"Worst day of violence on a college campus in American history"
President Bush speaking about the event that Wikipedia seems to have settled on calling the "Virginia Tech Massacre" (as opposed to "Virginia Tech Shootings", see the Talk page for the discussions), called it the worst day of violence on a college campus in American history, a horrible but accurate description.
I am already ready to be done with the conversation about gun control (great idea? or greatest idea? [apologies to S. Colbert]) vs. happy gun ownership (this could have all been prevented, if students were prepared to return fire while in English class. And wouldn't that make the professors more calm, to have lots of armed and surly freshmen in their must-pass class...).
This was not a case of gun control gone bad. This was also not an illegal alien committing a crime; not an act of terrorism in the political sense; not something we should be fearful of at any moment.
This was an act of... wait for it... premeditated murder by a disturbed, isolated individual who may have been looking for an ex-girlfriend, as he walked from room to room.
I have already determined that I will not bother learning the name of the individual to blame. He was a young adult. He was a permanent resident. He had an ethnic origin, like every other American. He had a family, a roommate, occupied a physical space in the world. Now he has marked many others, indelibly, and escaped the consequences forever. Let his name be forgotten, not repeated and repeated.
So the origin of this mayhem and suffering may have been (we'll know more once we watch the movie of the week!) a victim (see his "rambling" suicide notes, and the play he wrote about "Richard McBeefy") turned abuser, unable to cope with feelings other than by acting them out.
Should we be having a conversation, this society, not about bang-bang but about relationships and violence? Or about society or schools making an effort to reach out to the disaffected, the disturbed, the distanced and the deranged?
Meanwhile, I'm done reading the speculations of amateurs, self-promoters, and blameless experts roped in by a scoop-thirsty media. Notify me when the stories of heroism, sacrifice, and giving -- that is, the best of human nature, not the worst -- have finished being vetted, debunked, and verified by witnesses. After, not before, there is some time for them, and us, to heal.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by this tragedy.
I am already ready to be done with the conversation about gun control (great idea? or greatest idea? [apologies to S. Colbert]) vs. happy gun ownership (this could have all been prevented, if students were prepared to return fire while in English class. And wouldn't that make the professors more calm, to have lots of armed and surly freshmen in their must-pass class...).
This was not a case of gun control gone bad. This was also not an illegal alien committing a crime; not an act of terrorism in the political sense; not something we should be fearful of at any moment.
This was an act of... wait for it... premeditated murder by a disturbed, isolated individual who may have been looking for an ex-girlfriend, as he walked from room to room.
I have already determined that I will not bother learning the name of the individual to blame. He was a young adult. He was a permanent resident. He had an ethnic origin, like every other American. He had a family, a roommate, occupied a physical space in the world. Now he has marked many others, indelibly, and escaped the consequences forever. Let his name be forgotten, not repeated and repeated.
So the origin of this mayhem and suffering may have been (we'll know more once we watch the movie of the week!) a victim (see his "rambling" suicide notes, and the play he wrote about "Richard McBeefy") turned abuser, unable to cope with feelings other than by acting them out.
Should we be having a conversation, this society, not about bang-bang but about relationships and violence? Or about society or schools making an effort to reach out to the disaffected, the disturbed, the distanced and the deranged?
Meanwhile, I'm done reading the speculations of amateurs, self-promoters, and blameless experts roped in by a scoop-thirsty media. Notify me when the stories of heroism, sacrifice, and giving -- that is, the best of human nature, not the worst -- have finished being vetted, debunked, and verified by witnesses. After, not before, there is some time for them, and us, to heal.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by this tragedy.
Posted by Eh Nonymous on
Wednesday April 18, 2007 at 10:47am
*Not all comments welcome. Flippant, facetious, fierce, or fatuous, fine. Fraudulent, felonious, fabricated, facially insufficient, and farkin' futile, fuggeddaboutit.