Reported by: Morgan Rumpf
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Sunday Night News 10-14-18
Post Views: 275
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Oz Speaks Series: ‘Blue Lives Matter’
by Ilyssa Weiner, WTOP10-TV
Moderated speak-out series “Oz Speaks” held the most recent talk in their series on Oct. 25. The topic was on the issue about Blue Lives Matter.
Students, faculty and members of the community were encouraged to speak about their thoughts and feelings about the situation without it being a debate. Some participants shared stories of family members in law enforcement while others discussed the impact of both the Blue Lives Matter and Black Lives Matter movements on their personal lives.
Sophomore Keonna Wren was one of the participants of the event. One of the issues she spoke about was her identity as a black woman and how the two movements, [Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter] shaped her life.
“I absolutely love events like this because it’s not a debate,” said Wren. “I’m happy I got to spoke my truth and that’s what I came here for.”
Associate Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students Jerri Howland is one of the organizers for “Oz Speaks.” She says this speak out is different from the others because of the structure for how Blue Lives Matter came about and how this movement contrasts to Black Lives Matter.
“It’s not only important for students, but it’s important for everyone in our society to make sure we listen to all points of views,” Howland said. “I think it’s when we don’t listen to others and don’t understand their point of view that we don’t really get to the heart of what diversity is.”
Howland says the goal of the “Oz Speaks” series is to create a space for the SUNY Oswego community to freely speak about their thoughts on issues. She believes the series has successfully done that so far.
The next “Oz Speaks” talk will be Nov. 1 at 6:30 PM in the Campus Center Auditorium.
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Pinwheels for Prevention
In honor of April being national child abuse prevention month Oswego’s Child Advocacy Center, located in Fulton, New York, has set out to spread awareness through Oswego County by placing blue and white pinwheels around the area.
These pinwheels are a part of a national campaign that multiple organizations take part in, in order to spread awareness of child abuse through communities and get the conversation started that children need to be looked out for not only by their families but their community as well.
Executive Director of Oswego County Child Advocacy Center, Karrie Damm, gave some insight as to why the Pinwheels are placed throughout the County “The pinwheel gardens that you see throughout the community are intended to start a conversation. We would like people to see those and have a conversation amongst themselves, amongst their friends, and especially with their children.” Although the conversation may seem touchy Karrie stressed how important it is to begin having conversations about serious issues such as this one. Because the first step to preventing incidents is spreading awareness, which the conversations help to achieve.
Although the child advocacy center is not well known throughout Oswego County it is an important organization that more people should get involved with. Take Craig Stewart for example, he is an electrician for the building, but STILL volunteers and aids the employees there because he does it for the unfortunate children that have to seek help at the organization.
If you would like to volunteer as well you can visit that website at oswegocac.org, Facebook message them, or call them. If you are not able to volunteer and would still like to help out this organization you can make a donation right on their website.
