And So It Goes

Now don’t take this the wrong way, but so far I think the biggest tragedy with this massacre at Virginia Tech is the lack of a reaction, at least for me. I think I, along with many others, have become numb to this kind of senseless violence. The fact is, this is only big news because it’s the claimed the most victims, which likens it to a sports record being broken more than 33 lives being lost. When Columbine happened we all stood up and took notice. I couldn’t turn off the television, I had to see every interview and hear every story. That was the second time I felt the need to get online and jot down my feelings, before they called it blogging. (Click here)

As a country, we aren’t shocked by this any longer and that’s just unacceptable. We’ve come to the realization that “these things happen,” when we should be equally outraged, confused and scared every single time it happens. Maybe as more details are discovered, we’ll find it as disturbing as we should. But I think we’ll be distracted from the personal stories, the ones we should all listen to, by the unavoidable debates that will arise. Mainly gun control and Home Land Security, and you know what; I’d love to tackle gun control. That was my first instinct today when I started thinking about this post. But I’m not going to do it. There may not seem like a better time, but I think there has to be. Maybe it’s tomorrow or next week, but today should be about the 33 who lost their lives, and the thousands at Virginia Tech who went through this. I’m just so tired of political agendas riding the coattails of actual tragedies.

As well as thinking about those at Columbine. I don’t need to look this up, I know that April 20th marks the anniversary of that dreadful day. And that got me to thinking, those kids we saw on television that day, either running for their lives or being interviewed around the clock, well those kids are grown up now. They are 22-26 now, which means some are still in school. And I can’t help but wonder if any of those high school kids ended up as college kids at Virginia Tech.

Mostly this scares me because I worry about my nieces, nephews and my friends’ kids. Supposed to worry about when they’ll first ditch school, or start smoking, or when they’ll first try alcohol or be offered drugs. That’s all scary, but those are the worries that we’re supposed to have. This isn’t just isn’t supposed to happen.