Kozlowski: Bomb threats can’t diminish school spirit

The recent bomb threats have demonstrated the depths to which some people sink in pursuit of… The recent bomb threats have demonstrated the depths to which some people sink in pursuit of nefarious and unclear ends. The entire campus is in turmoil because of the evil actions of one or a few twisted people.

Many are afraid. I can’t blame them. Terrible things have happened at other schools, and, as the recent shooting at Western Psych demonstrated, we are that other school to outsiders. With several threats arriving almost every day, many of which are directed at dormitories in the middle of the night, it’s easy to feel like our campus is under attack.

But I don’t want to talk about how disruptive or frightening the threats have been. We all know that. I don’t want to spend this column condemning whoever is doing this. We all know that’s exactly what he or she wants.

Since the perpetrator is unable to command anyone’s adoration, I refuse to let him command my condemnation. I don’t want to speculate about what’s already happened, what’s currently happening and what will happen. We don’t know, and we cannot know. But we know that our University is strong, that it has endured 225 years of wilderness, natural disasters, industrial strife, economic depression and riots. A month or two of bomb threats is nothing special compared to what our school has survived.

I’ve often wondered what the last regular column I wrote for this newspaper would be. I wanted it to reflect my time here and my love for the place that’s been my home for four years. So now, I want to talk about how the community’s response to these threats has made me proud of my school in a way that four years of outstanding academic achievements, bonfires, so-so football and excellent-to-dismal basketball never could.

We are Pitt, and we refuse to let these threats prevent us from going about our daily business. Our buildings open on time in the morning and close on time as well. Our classes continue, in Schenley Plaza or even online if need be. Our research work at the Chevron Science Center has not stopped. We value our education and pay good money for it too, and we’ll be damned if we aren’t going to do what we came here to do: to get that education so that we may better ourselves in whatever way we deem important.

We are Pitt, and we support those who keep us safe. The police and their dogs hustle up flights of stairs again and again, yet they do it without complaint. And whether it’s by leaving dog treats by our dorm room doors, through banners or in person, we thank them. We are also 20,000 pairs of eyes and ears, something the perpetrator must have uncomfortably realized before retreating behind an electronic veil.

We are Pitt, and we don’t take kindly to being woken up in the middle of the night. But we go to school in a city proud of its history of getting things done, not just whining about them. That’s why we’ve offered our homes and apartments to those who’ve been displaced by the threats to dormitories. We are attempting to coordinate those efforts online through Facebook groups, and we will prevail.

We are Pitt, and instead of letting our community descend into paranoia, distrust and fear, we’re coming together in a spirit of cooperation, camaraderie and defiance. We still laugh. We still socialize. We still congregate in public. And yes, we still sometimes drink and irritate the neighbors. We still respect each other, and these threats have only strengthened the sympathy we feel for one another. We have no vindictive urge to make the entire campus jump to our every demand. In these trying times, it’s remarkable how normal most of everyday life in Oakland still is. This normalcy is probably hateful to the perpetrator, and our refusal to surrender in the face of attacks must be puzzling and frustrating. We torment him more than he torments us. He might disrupt our lives, he might be able to make us leave a building or look over our shoulders, but he cannot take away the most important things we have, and he never will.

We are Pitt, and we stand together no matter what our differences are. I know that some of my columns have been controversial and incurred some lively and occasionally rude comments. But I don’t think this will be one of them. All of us, regardless of political views or other arbitrary divisions, are tired of these threats. And all of us support and worry about our school as never before.

We are Pitt, and we will live by the words of Churchill: “Let us go forward together with our united strength.”

We are Pitt. We are proud. And we will endure.

Write kozthought@gmail.com