There is a tragic flaw in the modern American character. Would it be jingoism, world ignorance, or hypocrisy? No, I find all those to be but charming idiosyncrasy, as innocent as apple pie, and as harmless as a cute .38 snubnose concealed gingerly in an embroidered leather holster. I speak of a greater flaw: the inability to accept due responsibliity, especially when none is due.
My thread from my heart to my tearducts was strained uncomfortably this week, and my agnostic prayers go out to the fine community of Virginia Tech. Who would have known a crazy gunman would wreak havoc on their idyll lives. Actually, I would have guessed… Korean student going for an English Major? I can only imagine how much his asian parents approved of that.
But for all my sympathy, I can not stand the immediate scapegoating that followed. Suddenly, the university was to blame for not alerting 25,000 sleepy college students that they didn’t know a crazed gunman was loose since they only started investigating a domestic-dispute homicide. Maybe they were to blame for not knowing the exact location of the gunman on their 2500-acre campus, and making the silly assumption that he had made a run for it the way 99% of criminals do.
Oh but it got worse.
Infamy whore Jack Thompson, a leech, a pox, played the video game card before he (or the rest of the country) had a damn clue about what had transpired. It should have been blatantly obvious to the press that the uber-violent video games that the unknown gunman was not known to have MUST have caused this killing spree. The Washington Post demonstrated remarkable journalistic integrity by reporting the gunman was a hardcore afficiando of Counterstrike. A day later, that statement was removed from their article, surely with only the best intentions. Didn’t I just write about this?
Do we have to find someone to blame? Parents, games, guns, police, media, or whatever the hell is near any disaster, why is it we pick one and not all (or none) to blame? It’s like a need to put a face or identity to the blame. This kid was just fucked-up, and the gestalt of his recipe for insanity is at once everything and nothing. In fact, because it is everything, it is nothing. We need to focus on healing, acceptance, and have everyone learn pre-emptive empathy. It is nonsense to find sense in senseless violence. Let’s learn more about the victims and what they could have been, and not let the 15 minutes of each new accusation rob them of what is really their time. They have been robbed of enough.
TJ writes:
"Do we have to find someone to blame? Parents, games, guns, police, media, or whatever the hell is near any disaster, why is it we pick one and not all (or none) to blame? It's like a need to put a face or identity to the blame. This kid was just fucked-up, and the gestalt of his recipe for insanity is at once everything and nothing. In fact, because it is everything, it is nothing. We need to focus on healing, acceptance, and have everyone learn pre-emptive empathy. It is nonsense to find sense in senseless violence. Let's learn more about the victims and what they could have been, and not let the 15 minutes of each new accusation rob them of what is really their time. They have been robbed of enough."
Amen.
Have you seen the video tape he sent to NBC? It's on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1pj9i3hgRg
TJ writes:
I haven't watched this video, and I don't intend to unless it shows up on the news while I'm at work (which is probable). There's a appreciably loud voice in my head (Yes… I hear voices in my head) that's telling me I should not watch this video, my message to would-be mass-murderers and other pariahs wondering if their faux-political ramblings will be heard after they commit their heinous act. I know it's a free press, but I wish the media wouldn't play this video because it gives this guy a voice, and I just don't feel comfortable listening to words from a would-be killer, nor do I want to be one more person contributing to the hype and infamy this killer is getting post-mortem, something that we already know he appreciated about the Columbine killers–their "martyrdom".
So unless I'm a bystander of a news channel that happens to bring it up while I'm present, I'm not going out of my way to add a hit count to this or any of the killer's videos, even though I acknowledge that it probably brings some kind of light to the killer's motives and what not. I'll stay voluntarily ignorant on this one, thanks.
-TJ
TJ writes:
Gah. In short, I don't want someone pondering a heinous act to see his murderous role-models as having been famous. It would be nice if we let this killer and his maniacal crusade against the rich/smart/beautiful/whatever-else-made-him-mad fade into historical oblivion.
-TJ
Don't disagree with anything you said, but I still feel watching the video is a good thing. The guy is dead, and while there is some glorification for him in our watching it, it's also important to understand this person. Not trying to understand this person is what got him to this point in the first place. It's easy to dismiss him as crazy, but we should learn about where crazy comes from, and what forms it takes.
That was an impressive post on a very tragic event. I'm touched by your wisdom. Truly.
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