Re: Why should I care about VT?
I agree with OP on some level to be honest. While I feel very sorry for everyone involved, I have been trying to avoid the tragedy on the news like the plague. IMO, its discussion is really purposeless.
1) Most of this stuff is bread and butter for media sensationalism. This story is going to go on forever when there are actually much more important issues going on right now. Gonzales and the DA firings, Iraq, Iran, etc. IMO this is an interesting crossroads for the US.
2) Nothing is going to be really done about it. I mean, sure , VT will have some kind of security force put in place or something. But on a national lever nothing is going to be done. After Columbine, people were screaming everywhere to ban assault weapons. Well, this guy did more than twice as much damage with two pistols. So unless you want to practically prohibit access to all firearms (i.e., UK), what the hell are we going to talk about? And we all know that prohibiting firearms is just not going to happen. Other alternatives are likewise pointless to talk about. For example, ideas about a more comprehensive state or private mental health care system are so difficult to enact in a way that we would know it would stop this kind of violence.
3) I don't want to hear one more damn person say that it is the entertainment or video gaming industry's fault for this. Those people should be given a lobotomy. It is true that our culture (US that is) is apparently more prone to violence, but linking its causation to the media is just stupid. I would guess that there is something more deep-seeded that is responsible, but what do I know.
In brief, this is a tragedy, much in the same way that a bus load of children falling off the freeway bridge would be, only that the media can seize a greater audience with it. The killer here is not the direct result of some social or government policy. He is just some sick loser who took it out on everyone around him. It is incredibly saddening to hear about such innocent death, but its simply a result we may have to live with.
Pay all the respects you have breath for, but this story is just gonna be ground to pieces until it turns into a total circus.
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