SHOCK! *Gasp*
I was faithfully reading my It’s Evansville this afternoon and ran across an entry regarding today’s post in the Evansville Courier Press regarding Dr. Stephen Jennings. UE’s president. He was pulled over last night for DUI. Now this is shocking for all Evansville Alum’s and affiliates, because UE is Methodist Associated University and a Dry Campus. There is no drinking allowed on campus, and if you are caught there are different levels and things you must go through in order to “remedy” the situation. So this is where the absolute shock and horror comes from, because having attended and graduated from UE, the president is a figure head of the University.
Now after saying that and after registering my shock and horror. I feel mostly sorry for Dr. Jennings. Yes, I realize that he is in a position of power and authority. And that we as a society hold people in those positions to a higher standard. But he is first and formost a man. And what an embarrassment for him and his family. Reading the plethora of comments on the Courier site, I was dismayed. Most of the vultures on this site are attacking him, when he’s down, and it seems to me that’s what we tend to do. Keep our eyes out for those who we perceive as being more holy then ourselves to fall, then we jump on them in all of our righteous dignity. However, this whole situation reminds me of the line “Be he who has not sinned be the first to cast stones”. I tell you, how many times in my stupidity have I put myself (and others who shared the road with me) in a similar situation. I thankfully never hurt anyone or was caught, however I did stupid things (not just when I was a “teenager”, but as I’ve aged as well). Thankfully I have learned from my mistakes, and hopefully he will as well. But I think before we tar and feather the gentleman, we might first want to take a step back and see what our skeleton’s in the closet are and see if we are able to cast a stone at him, or if we should first throw them at ourselves. Because in all reality we are ALL role models to the children/people out in this world, whether we have signed up for the job or not…Not just him.
