SBU’s annual All Bonaventure Reads event took place on Monday in the Richter Center where Dan Barry, author of “The Boys in the Bunkhouse” and St. Bonaventure class of 1980 alumnus, spoke about his book and the injustices inflicted upon people with disabilities in our society today.
He stressed that the concept of otherness projected onto these men was not an isolated event in the town of Atalissa, Iowa, but rather a manifestation of the types of occurrences that happen all around the U.S., even here at St. Bonaventure.
As Barry spoke about the need for awareness toward our neighbors with disabilities, I reflected on moments that I’ve succeeded and failed at inclusion toward others in my community. The speech started at 7 p.m. and came to its conclusion about 20 minutes to 8, when Barry began to take questions.
The audience, composed mostly of first-year students, faculty and other staff, seemed pleased that Barry’s speech was short, to the point and down to earth with many jokes and stories woven in to keep interest. Obviously, they were not pleased enough, as I began to notice a subtle unrest among my fellow students as the time stretched past 8 to take questions from the audience. A murmur of voices hummed throughout the Richter and some within ear shot made it difficult to even hear Barry as he answered questions, mainly from the older folk in attendance.
When 8:05 rolled around, more students than I can count on my hand got up and left. One could argue that they may not have had time to stay a couple extra minutes. While that may be true, the incessant talking was bothering more than just myself as I noticed several fellow students and faculty around me tense in their seats, looking around every once in a while with stern faces contorted in disbelief at the disrespect being so blatantly shown.
At one point during a short pause between questions, some started to clap as if the ABR event had just ended. Others joined in, until the whole audience was clapping. Barry gracefully shook off the gesture and acknowledged that the students had tried to clap him off the stage making a joke that he was “speaking too long at the VMAs.” He then started answering more questions.
I have two problems with what happened at the ABR event with regards to the audience. It was immensely disrespectful and worthy of admonishment that so much talking was taking place during Barry’s time on the floor. He did not have to come in person to St. Bonaventure, away from his busy schedule to talk to us about a book he’s already sold to us.
The disrespect brings me to my second issue: the lack of concern over this wide-reaching issue that people with disabilities are not being included in our society. It’s our responsibility at Bona’s to reach out to others, no matter what their predispositions, as it’s our Franciscan way.
To see that people could not care enough to even put their phones away and stop talking for an hour to just listen and hopefully learn something about how they can literally change society and our world was beyond troubling. It just goes to show that despite the “graceful” note that the ABR event ended on, where a woman brought awareness to current employment opportunities for people with disabilities at SBU, it really isn’t enough to just pat ourselves on the back for a job well done.
Constant reflection and self-correction is necessary for changing societal attitudes toward people with disabilities. Every part of SBU, especially the students, needs to step up to truly address this issue. It can start by lending a simple ear.
Sabrina Basile is a contributing writer for the Bona Venture. Her email is basilesm15@bonaventure.edu
