Eve Marie Carson

Last week, I was very saddened by the violent shooting and death of UNC-Chapel Hill's student body president, Eve Marie Carson. Acts of random violence happen every single day in every country, in every town, but her death touched me on a very personal level. Perhaps because I went to UNC-Chapel Hill for my undergraduate education, or perhaps because my sister is still there, in medical school. Or, perhaps because I've always thought of Chapel Hill as the perfect, idyllic place, a place that's far away from Los Angeles and San Francisco, a place that's peaceful enough to lounge in the spring grass on a Tuesday afternoon, and culturally diverse enough to rent an obscure indie flick on a Sunday night. I've always thought that one day, my husband and I could live in a cute colonial on the outskirts of campus, and I could spend my days writing with the cicadas chirping loudly in the background, without having to worry. No, I'm not naive, violence can happen anywhere at any time, but I always thought of Chapel Hill as being far away from such things. I wanted to believe that such a place still existed, but it doesn't. On another level, it just makes me angry that Eve Marie Carson's life could be taken away so quickly, so tragically, in an instance when another person was having a bad moment. It doesn't matter how accomplished she was or all of the great things that she did while she was here, she had a right to exist in peace, without being the victim of another person's crime. What's even more difficult is that there is no explanation for such a thing, no way to really make sense of it. All we can do is offer condolences and wishes of peace for Eve Marie Carson's family.