Seeing through the senseless

Last Wednesday, UTRGV students on both campuses came together to reflect on the recent shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, and make handmade cards for the community.

The UTRGV is with El Paso and Dayton event was held from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Student Union’s Palmetto Room on the Edinburg campus and 2 to 5 p.m. in Salón Gardenia on the Brownsville campus.

Alexandra Hughes, assistant director of Student Rights and Responsibilities, said the focus of holding the event was to recognize the tragic happenings occurring in today’s landscape.

“I think it’s one of those things where you hope every day that it doesn’t happen, you know, but you don’t know, and I think that’s the reality of it and that’s what makes it so scary and so upsetting,” Hughes said. “You literally have no idea, and so, it’s how do you prepare for that? How do you live with that? How do you understand that? How do you process that? It’s one thing to have trainings and go to these conferences and have trainings on this threat assessment, and all these other things, but it still doesn’t make it any easier because you can have all the training in the world, but if you happen to be in a grocery store line in Walmart when someone comes in with an assault rifle, what do you do with that?”

Luis Macias, a mechanical engineering graduate student attended the event.

“It’s just, it’s unfathomable at this point.” Macias said with tears in his eyes. “It’s happened so many times in so many different places. You kind of become a little desensitized to it, you know … and that’s a little dangerous, to become desensitized to these kinds of events because it goes to show it’s just a regular part of our lives now in this country. … That’s not what it should be.”

He said that the “simple” act of making a “heartfelt card” would be able to convey to the community, “Hey, we’re here for you, we love you, and we want you to be OK.”

Hughes said: “I think every little bit helps and every little bit counts, you know. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Maybe it’s a card here, love there, a shirt here. Healing and processing. A community needs to heal and that takes time.”