The current situation at Valdosta State University

I fredags imens jeg fredeligt lå på stranden i Miami, var en knap så fredelig situation i gang med at udvikle sig tilbage på Valdosta State University. 

Herunder følger min forhåbentligt objektive og uspekulerende beskrivelse af situationen:

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Fredag eftermiddag var der nogle studerende som demonstrerede på universitets grund. 

Demonstrationen omhandlede ifølge andre kilder, regeringen, racisme, samt hvordan demonstranterne mente at "hvide" har mere magt verdenen over end "sorte". 

Under demonstrationen blev det amerikanske flag gået på, og ifølge nogle også brændt, hvilket førte til stærke reaktioner fra andre, blandt andet en kvindelig veteran som tog flaget fra demonstranterne, for at undgå at de gik på det. 

Universitetspolitiet som overvågede situationen kunne ikke tillade kvinden at tage flaget som ikke var hendes, og da hun ikke ville give det tilbage, blev hun derfor tilbageholdt. 

(læs historien en artikel om historien her). 

I kølvandet på hændelserne fredag, blev der hurtigt lagt an til en moddemonstration som skulle hylde det amerikanske flag og alt hvad det står for. 

Denne demonstration foregik mandag og flere hundrede studerende, professorer m.m. deltog da der blev sunget nationalsang samt afsagt "Pledge of Allegiance" til flaget som er tradition i USA. 

Gruppen som startede demonstrationerne vendte senere tilbage, men alting foregik rimeligt fredeligt. 

Senere mandag aften begyndte rygterne dog at svirre på de sociale medier, blandt andet med billeder af de oprindelige demonstranter hvorpå de bar våben og udtrykte trusler overfor den "hvide" befolkning. 

Mange studerende blev meget bekymrede, da truslerne var meget direkte, og med historien for vold på amerikanske universiteter var der flere som snakkede om helt at blive væk fra skolens område indtil situationen blev bragt til hvile. 

Tirsdag svirrede rygterne fortsat, og politiets tilstedeværelse på campus var tydeligt forhøjet efter at det var blevet offentligt at de havde påbegyndt en efterforsking af truslerne på de sociale medier. 

Sidst på eftermiddagen offentligtgjorde universitetet at lederen af den oprindelige demonstration nu var eftersøgt af politiet efter at man havde fundet en skoletaske med et våben i som viste sig at tilhøre lederen. 

Det er endnu ikke lykkes politiet at finde den eftersøgte studerende, som de i øjeblikket mener forsøger at gemme sig enten her i byen eller uden for byen. De mener i hvert fald ikke at han udgør nogen direkte trussel for de studerende på nuværende tidspunkt, selvom de anser ham for at være farlig og bevæbnet. 

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Som I nok kan regne ud er situationen på universitetet altså rimeligt anspændt disse dage, hvor jeg må indrømme at jeg personligt forsøger ikke at tilbringe så meget tid på den centrale del af campus. 

Indtil situationen udviklede sig til hvad den er nu, synes jeg faktisk det var en spændende oplevelse at se de studerende samt lokalbefolkningen stå sammen om at beskytte nationens flag. 

Udover blot at tage afstand fra den første demonstration, var der en tydelig bevægelse mod at forsøge at fremme forståelsen blandt alle parter og i øvrigt forsøge at vende hændelsen til noget positivt. 

På torsdag har Valdostas borgmester annonceret officiel flag-dag i hele byen, og selvom jeg tager tidligt på weekend, håber jeg at se mange striber og stjerner på min tur ud af byen. 

I kan læse den seneste officielle udmelding fra universitetet her.

Med dette indlæg håber jeg at undgå spekulationer, skulle nogen ske at høre/se noget i medierne - særligt de sociale - de næste dage. 

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Friday afternoon while I was peacefully lying on the beach in Miami, a not so peaceful situation was developing at Valdosta State University. 

Here is a hopefully objective and non-speculative description of what has happened:

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Friday afternoon a group of students demonstrated on campus grounds. 

The demonstration was according to other sources, against the government, racism, and how they believe that there is "white supremacy" all over the world. 

