This has been a really rough week here in America as a Virginia Tech student killed a total of 32 other students and faculty members before finally killing himself earlier this week. Obviously this is a very sensitive issue and I certainly don’t want to show any disrespect to the victims of this tragedy and their families, but I do think it’s important that we talk about it because while bottling up all of our thoughts and feelings may help to avoid being uncomfortable, it doesn’t do anything for the grieving process except prolong it and the nation in itself can always use all the help it can get after something truly horrible like this happens out of thin air.
But while it’s ok to talk about it, one thing that I think we need to steer clear of is pointing the blame for all of this, which sadly isn’t happening as we flip from channel to channel, medium to medium to hear everybody and their brother’s idea of who or what’s to blame for all of this. Of course, it’s simply human nature to want to know the why behind something so horrific – we want to know not only because we’re curious, but also because we genuinely want to know if there’s anything that we can do differently to prevent such an event from ever happening again in the future. But guess as we might, there was really only one person who could tell us what drives a man to get up in the morning and proceed to gun down his fellow classmates and professors, and that man shot himself before anyone had the chance to ask why…
That doesn’t stop anyone with an agenda from casting the first stone though, now does it? Merely hours into the shooting, before it was even completed, lawyer and anti-video game advocate Jack Thompson was seen on television pointing blame towards violent video games, just as opponents of other easy scapegoats such as rock music, violent movies, and the liking all stood tall with confidence that their own personal agenda was without a doubt the cause behind the day’s tragedy, giving the American public all the more reason to take a stand and finally ban video games or rock and roll or whatever displeases you once and for all. Mind you, pretty much anyone who is against anything could use such an event as a springboard if they themselves are that despicable – I could suggest that the killings were a result of the ongoing war over in Iraq, simply because it’s undeniably violent and I don’t particularly agree with it, but pointing blame doesn’t really do any good in this situation and in light of its tragic nature, I think we owe it to ourselves and those who lost their lives to be just a little more subjective if we’re going to analyze during times like these.
While we can’t truly understand why he did it because he’s no longer with us, we can very much still examine just how these events unfolded and what could’ve been done not necessarily to prevent them entirely in that we can’t get inside the killer’s head, but outside of the killer himself. How long did it take before people were aware of what was happening and could react? Could the police have responded any faster or in a different manner? Could the students and faculty have done anything different to minimize the casualties? What things can be done that are in our control to help make an event like the one that happened last week a one-time deal?
It may very well have been that the shooter got so wrapped up in his shoot ‘em up video games that he wasn’t aware of what he was doing, or maybe he listened to one too many heavy metal songs about death and destruction that he finally went over the edge, or maybe - just maybe – the guy was just plain crazy in his own right and there are no outside influences to blame for his actions whatsoever. Unfortunately it’s a question that we’re never going to know the answer to and I know that a lot of people have a very hard time coming to terms with such lack of any reason or explanation, but in times like these we’re all much better off focusing our efforts constructively to improve our communities to handle tragedy just as best as we possibly can because there’s just no telling what will happen next. All we can do is try our best to learn from our mistakes and better ourselves in the event that it happens again, and blame doesn’t have any place in that equation.
My sympathies go out to the friends and family of those who were killed in this horrible tragedy, as well as everyone at Virginia Tech who has a long journey before they’ll be able to move on from this. Go Hokies…
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