It is nearly impossible to find the appropriate words to articulate the emotions affiliated with the notorious tragedy that our community endured more than a month ago.

As expected, the environment we returned to after that painful, week-long break was a peculiar, yet progressive, one with some very particular and obvious changes.

Out of curiosity about the aftermath of the incident and how students were responding to it, I read some of the letters written to the editor by various students before Spring Break. I found students engaging in debates over a handful of issues, one including whether or not six crosses should be displayed to acknowledge the loss of Steven Kazmierczak’s life instead of just five representing his victims.

Arguing this matter is pointless. Everyone is hurting and should be allowed to grieve in the way they see most appropriate without attacking one another. Otherwise, the intention of the shooter will come full circle and we will be ignorantly lost in a needless conflict.

Among the things I read was a proposal to boycott the Lutheran church that has six crosses raised in front of it. I actually find the attack on the church more hateful than raising a sixth cross could ever be.

Now, I respect every individual’s right to maintain and voice their opinion, but it is seriously upsetting to witness individuals succumbing to the very behaviors that such a heinous act would aim to instigate. It puzzles me that we cannot, even in times of calamity, preserve calm between one another for more than a few weeks. The strength of the community lies within the students, and as the local churches haven’t done anything but show us their support, I see no benefit from going on the offensive against those who show us care in our time of need.

Now, if it were up to me, with consideration to the sensitivity of the issue, I would not have erected six crosses.

Then again, I don’t represent a church, a sanctuary that considers itself the symbol of all that is pure and righteous. In that respect, I do recognize that six lives were lost on that fateful day and as five families grieve, somewhere in Florida a man also grieves because, not only did he lose his son, but will be stigmatized for the rest of his life by the unspeakable horrors that his own flesh and blood committed. It makes perfect sense to me to find six crosses in front of a religious sanctuary, of all places. I would expect a church to forgive where we cannot find the audacity to and see at least some light where we can only see darkness.

“I do feel that he [Kazmierczak] was a victim,” said Eva Enid Sierra, a nursing major. “What he did was awful, but I have no idea what kind of personal demons or severe depression he was facing. I’m not sympathizing with him, but I feel for his family like I do the other families.”

Despite what I think, the general consensus does seem to exclude Kazmierczak from the title of “victim.” Still, there are those who do see with clarity the intentions of the church.

“I don’t think it’s necessary to have six crosses up at Cole Hall,” said Bianca Kuta, sophomore speech pathology major. “But it’s understandable that the church would do so. The church has to set an example and acknowledge that Steven was sick and needed help.”

Every second we spend quarreling about this, we’re allowing the aftermath of our tragedy to follow protocol and slip into a political fiasco. What is moral? What is immoral?

Six crosses or five? Tear Cole Hall down or leave it standing? All we’re doing is throwing around opinions, including myself with the very composition of this column. Perhaps I, along with everyone else, need to take these opinions and manufacture them into productive ideas that can benefit the wounded heart of our community right now.

What we’re going through at this point as a community isn’t anything extraordinary. It is just a natural stage of the grieving process. Still, we should challenge ourselves to be fully conscious of that, and refrain from allowing our hearts to become blackened by our loss with an atmosphere of ill will. Of course, it would be unfair to assume that the opinions of just a few people reflect the attitudes of every student across campus, but history has proven that any single idea can be as dangerous as it can be contagious.

In the interest of goodwill toward mankind, I propose that we boycott something else instead of a church. Let’s boycott conflict. Just for a day at least, because attacking each other and local churches is not the answer to our problems. We owe our community much more than that.