During the demonstration the students walked, and allegedly also burned an American flag, which lead to strong reactions from amongst others, a female veteran who showed up to take the flag from the group, to keep them from desecrating it. 

Campus police who were monitoring the situation could not let the woman take a flag which was not hers, and when she did not want to give it back to them, she was detained by police. 

(Read an article on the story here).

Following the actions of Friday, a counter-demo was quickly put together to salute, cherish and celebrate the flag and everything it represents. 

The counter-demo took place Monday and hundreds of students, faculty and staff showed up to sign the Star-Spangled Banner and give their Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. 

The original demonstrating group later returned to speak further on their beliefs, but everything went on peacefully. 

Later Monday night the rumors started spreading on social media, some showing images of the first group of demonstrants with weapons and threatening messages, and with the history of violence on American universities many students started talking about not coming to school until the situation was put to rest. 

Tuesday the rumors were still flowing, and police presence on campus had been notedly increased since it was now public that they had started an investigation into the threats posted on social media. 

At the end of the afternoon, the university announced that the leader of the group was now wanted by the police after they had found a book bag on campus containing a gun which belonged to said leader. 

The police has not yet succeeded in apprehending the suspect, who they currently believe is hiding somewhere off campus. They do not believe that he is posing any direct threat to the university or the students, even though they do believe he is armed and dangerous. 

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As you probably know by now, the situation is very tense these days, and I must admit that I am trying not to spend too much time on main campus. 

Until the situation developed into what it is now, I was actually finding the situation very interesting, especially seeing the local community come together to support and protect the nation's flag. 

Besides just distancing themselves from the original demonstration, I actually felt like there was a real movement towards enhancing understanding and also trying to turn the events into something positive. 

This Thursday the Mayor of Valdosta has announced an official flag day in the town, and even though I will be leaving early for another weekend, I hope to see many stars and stripes on my way out of town. 

You can read the latest statement from Valdosta State University here. 

With this post I hope to avoid any speculation in case anyone sees/hears anything in the media - especially the social ones - the next couple of days. 

11/1-15: I don't wanna go back to school!

Fraternity house no. 1

Fraternity house no. 2

Fraternity house no. 3

Og i protest over at det var min sidste weekend inden skolen startede, skyndte jeg mig at få stablet en sidste udflugt på benene - denne gang med Logan, Adrianna og Zach og turen gik til Tallahassee - Floridas "hovedstad" - ca. 2 timer fra Valdosta. 

Vi havde pakket cykler på ladet af Logan's gamle truck (så er de trucks altså lidt handy en gang i mellem), da der skulle være en rigtig flot rute at cykle dernede, og så havde vi booket et billigt hotel. 

Der var to muligheder for cykelruten - "The Historic Trail" eller naturvejen. Den historiske rute var en gammel jernbane som var blevet asfalteret, så vi valgte selvfølgelig naturvejen som var en masse smalle ruter inde i skoven - ud og ind imellem træerne. 

Rimeligt hurtigt fik vi og cykelproblemer og Zach og Adrianna måtte falde fra. 

Logan og jeg fik cyklet omkring 12 km. på ruterne inde i skoven inden vi vendte tilbage til bilen - det var virkelig sjovt selvom vi nok ikke havde det rigtige udstyr.. :-) 

Om aftenen tog vi i byen, men her støder man igen ind i at alting lukker kl.02 (det er altså et underligt land det her...) 

Det betød jo så til gengæld at vi var friske dagen efter (næsten), til at gå en lang tur i centrum og ned til Florida State University, som har et af de største campus jeg nogensinde har set. 

Vi havde fået at vide at man absolut skulle se deres stadion, som så viste sig at ligge i den modsatte ende af hvor vi kom fra, så de vi endelig nåede derned, og fandt et sted at spise frokost, havde vi lige 5,5 km. gåtur hjem igen.. 

Adrianna læser samfundsfag/political science, så vi fik en masse gode og interessante snakke om amerikansk politik, socialisme, liberalisme, republikanere m.m. på turen derned - på turen hjem faldt vi ret hurtigt i søvn :-) 

De sidste par billede er fra området omkring FSU og et par af de mange "frat"-houses der er der. Der var også sorority houses modsat her i Valdosta hvor vi kun har frat-houses. 

