Today, I’m writing not so much as an ombudsman as a worried old man. I’m worried about Morgan Dana Harrington. I’m worried about her family. And I’m worried about the reactions some people have had to Harrington’s disappearance. My worry about Harrington increases as time passes because, though I don’t know it to be true, my understanding is that the more time passes, the less likely it becomes that she will be found and the less likely it is that she is alive and well.
That’s not to say that there’s no hope. Missing people have been found months and even years after their disappearance. I’ve read that Ed Smart is helping in the efforts to find Harrington. Smart’s daughter, Elizabeth, returned home safely nine months after she was abducted. Jaycee Dugard was recently found 18 years after she disappeared. Harrington has been missing less than a month, so there could be a happy ending to this story yet.
I cannot imagine the hell Harrington’s family is going through. I don’t want to. I pray that they will have the strength to get through this. If you don’t have children, you can’t begin understand. I’m the father of two and I’m sure I can’t really appreciate what the Harringtons are going through.
My daughter is not much older than Morgan Harrington. I worry whenever she steps on a plane. I worry when she travels to big, scary places like New York City. I worry when she’s walking home from a night class in Charlottesville. I worried when she went to Belfast.
Worry is part of parents’ job description. But worry shouldn’t be anyone’s guiding star.
Reading the stories and the columns and the comments on The Cavalier Daily’s Web site and other sites where Harrington’s disappearance is being discussed, it’s clear to me that not everyone agrees. Some people have called for tighter security on Grounds, particularly around the John Paul Jones Arena. Some want security cameras. Others have called for law enforcement and University officials to do something — watch more, search more, devise some kind of warning system — to keep them safe from whatever happened to Harrington. That’s an odd impulse from someone attending Thomas Jefferson’s University.
I once heard an old editorial writer say that one of the most valuable books he ever owned was a collection of Jefferson’s quotations, because Jefferson expressed an opinion on nearly every imaginable subject — and because Jefferson could nearly always be found on at least two sides of those issues. But I don’t think — and I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong — Jefferson ever spoke in favor of government surveillance of citizens.
Benjamin Franklin famously wrote, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
We cannot and should not expect the government or the University to protect us from all potential harm. As citizens, as adults, as humans, we have responsibility for ourselves and our community. So we need to watch out for ourselves and each other. But not all the advice we give each other is all that good. Someone wrote about avoiding the “the walk of shame” and alluded to Harrington’s disappearance in support that position. I have a different opinion.
It’s foolish, at best, to administer so much alcohol or anything else to yourself that you’re incapable of getting yourself home after a party. But if you’ve done that, unless you’ve been foolish enough to do that in a place that’s too dangerous to stay in, it’s always better to hunker down where you are than to wander drunkenly through the late night or early morning streets.
Some people have gone on at length about how twisted and violent the world has become. Oldsters talk about how much more dangerous the world is than when they were wild young college students. I don’t buy it. Anyone who believes that depravity and evil are recent inventions has never read the Old Testament or Shakespeare or paid attention during a world history survey course. The world and the people in it are no crueler than they’ve ever been. The biggest change is that communications have improved, so we’re likely to learn of atrocities faster and perhaps more completely than we used to.
There’s nothing wrong with being afraid. What’s wrong is letting your fears rule you.
Thomas Jackson said it better: “Never take counsel of your fears.”
Tim Thornton is The Cavalier Daily’s ombudsman. He can be reached at ombud@cavalierdaily.com.
I’ve been the victim of rape/sexual assault, and have found that the cops don’t take it seriously. You can talk cameras and security and worry all you want, but when the cops don’t put forward the effort unless someone’s dead, you’re going to have the same disgusting predators on the streets year after year, victimizing woman after woman.
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Security cameras don’t invade privacy when they are installed in a public place (there is no such thing as privacy in a public place such as out of doors at a state university, or walking down the street). Rather, cameras document evidence so that cases can be solved. In 2009, quoting Jefferson can’t get you through every argument. The man was no saint even if he was a genius. And times have changed even more substantially than the writer suggests.
The University needs to step up its security, and this article is completely misguided when it suggests anything on the contrary. Next, the Cav Daily will be advocating that students not hold their school responsible for the quality of their own education, throwing in a quote by Jefferson on how much he loved browsing books in his library. We pay good money to this school and our security is the first thing we expect in return. This is the kind of story I’ve come to expect from the Cav Daily. Pure drivel.
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I agree with the writer of the article. You can install cameras everywhere but name me an instance where they helped police nab a suspect; I can’t think of one, but my memory is getting pretty bad at times. However cameras do invade our privacy because they film anyone that goes by, the majority of which are law abiding citizens. We could get into the subject of who is kept in jail and who is released to be on the streets to prey on law abiding citizens. Which seems insolvable because of our legal system/judges/lawyers/graft….We need to be responsible for ourselves as much as we can.
In response to the first comment, the main job of cops is to make money by handing out tickets – something they are very good at. They are bad at actually solving crimes.
