How Should We Honor the Memory of Joseph Dado?

Penn State freshman Joseph Dado died early last Sunday morning in circumstances that may be all too easy for many of us to imagine ourselves in. The friends he went out with Saturday night had already taken off by the time he decided to leave the party they had attended together. He was somewhat buzzed perhaps, but was apparently confident that he could make it home safely. Instead he suffered a fatal head trauma from falling off a ledge between two buildings on campus.



Now, imagine you were in a similar situation at the end of a long night of partying: What would you do?

You may be struggling with the implications of your answer to this question. According to what I have been able to learn about the events so far, I don't see any glaring signs that would have been telling me to stay put, or to take a cab instead of walking. It's hard for anyone to be sure that, given the same situation, they would have made a different, somehow better, choice than the one Joe made.

Are there any lessons that we should learn from Joe's death? Are there any clear targets for blame here? Are there changes that can or should be made to ensure that nothing like this happens again?

Beyond grieving, and sending our condolences to his family and friends, what should we do to honor the memory of Joseph Dado? What will you do?

[See The Daily Collegian for ongoing coverage of the story and of the various ways in which the PSU community is honoring Joe's memory.]