A call to stand

No jokes this week. Only pure disgust.\nIt's easy to sit and read about far off wars and death and move on. It's easy to hear about genocide the globe over and not break our daily pace. It's easy to hear of rapes millions of miles away and shed no tears. It's easy to know of violence, despair and hate in the world, and do nothing. It's easy because it's not on our turf, not in Bloomington. That kind of malicious behavior only occurs elsewhere, far from our cushy lives and humble apartment buildings.\nThink again:\n"2 students arrested for assault" (IDS Sept. 5): The victim was beaten with brass knuckles . "Fight results in arrests for assault" (IDS July 31): Head-butts were involved in the beatings. "Student has surgery after attack in Foster" (IDS May 5): At the time, the family believed the medical bills, including extensive oral surgery and dental work, would reach over $15,000. The attack was reportedly unprovoked.\nThis is by no means an exhaustive list of the horrific acts that have taken place IU's campus. Rape, theft, assault and other crimes no doubt go unreported each year, each month, each day. And isn't it sad that we've reached a point where bar brawls aren't enough to make the local newspapers? It takes unprecedented injury and pain to get a couple of paragraphs in print.\nWe walk around the Bloomington campus, heads held high, cell phones pressed to our ears and generally believing that our education is paying off. Many of us are oblivious, too caught up in our own lives to realize what is going on and saying things like "That's horrible!" or "If I had my hands on the guy who did that..." when we read the headlines. Then we order our Starbucks mochacchino and go back to our lives, which were only momentarily interrupted before we moved on.\nEnough. I have written about what it means to be a Hoosier, to bleed crimson. But it's time Hoosiers stopped bleeding on our own account.\nThis is a call to action. To those who see these things in your own backyard, to those who have felt the shock waves indirectly, to those who have heard the screaming next door and turned the TV up a little louder, and to those who read the headlines: Stand up. \nNo longer hide behind your doors, your homework, your discussions of far-off wars. Realize that you can have an effect right here. It's more than checking a box and supporting a prevention fund. It's more than telling a pair of fighting friends to break it up. It's more than consolation for the victims. It's an attitude, a presence and an aura that makes people understand that rape and violence and crime won't happen. Not tonight. Not on your watch.\nHere's the kicker: It's up to the students to effect change now. We can't pass the buck to the IU administration, to the IU Police Department or any other authoritative branch at the University. The problem is with us, and only with us will it end.