National Tragedies, et. al.
Apr. 17th, 2007 08:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pen_gruntOne of the many things I simply cannot stand about news coverage is being demonstrated amply in the coverage proceeding the "Massacre at Virginia Tech."
This freak, freak thing happens, and the news asks us: "Why didn't they alert students earlier?" "Where was campus security in all this?" "Why weren't school officials able to prevent more deaths?"
And so on and so forth.
Because it can't just be something tragic and extraordinary, it has to be a major breech in security...a preventable end to a predictable path...something that makes all campuses less safe.
I want to scream and rage at the TV: it's not the school's fault--no more than it is the city of Saint Paul's fault when a murder happens there. People are responsible for their own actions and decisions. Saying that the school failed to alert students and therefore were somehow responsible for the second incident is reprehensible. How do we react in the face of something utterly mind-blowing? So evil, so horrid that we can barely comprehend its existence? How is it even possible to react rationally in the face of improbable and irrational actions?
I'm glad I'm not still in college right now, if only to avoid the idiotic ramifications of one man's horrid, tragic and evil decision.
This freak, freak thing happens, and the news asks us: "Why didn't they alert students earlier?" "Where was campus security in all this?" "Why weren't school officials able to prevent more deaths?"
And so on and so forth.
Because it can't just be something tragic and extraordinary, it has to be a major breech in security...a preventable end to a predictable path...something that makes all campuses less safe.
I want to scream and rage at the TV: it's not the school's fault--no more than it is the city of Saint Paul's fault when a murder happens there. People are responsible for their own actions and decisions. Saying that the school failed to alert students and therefore were somehow responsible for the second incident is reprehensible. How do we react in the face of something utterly mind-blowing? So evil, so horrid that we can barely comprehend its existence? How is it even possible to react rationally in the face of improbable and irrational actions?
I'm glad I'm not still in college right now, if only to avoid the idiotic ramifications of one man's horrid, tragic and evil decision.
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Date: 2007-04-18 08:53 pm (UTC)Bomb threat at U; 8 buildings evacuated