Monday, April 16, 2007

Virginia Tech... I hate that my first thought was "wow, somebody finally beat Columbine," as if lives were scores. I feel a little less human now.


Anonymous
05:16:00 PM

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought something like that too but About Whitman not columbine.

Anonymous said...

Don't worry, I thought almost the exact same thing, except I thought, "wow, thirty-something? that must be a school shooting record"
I feel terrible about it too, but that was the first thing that came to mind.

Anonymous said...

I'm worse- I wondered if that would mean less competition for getting in there.

Anonymous said...

Sadly...I must agree with the OP and anonymous 2. It's sad, but true.

Anonymous said...

I just thought about how you hear on the news....50 killed and 100 injured in explosion in baghdad. and how nobody cares a SHIT. and then 33 students die in VT and the whole nation is in shock. do you know how many people are massacred everyday in places like sudan? america is so so spoiled. when people are massacred in other countries...nobody in the world cares.

we are privileged. and my heart and prayers go to those students that were trying to make it for themselves in college at VT. they didn't deserve it. but neither did anyone else in the world.

and I'm not trying to de-importancesize the magnitude of the shootings in VT. but why can't we see every human as equally valuable in all around the world. and care for everyone?

this is just a little taste of what goes on around the world in war-torn 3rd world countries.

Anonymous said...

^Thank you for saying that. I think we all needed to hear it.

Anonymous said...

anon 5, do you go to as many funerals as you can?

yes massacres happen everywhere all the time (unfortunately), but this was a tragedy that struck here at home. if your own children were murdered, wouldn't you be moved tremendously more than if someone else's children halfway around the world did? the child's life was worth just as much as your child's, but you can probably tell that they're different mourning situations.

Anonymous said...

That’s great and all anon three and it’s a reality check good job. But understand this. These students didn't volunteer their live to service and died at the hands of a sick person on a rampage. YES! Horrible things are happening everyday in third world countries. But those students dying? Don't turn it into something else, don't turn there death into anything else. THIS IS A HORRIBLE occurrence regardless of where it happened. Yes we care about it more because it happened close to home. That’s how it works. You care about your country, your people. What we have the capability to control. Or at least what we feel like we have the capability to control.

In response to the Op - don't feel human... I researched columbine just after this to figure out what the hell those kids were thinking. They wanted to kill 600 with a bomb and more after and failed. They wanted to make a world wide statement but it ended in what we called the most massive school shooting.

Now yet another disillusioned individual has taken many others down with him or taken them down for his own gain (all though I don't get what he gains).

I really almost could puke about this. It makes me THAT sick. I know it’s because it’s so close to home. I know it’s because I am so close to college age. Yes horrible things are happening around the world but I feel a little more at ease because I feel I have less control over them. (I know that’s horrible) but close to home? I thought I would be safe? Protected? I trusted other us. citizens not to do this. Why ... well I don't know. As someone said to me about it "this is so REAL" and I completely agree. It IS real, very real. I wish this wasn’t what it took to force me to understand death but it is really fast. It is really making me understand the fallibility of man to see all those individuals die at the mercy of one man.

I do understand your hostility towards a depressed mass that never seems to care when 400 are blown up in a middle eastern country or when millions are dying of aids in Africa.
But those lives should not be used as a political or personal guilt trip.

Anonymous said...

oh an important edit on my last post, don't feel LESS human. do feel human, its probably a natural response to these things.

Anonymous said...

I thought the exact something

Anonymous said...

To the person who wrote the long comment above, I agree with what you say, but soldiers are not the only ones who die in war. Far more often the real casualties are the innocent bystanders. And they are rarely reported. It's awful that anyone would want to hurt anyone like that, regardless of whether they signed up for the risk, didn't think they WERE at risk, or just happen to be near the risk. And it breaks my heart that we often forget about these risks until AFTER a tragedy, when nothing can be done.