Half Nelson
rang@theguidon.com

Like our very own Malu Fernandez, Tracy Borres seems to have become every Ateneans’ and every Ateneo alumni’s object of ridicule and disgust overnight. One that warrants space on our blog entries. One that warrants an album in our Multiply account. One that warrants a lecture from our professors. One that has made it into our Yahoo! Groups, in between the usual org promotions and your teachers’ announcements.

And for what?

Tracy Isabel Borres (IV AB Psy) or, as one blogger calls her, “The Notorious TIB” posted a Facebook entry about her immersion, a Theology 141 requirement and an Atenean rite of passage. Instead of the enlightenment one supposedly gets from immersion, Tracy was unflinchingly and insensitively frank, and called immersion her “WORST NIGHTMARE” and personal “HELL.” With no proper plumbing, electricity, and a proliferation of semi-naked “wet with their sipon” children, Tracy resorted to “mentally blocking everything” to make it through her ordeal.

It is very easy to crucify Tracy. She represents the Atenean stereotype people warned you about before entering the school–that of apathetic, privileged kids who want nothing to do with the Other, who are content with shopping and partying their trust funds away. And in fact, she has already been crucified, in the thousand blog entries criticizing her upbringing, her lifestyle, her personhood.

But we’re all missing something here. By posting and reposting, sending and resending those blog entries, we are violating her right to privacy. In case anyone forgets, Tracy posted those entries on a personal blog for her group of friends. As any Facebook user knows, anything you post on your account is private and only viewable by people in your group. Obviously, someone violated Tracy’s trust, and that’s not our fault. But by joining in on this lynching, we are all accountable.

I am not defending her comments. God knows (and I’m sure she knows) they were mean and elitist… but they were also her comments, however disappointing they may be. She has the right to feel those feelings and say those things, especially to her circle of friends. There is, however, something wrong about a private person’s life splashed all over the Internet for everyone to judge and critique.

Yes, the comments she made on her blog might’ve been insensitive and nasty. But how about us? By joining in on this very public crucifixion of this private person’s life, doesn’t that also make us insensitive and nasty? Or does being on our collective moral high horse give us permission to breach privacy?

Maybe it’s the celebrity culture we live in. Everyday on his popular website, gossip blogger Perez Hilton labels any random celebrity he dislikes “ho” or “slut.” Sometimes these accusations are baseless and perhaps we learned our blogger ethics from Perez–anonymous behind the computer screen, we can call anyone anything we like without being accountable for it. These people are just pictures and names on our computer screens. We don’t have to give them any respect because they’re not real people to us–we don’t actually know them. There is no bearing on our real lives.

Right now, people are formulating theories about how Tracy Borres is symptomatic of everything wrong with the Atenean. I say let’s call a spade a spade. This is her life. These are her opinions. Nothing more, nothing less.