Forklaringen som de andre kunne komme op med er at der i Lowndes kommune åbenbart er en lov om at der kun må bo 4 kvinder under samme tag før det bliver anset for at være et bordel?.. Eller noget..

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And as a protest to the fact that it was my last weekend before school started, I quickly managed to somehow arrange one last trip - this time with Logan, Adrianna and Zach and the destination was Tallahassee - Florida's state capitol a 2 hour drive from Valdosta. 

We had loaded our bikes on to the Logan's old truck (I must admit those big trucks can come in handy at times), since we had heard that Tallahassee should have some pretty cool trails for biking. We had also booked a cheap hotel so we could stay the night and make the most of the weekend.

There was two types of trails - The historic version and the nature version. The historic trail in Tallahassee is an old railroad that they have paved - so we of course chose the natural trail, which was a bunch of different narrow paths in and out of the St. Marks state park. 

Too quickly we ran into some bicycle problems and Adrianna and Zach had to go back to the car. 

Logan and I managed to go about 7-8 miles on the trails in the park before heading back - it was a lot of fun even though we probably didn't have the right equipment.. :-)

We went out at night, but once again you run into the problem that everything closes at 2AM (this country is so weird..) 

On the other hand it meant that we were well rested (almost) the day after to go for a long walk in downtown Tallahassee and all the way out to FSU, which has the biggest campus I've ever seen. 

Someone had told us that we absolutely needed to see their stadium, but it turned out to be on the very opposite end of campus from where we started. By the time we got there and found a place to have lunch, we had a 3.5 mile walk back to the car. 

Adrianna is a political science major and we had a lot of great and interesting talks about American politics, socialism, liberals, republicans, etc. on the way to Tallahassee - on the way back we pretty quickly fell asleep :-)

The last couple of pictures are of some of the many frat houses around FSU. We do not have fraternities or sororities in Denmark, so this is something very new to me. 

When walking around we noticed that there were also sorority houses, which we don't have in Valdosta. 

The explanation the others gave me was that apparently there is a law in Lowndes County that only 4 women can live together under the same roof before they consider it being a brothel?.. Or something like that.. 

Lunch with a U.S. Representative

I går havde jeg inviteret Basak og Estefania med til Rotary da der var et større arrangement. De tre klubber som også arrangerede Family Day, var gået sammen med Valdosta Chamber of Commerce (byens "handelskammer"), for at invitere en U.S. Representative på frokost. 

Jack Kingston, republikaner, har været repræsentant i en årrække, før han opgav sin position for at stille om som senator. Det lykkes ham dog ikke at få en plads i senatet, hvilket betyder at han teknisk set er ude og lede efter nyt arbejde - hvilket jeg nu ikke tænker bekymrer ham :-)

Det er altid interessant når man får en mulighed for et indblik ind i amerikansk politik og hvilke udfodringer forskellige mennesker ser som værende de vigtigste. 

Jack Kingston fokuserede f.eks. på militær og udenrigspolitik, hvilket uden tvivl er det mest populære taleemne i medierne herovre. Derudover snakkede han også om erhvervsliv i mindre samfund, som naturligvis er højaktuelt i en by som Valdosta. 

På nederste billede ses Jack Kingston i midten, de tre Rotary klub præsidenter samt to repræsentanter fra Valdosta Chamber of Commerce. 

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Yesterday I had invited Basak and Estefania to the Rotary meeting, as there was a bigger event. The three clubs who also hosted the Family Day had joint-ventured with the Valdosta Chamber of Commerce to invite a U.S. Representative out for lunch. 

Jack Kingston, Republican, has been a representative for a number of years before leaving his position to run for senator. He didn't succeed in getting a place in the Senate, which means that he is now technically unemployed - however I don't think this is really a concern to him :-)

It is always interesting to get and opportunity to gain some insight into American politics and which challenges different people consider to be the most important. 

Jack Kingston focused on military and foreign politics, which without a doubt is the most popular topic in the media these days. Further, Kingston also addressed topics such as business in smaller societies, which makes sense in a town like Valdosta.