First hour: Discussing women's safety, their right to use firearms, and allegations of domestic violence
Second hour: How today's students interpret classic literature
The story of a Rochester police officer advising a man to break into the home of his estranged girlfriend has raised a number of questions about women’s safety, gun rights, and allegations of domestic violence. The boyfriend showed up at his ex-girlfriend’s house, looking for some of his possessions. When she refused to let him in and the police arrived, an officer told the boyfriend that if he had lived there – which he had – it was his legal right to break in. That’s when the girlfriend pointed a firearm out the window. She said she had been a victim of domestic violence, and was afraid of the boyfriend. This hour, our panel discusses the bigger picture issues raised by this case: the safety of women and their right to use firearms to protect themselves in their own homes, plus, how to respond to women who are making allegations that they have been victims of physical altercations. Our guests:
- Mark Henderson, Brighton Police Chief
- Bill Gargan, chief of the Domestic Violence Bureau in the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office
- Meaghan de Chateauvieux, director of development and marketing for Willow Domestic Violence Center
- Cha Ron Sattler-LeBlanc, local chapter leader for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense
Then in our second hour, two British newspapers expressed their shock over “thin-skinned, liberal foot-stomping millennials” sympathizing with the monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The newspapers say these “snowflakes” claiming the monster was a misunderstood victim shows how idealistic today’s students can be. It’s just one example in a list of classic works that the newspapers say millennials are misinterpreting. The other titles include “Animal Farm,” “Lolita,” “Lord of the Flies,” and more. What do you think? Do you agree with the newspapers that these millennials are just “too touchy?” Or are they right, and do their perceptions serve as a Rorschach test for how they view criminal justice, the #MeToo movement, and more? Our guests discuss these questions and the role of classic literature. In studio:
- Lester Friedman, retired professor and former chair of the Media and Society Program at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and co-author of “Monstrous Progeny”
- Karen van Meenen, senior lecturer in the Department of English at RIT, and coordinator of the Rochester Reads and Debut Novel Series programs at Writers & Books
- Jamie Rudd, AmericaCorps volunteer for the Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence
- Katherine Varga, playwright and SummerWrite coordinator for Writers & Books
