The UC-Davis Chancellor responsible for thepepper-spraying of her students, Linda Katehi, todaywent onGood Morning America and explained why she should not resign or otherwise be held accountable: “we really need to start the healing process and move forward.” On aradio programin the afternoon, she expanded on this view by saying: “Weneed to move on.”
That’s it. That’s all it means. It meansgo away.It means stop talking about how I hurt you. It means stop talking about the wrong done and the reparation due, the action taken and the appropriate consequences. It means I am sick of hearing you whine. It means I want to leave you and your mistreatment and your issues behind on the road and who cares if you’re still bleeding, because at least I stopped hitting you and really, what more do you people want from me? Just heal already, so that I can forget.
Once and for all time, the person hurt is the person who decides when it’s time to move on. The person affected is the person who decides when the “healing process” starts, and what the healing process even IS. It is not up to the perpetrator to determine what course of action the victim needs to take.
I personally think it would start the living hell out of everybody’s healing process if Katehi resigned before she was sued into next week, but again, that’s not up to me. Until one of the students pepper-sprayed in the face for the outrageous crime of sitting on the sidewalk tells us all what needs to happen for the healing process to begin, I think we can consider this whole thing officially un-healed.
A.