HEAR YE, HEAR YE
It's been a few days, but until now I haven't had time to look up the link where a jury convicted the murderer of two students at Gallaudet University. The Post article sounds like the prosecution had a pretty open-and-shut case (defense wants to appeal by challenging the judge's decision to allow letters from the defendant to his girlfriend? scuse me?), and I'm glad.

I took a couple of courses over there when I was in college, so it might seem like I'd know the place -- but even being somewhat familiar with it, Gallaudet is an otherworldly, almost eerie place to a hearing person. It's not just that it's missing the rumble of voices that other places have all the time; I also have this memory of there being precious little other noise, either. Traffic sounds, machinery, birds chirping -- hardly any of that. It seemed like people walked more softly. The whole campus was library-quiet, all the time.

And then a year and a half ago, two kids were murdered there. In their rooms, which freaked me right out. Even now, I get goosebumps thinking about it: imagine being attacked, at night, in your bed, by someone bigger and stronger than you, in a place where nobody at all can hear you, no matter how loud you scream.