Darren Copeland

Time to get a grip people…

GREELEY – Brittany Bethel says she is in the midst of a personal battle. “It is the hardest thing in my life,” she said.

Now she says she is battling a public embarrassment as well and blames a feature on the University of Northern Colorado Web site.

“I was hurt and embarrassed and very upset when I actually saw my picture on the Web site,” said Bethel.

Bethel is on UNC’s banned student list. The list of names and pictures were posted on the site this week. The school says it is a response to the shootings at Virginia Tech University, but it admits not everyone on the list is a potential danger.

Why is she on the “banned” list? Big trouble right? That’s what I thought, until…..

Bethel says she was working at the UNC recreation center in September when she collapsed from complications from an eating disorder. She says she was then diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa.

As a result, she says she was suspended from the university because she was considered a threat to herself which breaks the school’s honor code of conduct.

It states that a violation includes, “Conduct which threatens or endangers the health, safety, or welfare of any person or university property.”

The interpretation of “any person” includes being a danger to one’s self.

Are they kidding? Really?

Look, Virginia Tech screwed lots of folks up. Just like Columbine. Just like Jonesboro. Just like Dunblane. Just like OKC. Just like 9-11.

But that doesn’t mean we all gotta go crazy trying to save each other. These events are rare. Much more rare than someone, say, dying of Anorexia Nervosa. UNC needed to help this girl. Instead they banned her.

Well, I have some news that might shock y’all but here it goes.

The majority of people in this country are adults. Adults who have the freedom to do lots of things. Lots of things that are bad for us. Whether it be eating donuts like me, or starving ourselves for eating that donut. It may be having sex too young, or meeting the partner that’s all wrong for us. It may mean owning guns and being responsible with them, or leaving a toddler near an upper story window.

The point is this. Mass killings won’t go away. Not if we ban guns, ban knives, ban pills, ban cars, or ban people. The only way we can keep them rare is to interact and communicate with each other.

In good faith.

Think what would have happened at Columbine if a few of the “white hats” had said good morning to Klebold and Harris instead of teasing them, or if Terry Nichols had told Tim McVeigh that having all this fertilizer might not be a good idea.

It might not have stopped it, but then again in might have. So let’s stop this talk about banning things.

Why?

The more choices a person has, the more alternatives to killing people the person has, and I think we all can agree that less killing is always a good thing.