TIMA KABA ’19, Special to The Denisonian — If I triggered or hurt anyone at the DCGA meeting on April 30 in any way, I am so sorry, truly. I will personally go out of my way to apologize to you. I’m learning and I make mistakes and I am okay with that and I am willing to correct myself.
What happened tonight was painful to watch as a member of this community. I only have one more thing to say to everyone, firstly, I am sorry that we are going through this during the most stressful time of the year. Secondly, people involved in this should be given an opportunity to stand up for themselves and tell their stories (not sure how that will be accomplished) today, when I talked about myself as a victim of an assault I was referring to physical assault ( just to clarify).
With that being said, it is extremely important that we recognize and acknowledge what had happened tonight. I am sure we all saw the divide on our campus and our inability to coexist with those of us who have different stances on issues. You can defend someone without attacking the other side. If we keep moving like this, we will continue to turn into things that we are trying to fight off, I know we are all growing and learning and that CANNOT be easy. But we must unlearn some of our own harmful behaviors, we need to internally work on ourselves.
Also, please be aware of your ego, know when your ego is about to take control. Some of you might I’ve seen hate tonight, I saw and felt ego and pain, it was ugly. Very UGLY. Our ego is what drive us to believe that we CANNOT apologize when we are wrong or that we are incapable of compromise.
Again to all survivors of sexual assault, assault, verbal & physical harassment, abuse, any form of trauma know that you are not alone and that you are loved truly! You might not have felt that tonight but you are loved and I hope you all continue to care for yourselves.
If anyone wants to talk to me about anything feel free to reach out to me.
With love, always.
Tima Kaba ’19 is a French major with a minor in chemistry from Columbus, Ohio.