Sunday, April 20, 1997. 2:53 a.m. Nineteen-year old Uri Sellers is stabbed in the chest by Michael Runyan on the lawn of the Adelante fraternity during a Veishea party.

The Iowa State community was stunned that a homicide had occurred in our backyard, during our celebration.

“We feel terrible,” we lamented.

“We vow to do all we can to see that it doesn’t happen again,” we pledged.

“We will not forget,” we promised.

But we did forget.

We moved on with our lives and forgot everything. We forgot about what happened that night. And we forgot why it happened.

Two drunk, out-of-town kids walked by a fraternity party. They got into a shouting match with drunk ISU students, and they came back with a knife.

Was Iowa State to blame for this tragedy?

No.

We couldn’t control the actions of two kids who were here purely to party. We couldn’t know what they were going to do, and we couldn’t stop them from doing it.

But Veishea did play a role in this tragedy.

And although it’s hard for some people to accept, if alcohol hadn’t been a part of last year’s Veishea, Uri Sellers would not have died.

Plain and simple.

Michael Runyan had around 20 beers on Welch Avenue Saturday night before the confrontation.

Uri Sellers had a .17 percent blood-alcohol level when he died.

During Runyan’s trial, assistant prosecuting attorney Stephen Holmes said that almost everyone set to testify during the trial, including witnesses for both sides, “had been drinking.”

Without alcohol, there would have been no frat party for Runyan to disrupt. There would have been no drunken stupor to cloud the judgment of either of the young men.

But most importantly, there would have been no festival of drunkenness for Runyan and his friends to visit in the first place.

And honestly, isn’t that what Veishea really is about? Who remembers the cherry pies, the open houses, or the parade? Isn’t the point that we can all get together with everyone else on campus and get drunk?

There are some Iowa State students who can and do drink responsibly during Veishea. But the vast majority don’t. You binge drink, you drink to excess, and you fly off the handle when someone suggests you shouldn’t drink.

And if someone, especially the president of our university, says you can’t drink for just one weekend in April, well, you’ll show them. You’ll drink more than ever just to prove how irresponsible and immature you actually are.

You’ll throw a tantrum, like a 2-year-old child who isn’t getting his way. You’ll threaten to riot just to stick it to the administration.

But when you stop to think, do you really want another morning like that of April 20?

Do you want to read about the tragic death of another kid? Do you want to see grass stained with blood in front of another campus building? Do you want to know that someone here died needlessly again?

We can’t guarantee that no one will do anything stupid at Veishea. But we can do a lot to prevent what happened last year.

We can prove to Uri Sellers’ friends and family that we didn’t forget.

Please, don’t listen to students like Abe Sweeney, freshman in pre-civil engineering, who wrote this on April 2:

“…I’m going to make this Veishea one to remember. I’m going to go out and have a good old-fashioned night of drinking and make it something that will not leave my mind anytime soon.”

Remember that we at Iowa State already have a night that won’t leave our minds anytime soon.

April 20, 1997.

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Sara Ziegler is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from Sioux Falls, S.D. She is the opinion editor of the Daily.