to them about their emotions and sharing them. They write and journal. And they go from being very introverted to being extroverted.”
Feelings are transformed into photos that show neighbors, friends and relatives at home or outdoors, in scenes from tough daily lives that persist despite AIDS.
“Picturing Hope” photographs grace the walls of a community-based home in Vijayawada operated by the Indian nonprofit organization Vasavya Mahila Mandali, where almost 800 HIV-positive children live, get medical care and are educated.
Some of the center’s support comes from the Abbott Fund, an Illinois-based philanthropy that is spending $100 million in five years to help 140,000 children affected by AIDS in developing countries, either directly or through their families. That includes 47,000 in India, according to Reeta Roy, spokeswoman for the fund, which is also sponsoring the photography project.Worldwide, at least 2 million children under age 15 are HIV-positive, according to the United Nations. Some are orphaned, partly because of the stigma and ignorance attached to AIDS, Bender said, and partly because some parents don’t have the means to care for them.
“I spent many days starving,” says Ramu Pothala Venkata, a 19-year-old who survived the streets of Vijayawada with a sexually transmitted infection, not HIV.
His camera captured “rag pickers,” street children who collect garbage to sell for recycling. Most of India’s street children have never been tested for the HIV virus.
