Liberty’s warm smile.

Posted by ilene on July 14th, 2007 filed in liberty

I wasn’t really sure what to title my post in part because I didn’t personally know Liberty. I’m surprised that I haven’t seen an entry by any of his students at UCSD. I took the UCSD (Marshall College) general education requirement called Dimensions of Culture (DOC) that Liberty was a TA for during my first year in 2005. I never had the opportunity of having Liberty as my own TA, but I remember seeing him sitting in his section during lecture with his students (we had assigned seating to keep track of attendance). The DOC series is a sequence of 3 writing courses and I think Liberty was a TA in 2 out of the 3 I took. I remember he would get to class early and I would see him just sitting in his section with a warm smile on his face staring into space… I often wanted to approach him even though I had nothing particular to talk about. He was just the coolest looking TA with that hair of his. At the end of lecture, I always saw him smiling and joking with his students. I really wanted Liberty to be my TA - the way he carried himself always made me wonder what he’d be like during his discussions. I continued to see him around campus during my 2nd year at UCSD and I always thought of him as the TA I’d never know. It was in an email that Professor Abe Shragge sent out to inform us of the horrific accident that broke my heart. When I saw Liberty’s name in the email, I was in tears…and may I remind you I didn’t even know Liberty. Reading all these great memories that people have of Liberty and discovering what kind of person Liberty was in the eyes of those who knew him renews that curiosity I had about him my first year of college and I’m saddened that I will never get that chance to know him. Professor Shragge informed us that a tree will be planted outside of Liberty’s office in the DOC building alongside a plaque that will honor his memory. I’ll post a picture as soon as I visit that side of campus.

I’ve been keeping up with this website and the websites that people post in regard to the case. I’ve been a bystander since the launching of this website just reading the posts that people leave on a daily basis. I visit it as often as I read my email. I decided to finally come forward and share my memory of Liberty because I admired him and the work he did. At the end of my workouts, I’ve been listening to Coldplay - Yellow because of a previous post someone left. I think of Liberty whenever I play it and I pray that he’s at peace and that his family and friends can rest assure that Liberty gets the justice he so rightfully deserves.

Viewed 3960 times by 836 viewers