My big break has finally come! I was eagerly waiting as the correspondent from WBZ Channel 4 in Boston made her way through the TV room in Collis. She was looking for subjects to interview on the day of the sentencing in the Zantop murder case, and my patience paid off when "Dan Garamba" appeared on the 11-o'clock news to describe the campus reaction to the sentences. My name -- or at least a rough approximation thereof -- appeared on one of CBS' largest affiliates. It's only a matter of time before I hit the big screen, and they even provided a convenient pseudonym I can take with me.
However, my big break happened to fall within emotionally trying circumstances that tend to induce somber contemplation more than celebration. After all, it was the day of reckoning for the murderers of two of Dartmouth's most popular professors, and it brought the tragedy rushing back just as the campus had seemed to get over it.
Or did it? When I was asked how the students at Dartmouth were reacting to the sentences imposed on Robert Tulloch and James Parker, I had no idea what to say, particularly because I had seen absolutely no reaction whatsoever. It was my confusion and corresponding vocal incoherence when trying to answer this question that probably caused only the segment of my interview in which I appeared to be a hysterical right-wing crackpot to be televised.
I didn't stop thinking about the question after the interview was over. Where was the campus' response to this emotionally-charged, poignant issue -- an issue that even gave the national media an excuse to converge upon Hanover? Why was I getting friends from home who had seen the headline on the AOL Instant Messenger News Ticker (it was second on the list at the time) asking me about the trial when there was not a discussion regarding it to be found on the campus it affected? Is the Dartmouth bubble really so impenetrable that an event garnering national attention with as much relevance to Dartmouth as this one cannot even burst it?
The Dartmouth did as admirable a job of covering the sentencing as could be expected from a college newspaper. But there were no columns about the Zantops and only a couple letters to the editor, none of which came from students. One vague, inappropriately brief and essentially meaningless mass blitz from President Wright only served to ask more questions than it answered. No discussions about Dartmouth's vulnerability in the wake of the murders nor about appreciating what we have before it's gone. No discussions about the justice system, about whether the sentencing was appropriate, about whether it can even come close to making up for the campus' loss, nor about how to prevent something like this from happening in the future by addressing the roots of teenage crime. The facts of the case were straightforward, yet the students on this campus seemed to be the only ones who didn't know them; and what's worse, no one seemed to care.
My response to the question -- which was never aired -- was that the campus was more focused on recovering after the loss of two valued professors than the consequences for those responsible. Maybe I'm more insightful than I realize, and I was right, yet one would figure that the serving of justice, which closes the murder case, would at least be a discussion point for the myriad issues regarding life at Dartmouth that this whole ordeal has raised. But instead, there was widespread ignorance that any developments had even been made at all. In fact, the correspondent had to skip several potential interviewees before she got to me because they were completely unfamiliar with the details of the day's events.
I don't intend to downplay the level of grief people feel, and have expressed, for the Zantops; indeed, the Zantops have been mourned for the last 15 months, and their loss will continue to be felt. But at the same time, at some point we have to be held accountable for knowing about events that occur outside our cozy little Dartmouth lifestyles, particularly when those events strike so close to home. Ignorance will not be bliss if we fail to take any lessons out of this loss. Will people remember what James Parker did 25 years from now when he's eligible for parole when they don't even know or care that he was sentenced last week?
I guess we have to fight the bubble before we completely lose a grip on reality (if any grip still remains). Tragedies like this one have to be remembered; that's why we study history. The loss of the Zantops will have a permanent effect on Dartmouth that stretches beyond the loss of them as people. At least, it should have a permanent effect. But it can only if we remember and acknowledge that bad things can happen as far north as Hanover, N.H. The options are either to realize that history is more than something we read about in textbooks or to remain as ignorant as WBZ on the correct spelling of my name.
