7th Floor Love.
This is for all the people who don’t know what’s going on.
A couple days ago, an act of terrorism and racism hit the UCSD campus. The student population has been divided over what apparently has emerged as a longstanding, BROKEN system of racial separation that has only surfaced in the past weeks due to a single act by a group of misguided individuals. While these things in and of themselves might have been enough to cause immeasurable amounts of pain and suffering, certain individuals did something that caused the already shaky university infrastructure to just crumble to the ground.
They left a noose on the 7th floor of the library. Hanging from a bookshelf.
In stark contrast of the books that surrounded it that, in many ways, symbolized man’s accumulated knowledge and wisdom over the years, this inconsiderate and ignorant act of hatred caused our student population to erupt and begin to choose sides. In about 10 minutes, there will be a rally in support of those in pain and suffering. I wear black, not just in solidarity with my brothers and sisters, but in mourning and in grieving that something like this might even happen.
But coming into Geisel Library to do some prayer and contemplation before the aforementioned rally, I chanced to meet a friend in the elevator who suggested that instead of heading up to the eighth floor as I originally intended, to stop at the seventh. Confused, I took his suggestion. This is what I saw.
All the tables, covered in roses. (Who said roses were just for Valentine’s Day, anyways?)
In the very place where a symbol of hatred and hostility caused hearts to bleed and cry out, a symbol of love and solidarity now washes clean.
This is where justice and reconciliation collide.
This almost made me tear up. Thanks for sharing.
A fantastic post. And as someone who works in the library, thanks for sharing this moving gesture.
I want to follow up.
This act of love brought tears to my eyes. Thank you.
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This is an act of beauty. A powerful act promoting healing at a time of rampant unhappiness, confusion, and anger. I challenge the artists a the UCSD Community to express random acts of beauty, Love, and, healing
I am proud to see this inspired, peaceful, wise, and loving kind of response to the antagonistic and sad scene of last week… What a dramatic difference from my generation’s reaction…. four decades. I am proud of my student.
I meant four decades ago.
for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction…in this case love overcomes hate…its good to see that simple things such as this go such a long way to help restore faith in humanity…there are good people out there in the world
dude, so good.
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What a wonderful idea, this is simply beautiful
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Glad to hear you like the roses. I am part of that group that left them there and I am glad that you are inspired by them. Our hope is to encourage further peaceful loving actions among the faith communities at UCSD. We feel the nonviolent movement must continue and we will continue to do things to encourage that. Today we hope to reclaim Geisel so if possible join us at noon at the statue and bring a rose.
htJj2q Thank you for your advice!
NIce to see that acts of love are more powerful than acts of hate. I got chills reading this.