No words...
Most days, when you wake up, you don't think you're going to be spending a few hours later that day making sure several of your friends and acquaintances are still alive.
But some days, shit happens.
Yes, I do know people who were on Virginia Tech's campus when the shootings occurred. Yes, I have an acquaintance, a guy I don't really know outside of drinking with him a few times, who has classes in Norris Hall on Tuesdays, who may well be dead had the gunman chosen to wait a day. Yes, one of my best friends (whose sister I learned was okay) told me of a friend who was in a classroom, huddled on the floor in a classroom, as a gun magazine was emptied through the glass in the door. Yes, I have a friend from high school in the Engineering graduate program, who I have not heard from but do know is okay.
No, it doesn't make sense.
There's no lesson to be taken here. Nothing about gun control, though guns were involved in the deaths, and I'm sure some left-wing nutjobs will pick up on that. Nothing about immigration, though the gunman was a resident alien, and I'm sure some right-wing nutjobs will pick up on that. No lesson other than another reminder of how complicated the machinery of life truly is.
I whisper, "Busy, busy, busy," but really, there are no words.
But some days, shit happens.
Yes, I do know people who were on Virginia Tech's campus when the shootings occurred. Yes, I have an acquaintance, a guy I don't really know outside of drinking with him a few times, who has classes in Norris Hall on Tuesdays, who may well be dead had the gunman chosen to wait a day. Yes, one of my best friends (whose sister I learned was okay) told me of a friend who was in a classroom, huddled on the floor in a classroom, as a gun magazine was emptied through the glass in the door. Yes, I have a friend from high school in the Engineering graduate program, who I have not heard from but do know is okay.
No, it doesn't make sense.
There's no lesson to be taken here. Nothing about gun control, though guns were involved in the deaths, and I'm sure some left-wing nutjobs will pick up on that. Nothing about immigration, though the gunman was a resident alien, and I'm sure some right-wing nutjobs will pick up on that. No lesson other than another reminder of how complicated the machinery of life truly is.
I whisper, "Busy, busy, busy," but really, there are no words.
4 Comments:
I'm just glad it wasn't a Muslim. The backlash would've been terrible.
Mike, by saying "there's no lesson to be taken here" are you responding to me?
Barzelay - My first response to your comment was "who the hell cares what the killers' religion/ethnicity was? It's a senseless tragedy and an evil act either way." But, upon further reflection...yeah, you're absolutely right. I wonder if there's going to be a backlash anyway against....what? South Koreans? Legal (as opposed to illegal) immigrants?
- Ben
Barzelay, that's a good point. I'm even glad it was a South Korean and not a North Korean.
No Ben, it wasn't a direct response to you. I was watching the news this morning and wondering what the pols were gonna start harping on this time (remembering that for Columbine it was gun control). And I reflected that, regardless of what they end up choosing, I couldn't think of anything legitimate.
Yeah, I agree with you on that "no lesson" one, Mike. Though I did so on my blog in a far more snarky manner.
Either way, scary shit. Who's the Jeffersonian in the grad program? On second thought, it's probably better that I didn't know this because I probably would have spent Monday even more freaked out than I already was.
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