Dear Dennis,
On Tuesday at 5:15 p.m., University Police told you to leave campus after a student accused you of harassing her, and maybe it’s time you take this as a lesson.
You see, Dennis, I’ve seen you prancing around Turlington Plaza in your booty shorts, and I was perfectly fine with you expressing your First Amendment right — that was, of course, until I saw you took it too far. You crossed the line when you decided that screaming at people you don’t even know for no particular reason was OK.
I have nothing against you, I just think this might be a good time for you to come to terms with how uncomfortable you make women and students feel overall.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, this might be because you’ve never considered how your consistent preaching has made the more than 50,000 students here feel. Hint: It’s not great.
For one, when you try to get in front of our faces for no reason, it makes us feel incredibly uncomfortable. I get that you have this life mission of speaking to each and every one of us and getting your message across, but your method of doing so is nothing less than straight-up awkward.
We didn’t come to Turlington Plaza to listen to you scream at us about operating systems and other things we couldn’t care less about, and, in fact, some of us try to bypass Turlington completely to get away from all of your shenanigans most days.
You’re allowed to dance, and, technically, you’re even allowed to yell, but you shouldn’t be allowed to go around calling women names, regardless of if you might think that it makes them feel good. Because as a woman — no, forget that — as a person who attends UF who has had to listen to you for the past two years, I’m relieved that you’ll be away from us for some time.
But Dennis, my friend, this isn’t the first time this has happened. No, it’d be silly of me to think you’d have given up that easily. According to Alligator archives, you were banned back in 2012 for making a threatening statement. Haven’t you learned something in the past five years about screaming in public?
If you’ve made it this far, Dennis, I commend you, for it’s often hard to face the truth when it stares at you through a glowing screen. You also might be fighting the urge to say that all you’re trying to promote is peace. As someone who has occasionally seen you do this, I am proud of you when you do so.
However, peace isn’t accomplished through screaming at college students. It’s made possible when you get rid of the threats and inappropriate language.
I hope being banned for a while will give you some time to reflect on what you’ve done. As for me and most of the students here, we hope you understand why this is necessary, and if you do decide to come back, come back truly peacefully.
As Ronald Reagan once said, “Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.”
Maybe this hiatus will allow you to learn how to more effectively communicate. I hope it does, because if what you’re after is peace, I’m all for it.
By the time you’re allowed back on UF’s property, I will have graduated, and, most likely, live somewhere else. In fact, most of us will, which might be a good thing for you, Dennis, because now you get a fresh start. I hope you think about this seriously and make the change to be more well-equipped with your words and actions.
Sara Marino is a UF journalism senior. Her column appears on Wednesday.
