Virginia Tech Tragedy...


One day after the killing of 32 students and faculty along with the wounding of at least another 30, I still cannot fathom what can precipitate a horrendous situation such as this.

I'm sure that I'm not alone regarding the questions I keep coming up with, such as why the campus wasn't placed on a lockdown after the first double shooting (over an apparent domestic quarrel)? Why wasn't the first building in question as least cordoned off? Could the campus have had more cameras? What lengths does the administration go to so they can ensure that firearms are not brought onto campus? How secure is the campus from outside incursion?

These questions only beget more questions. And since hindsight is ALWAYS 20/20, we can speculate and "what if" ourselves into next Wednesday real easy.

We will invariably see the anti-gun people coming forward, claiming that GUNS were the cause of this, and NOT the person wielding them. To these people I would merely state that any gun used was a tool, a device by which the perpetrator's goal was achieved. And since he apparently took his OWN life, we'll never really know what his EXACT intentions were, only that he caused so much sorrow for too many families that would otherwise unjoyed a rather typical day in Blacksburg, Virginia.

But these are atypical times we live in.

We can plan, we can make people aware, we can even place technology where we think it will do the most good, but we can never see the spontaneous lunatic that, for whatever reason, decides that today is a good day to die, whether for himself or for others. No precautions devised to date can honestly predict that.

We will never be truly able to protect everyone, everywhere, all the time. And as callous as that might sound, it's painfully true. There will always be that miniscule portion of society that will somehow manage to fly "under the radar", evading laws we have in place to protect others. There are those that will claim that "society failed him", when in fact it is he who failed himself. If we could at least address this part of the problem, so many more issues could then be adequately explained and easily resolved. It wouldn't be perfect, but it would be a lot less problematic.

We can however continue to be on guard for telltale signs of problems with people. But that by itself can open up a whole other can of worms. What's deemed "dubious" behavior or eccentricities to some might be perfectly normal for many others.We could wind up with a nation of people too busy looking over their own shoulders or too preoccupied with turning others in that "they think" might be a "potential" threat, that we will forget how to live as human beings. Technology has already stripped us of so many social nuances, that we are fast forgetting what manners and civility really are. The mere hint at anything approaching a "thought" police should scare every one of us. The slightest thought that we might be turned in by someone with a grudge, a prankster, or even someone that's anthropophobic in general should send up every red flag available.

What we can do is attempt to make the educational experience a safe one. We can learn from situations such as this, however "after the fact" that sounds. What we cannot do is gaze into the nearest crystal ball and predict who certain problem individuals are (or will be) and to head off these people with social, mental, or emotional issues before they cause anguish for many who just wanted to get on with their lives and put another day under their belts.

My prayers go to all the families involved, for I know that they never would have known that something like this could, or would ever occur.

How reactive we are as a people will tell one tale.
How proactive we are will be quite the other.