The Virginia Tech Tragedy
By Chad A. B. Wilson
Published April 18, 2007, 4:25 pm in News.
Imus Revisited
Last time, I chimed in about Don Imus, just like every other blogger in the blogosphere. I thought my title was catchy--"Imus in the Mourning." Today, I thought that probably some other people had come up with the same title, so I decided to Google it. Turns out that a lot of other people had the same catchy title as me, including newspapers. Oh, well. I guess I'm just not as unique as I thought. Really, that doesn't surprise me. Sometimes I fear that Ecclesiastes is right: there is nothing new under the sun. And then "Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything is meaningless." But maybe that's just the pessimist inside me. Really, I'm a jovial person, I promise.
While I was searching for Imus, I came across this from http://www.alltooflat.com/about/personal/sean/oldArchives.php?BlogNum=11429:
"He's OBVIOUSLY not a racist. He flipped out at the race-baiting ads that the Republicans ran against Harold Ford, he ranted for weeks about how Harold Ford lost because people were racist, he flipped out at the racist push-polls that the Bushies ran against John McCain, he's done tons of charity work for sickle cell anemia, he and his wife work with inner-city kids with cancer, he and his wife help green inner-city facilities, every MLK Day he plays the entire 'I Have a Dream' speech even though the station tells him not to because people tune out, he listens to and plays and has on black preachers, and on and on and on."
I can't vouch for the veracity of anything this person says, for I have only listened to Imus a few times when I used to have a long commute, but it kind of makes me wonder why he said what he did. The person who posted this is saying that he or she doesn't think Imus should lose his job because of what he said. Me, I don't think it excuses anything. The fact is that he said something racist and degrading, and he should have to pay the penalty for it. What is his excuse, after all? Can he even have an excuse? What? "I'm just joking?" Even if that's true, it is a joke in very poor taste, and the man should take his licks.
The Virginia Tech Massacre
Speaking of sadness, I can't really figure out what to talk about today. The Virginia Tech shooting is overshadowing everything, and I can't figure out anything I can say about it. It's a tragedy, and it blows me away. All I can do is offer my condolences, and they mean nothing to those directly affected. Still, I am sorry. As they release the names of the victims, I see their pictures, and I want to cry. It's devastating to think that one person's alienation and inability to cope with life led to the loss of so many other lives. I can't stomach it.
There are several political issues that this entire episode brings to the forefront, but I have to be careful in discussing any of them. I think it's terrible to use a tragedy like this as stumping ground. I don't think it's time for anyone to say, "We need to learn from this incident and ban handguns!" Or worse: "I told you so!" But in a few days, we can expect candidates to chime in on these issues. Eventually, they will have to do that or they won't win support. The Washington Post reports, ""I think that people who want to take this within 24 hours of the event and make it their political hobby horse to ride ... I've got nothing but loathing for them," Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said. "To those who want to try to make this into some little crusade, I say take that elsewhere." Me, I think we need a lot more than 24 hours.
Gun Control
The first political issue is gun control. According to some analysts, this issue lost Al Gore the 2000 presidential election. Gore wanted to require gun registration, and thus he couldn't win the swing states. Notice the conspicuous absence of any talk of gun control over the last few months. But now, we have quite a few chiming in already. McCain says he's con, Giuliani says he's for individual state laws, and John Edwards has come out as pro-gun control.
What we're going to have this time around is a presidential race that will at least partly focus on gun control. Everyone will say that they believe in the Second Amendment, but...
One interesting argument being bandied around is about the ban on carrying concealed weapons on college campuses. Virginia Tech doesn't allow concealed weapons, so the students were unarmed and unable to fight a man on a shooting rampage. Some gun advocates are saying that nothing about the gunman would have made him ineligible to purchase guns, even with tighter gun control measures. The only thing that would have saved these people's lives is if the students were armed, too. Then they would have been able to take the gunman down.
It seems like a crazy argument, but there is some logic to it. The problem with arguments like this is that the better method is to prevent it, no matter what that takes. If everyone in America were armed, I wonder what that would mean.
Counseling and Psychological Services
Another issue that this tragedy brings up is what people were supposed to do with the gunman when they saw that he had problems. As his poetry teacher said, lots of students write about death, murder, and suicide. They're the amateur subject because every poet feels that society has alienated him or her--that's what gets them into poetry in the first place. No doubt this guy was different, just like everyone said. The fact that he made everyone in his class afraid of him says something. Still, what should the role of counselor have been in this case? Should the University have done anything differently, even though the student had not made any threats? Should counseling be mandatory based on how people feel about another person even if he or she has not officially done anything wrong? I know he "stalked" two girls, who complained about it, but was that enough to put him in mandatory counseling? What is the role of counseling and how can we determine whether someone will do something like this?
Campus Safety
The final issue I want to bring up here concerns campus safety. A good friend of mine works at a high school, and he said that the shooting had made everything crazy: people are nervous and they know that this kind of thing could happen anywhere. He said that he doesn't want to be at school right now. Me, I work at a large public university (in an engineering building, no less), so I know the nervousness on campuses. The scary thing about this shooting is that is really could have happened anywhere. Nothing about VT made it cultivate this kind of student. My wife, who works as a campus counselor, says she sees students all the time who could possibly be as depressed as the VT gunman. That's scary, it is.
But what about the VT officials? Did they do anything wrong? How quickly should officials shut down campus? How should warning systems work? How should the school let students know that there is a problem? Schools everywhere are dealing with these very issues right now. My school is already there. We're on the Gulf Coast, so we have hurricane warning systems in place, and those same systems could be used for this kind of emergency, as well. Thank God for that.
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