A Loss Without Mourning

Some weeks ago, there was a car crash at UCSB, where I am a grad student, down the street where I live. Five people were heavily injured and three died. One of them was Sebastian Gil, a fellow student. Just a few have heard about this.

I was expecting some sort of email from Chancellor Yang — or from somebody — acknowledging this had happened, calling for collective empathy, if not solidarity. I get emails when there is a new campus sustainability manager, but not for this. Not for mourning.

A community that does not mourn its members is not a true community. They call us “gauchos.” How can a university create a sense of belonging if it so easily disposes of its students?

The seniors dressed in white for their graduation pictures while there was blood on the pavement. I have seen the lights and the flowers placed in front of a tree. It burdens the loss of three lives. But those we lost we do not remember.