VT

Good morning.

After reading Law’s post on the VT massacres (here) I was half-surprised that I came to the exact same conclusion myself, as far as the predicatable, what-could-we-have-done-better nature of the crime and the attempted scapegoating that followed.

First and most importantly, Rest In Peace to all the people killed at VT. My prayers go out to the dead, and to the family and friends of slain VT students and staff that now have to figure out a way to live out the rest of their lives without their loved ones.

…

Ladies and Gentlemen, the only thing we can figure from all this senseless violence is that it was senseless. There is no rhyme or reason to this kind of tragedy. How do you predict that which is irrational? IMO you don’t, you grieve when it happens, accept what has passed, and try to move on. It may sound heartless or unsympathetic, but really what can you do? This is a senseless killing. I see this as some guy flipping a coin, and commit to shooting if it lands on its side. This time, the coin landed on its side.

I think if anything–if anything–we can say we should have recognized the signs beforehand, what with all the disturbing work he produced for his classes, the plays, the poems… and the only thing one can do at that point is refer to a therapist. Some people are just fucked up… I personally don’t think all people who are fucked up and write about fucked up things and say fucked up shit are going to become mass murderers. But if anything we can attempt treat this like the Air Force treats suicide. If an Airman starts talking about killing themselves, we refer them to Life Skills and immediately attempt to build a support group for that person. Similarly, perhaps we should start referring people who talk about committing murder to a Life Skills-type of therapist. It would help by giving the troubled person a much-needed talking to and working with, and when word gets around that you get sent to a therapist for talking like that, people who are just talkers will be less likely to fuck around when it comes to talking about murder, the same way that people around here don’t joke about killing themselves anymore, since it’s well known (we’re trained on suicide prevention measures) that doing so will land a dude in Life Skills.

As far as blame goes, this is a random act of violence from a sick individual. These things just happen. You can only grieve for the dead, then try to move on. The University handled this situation to the best of their ability correctly… For people in charge of security, the first instinct is to make the right area safe. In this case, it was the dorm. From the indicators and the experience of the police, it looked like an isolated shooting given all the evidence they scrambled to find.

I don’t know. As with every tragedy that I witness (albeit third-hand), I scramble to make sense of the senseless, no matter how much I realize that it’s impossible to do so, and I imagine others out there react the same way. I guess it’s the humanity in us, where instead of saying “Well, these things just happen”, we’re driven and compelled to find ways not to let these kinds of tragedies happen again. We figure out how to prevent future building bombings, how to stop bombs from being sent to the mail, how to prevent our airplanes being used as missiles to kill people, how to stop kids from going on shooting rampages at an assumed-safe place….

I guess we just need time to accept what has happened and move on.

-TJ