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Mr. Thornton’s article bewildered me. Why on earth would public safety measures be an “odd impulse from someone attending Thomas Jefferson’s University”? Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin lived during the formation of our country. Both men signed treaties to help make our country safe. Ben Franklin signed them all at that time! Both approved of local militias and the practice of being “watchful”. And both were inventors. So I would first offer that Mr. Thornton did an injustice to these two men to make this claim.
Secondly I would argue we don’t live in COLONIAL TIMES and the measures we use to provide public safety have to make sense now. Is the author of the mind because UVA is “Thomas Jefferson’s University” the school’s practices should be antiquated? I would think UVA would prefer to be progressive and technologically savvy.
Thirdly, the author is right Thomas Jefferson was a prolific writer and it’s common place to find writings from both sides of many fences. Begs the question, why use him as a benchmark for one particular stance at all? The author mentions a friend with source material BUT he doesn’t actually use any particular Thomas Jefferson quote to advance his argument. I found that illogical.
His article was really an attempt to persuade folks against using specific public safety tools. His word choice wanted to convey those tools in a negative light. The word surveillance comes from old French and Latin and means to be watchful. The word dates back to 1802. Ben Franklin was dead before the word was coined. I have spent the last couple of weeks researching to see if I could find a germ of truth from Jefferson’s writings to support the author’s claims. Can’t find any.
Benjamin Franklin did say “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” However, public safety tools actually protect liberty, not force anyone to relinquish any essential liberty, don’t they? And public safety tools are designed to help promote safety so using this quote at best is merely a spin tactic. Considering a young 20 year old woman vanished from the UVA campus the evening of Oct. 17th, I feel this quote was also highly inappropriate.
Common sense tells us “we can’t expect the Government or the University to protect us FROM ALL POTENTIAL HARM” (added emphasis added by me). I have two decades of experience following missing person cases and I was insulted. EVIL exists. Because it does still exist just as it did yesterday or 2,000 years ago demands us to choose our course. Are we going to yield to evil or learn how to better protect ourselves from it? We do expect the Government/University to provide public safety, don’t we? Since our nation was attacked on Sept. 11, we have come to expect even more effort be made to help us retain our liberty and be able to walk our streets safely. I have watched and worked while our Country continues to develop best management practices for missing person cases. While missing person cases do not necessarily mean a crime has occurred, the only way to know is to solve the mystery, isn’t it?
Time is the enemy when a person disappears. Any and all tools we can use to help law enforcement solve the mystery and restore public safety are a benefit to our all.
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Part 2 of my thoughts after reading this ombudsman’s opinion.
Assumptions and speculation have to be kept in check when a person vanishes. Mr. Thornton’s paragraph about foolishness and alcohol were not constructive, possibly irreverent, and definitely offensive. Time is the enemy when a person vanishes. Drilling down on the person’s movements or discovered evidence/clues which could help advance the case, trying to develop new strategies to prevent future events are all constructive. Veiled victimization of the missing was repugnant. Shame on you!
Instead of writing to try and dissuade folks through what I feel is a seriously flawed argument against deploying surveillance/security cameras.: a. because this is UVA “Jefferson’s University”, b. because it really amounts to how someone controls themselves, c. because the world is evil and fear will still be there regardless. Most of the points are so twisted it is hard to read!
If the objective is to dissuade fear tell the community what the current practices/policies are of UVA and explain why so many oddities have occurred in Morgan’s investigation and so much time lost. Why should people feel safe there? We have a young woman who has vanished. Her purse was found just as the wallet of a young man vanished years earlier and yet law enforcement did not release the information timely. What policy/practice was in place when the purse was turned into UVA officials?
The Harringtons are now working through what other families have and it is horrifically difficult. I wish every journalist out there would take a moment and approach each missing person case as if it was family or friend who vanished.
When the alert is sounded, I truly believe there are still more good people than bad in our country and we can use the best public safety tools out there to work together to help find someone who is missing.
I am confident if asked any family who is battling the unsolved disappearance of a loved one would gladly wish a security camera was in place to help explain or advance the search. I can’t rightly imagine any parent who would not gladly wish for watchful conditions when their child is present. The only exception I can imagine is if the child is breaking the law.
We have honed our missing person laws to help alert and engage the public and helped to aid in the recovery. C.A.R.T. (child abduction recovery training), Alert systems like the Amber and Silver policies, National Crime Information Center, Center for Missing Children, Center for Missing Adults, and NAMus are all improvements we have made along the way. At this very moment there is a bill before Congress, HR 3695 to help continue moving us forward. It is bill to help us identify remains. We don’t know where Morgan is right now. And there are so many families who don’t know where their loved ones are. HR 3695 will help in the effort to try and solve the mystery of others who have been found but not identified. WHO knows, it could help identify the young man who vanished from UVA so long ago. Right now the bill is in a Homeland Security subcommittee whose chair is a Virginian, Bobby Scott. I hope the people of Virginia will call and tell their Senators and Congressmen to VOTE YES for HR 3695. Fear is usually a conquered by knowledge and a good dose of confidence. I hope folks will do more to help us advance. Mr. Thornton’s article in my opinion is an effort to hold us back.
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