The Branch Davidians Reflection

 When recently studying the siege in Waco, I was surprised by how biased I was before researching the topic holistically. Before this class, I had only listened to a podcast about the siege and it was biased in favor of the government. Naturally, this was the unconscious opinion that I adopted and until discussing further in class and conducting my own research I realized how the issue had fault on both sides.

I found particularly interesting the media portrayal and how different news sources skewed the issue. I often found myself comparing it to COVID-19, despite the differences and the scale, both issues had strong media portrayal from both sides of the scale.
After interviewing a family friend, Susan, and hearing about her time as a freshman at Baylor during the Siege, I was unsurprised by the information she shared. She shared that Baylor was cooperative and aided the government in travel during the time of the raid. Additionally, she said students moved on quickly and had not heard of the Branch Davidians until they turned on their televisions and heard of the news of the raid for the first time. I found this interesting because I feel as if on campus we are trapped in a bubble and a massive event could be occurring just 15 minutes away and students would have no idea. It makes me realize the importance of getting involved in community, keeping up with the news, and staying open to the things occurring around us.  
I enjoyed hearing from Jeff Guinn and learning from such an educated perspective on this controversial topic. I think he laid a solid foundation to ask questions and on how to dive deeper into developing our own thoughts and opinions on who is at fault.

 

Comments

  1. williams.dan76October 21, 2025 at 11:23 AM

    Thanks for your research and interview. It's great to have first-hand accounts. "Truth" is mostly fabricated from diverse sources, and sometimes these sources are contradictory. Waco is a good example of multiple narratives clashing with each other. I look forward to your presentation.

    ReplyDelete

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