The slaughter at Virginia Tech has affected me more than I thought it would, after I initially heard about it. It even was a topic of brief discussion in one of my classes today. I'm going to put some of my reactions here in an attempt to exorcise the thoughts in my head.
First and foremost, shame on the media, especially the TV news networks, for how they've covered it, and it was so predictable too. Immediately, they tried to use some hackneyed theory to explain this student's acts before any real details about him were known. "Oh, he was a loner. That explains it." Yeah, try again: Being lonely is part of the human condition; that trait by itself won't cause someone to do what this student did. Jack Thompson, infamous for his branding of video games as "murder simulators", was even picked up by Fox News before we knew whether the student played video games or not! And even if he did, playing violent video games may be a symptom of a disturbed personality (although it normally isn't; otherwise, there would be a lot more shootings), but it is certainly not the cause of such wanton disregard for human life. This morning, I turned on the TV and found that the Today Show was airing from the campus of Virginia Tech. I'm not sure I can think of a clearer example of exploiting a tragedy for better ratings. I mean, how does going to the campus help you cover the story any better? Perhaps you want to talk to students and faculty, but can't you send reporters to do that? You don't have to hold your entire show on campus and make a circus out of it. I can't find the article where I read this, but the parents of this murderer even had to move out of their house because, if they hadn't, they would have been trapped inside their house due to the flood of reporters after the identity of the shooter was revealed. Basically, I can't watch any of the major news networks for more than a minute before becoming disgusted.
And I was genuinely saddened by this news. It's hard to keep one's faith in humanity after hearing about an incident like this. But here's how I have: You have to recognize that this kind of event is extremely rare. The fact that we're comparing this to Columbine, which happened about 8 years ago, proves that. If humans were generally evil, shootings like this would happen much more frequently, because, quite frankly, executing something like this is fairly straightforward and hard to prevent. They're the exception, not the rule. So concluding from one shooting that humans are evil would be rash, to say the least. Also, the show of solidarity from other schools (even Lehigh, which held a service yesterday) has been heart-warming.
But my main concern has been, how are universities going to react? Obviously, there's going to be a lot of pressure to prevent another shooting from happening, not just at Virginia Tech but anywhere, and suggestions for how to do so will run the gamut from the reasonable and feasible (stricter gun control, better counseling services available, paying better attention to warning signs of our peers, etc.) to the draconian and absurd (arm the students/faculty, constant room inspections, etc.). I hope cooler heads will prevail and realize that there's only so much we can do (and should do) to protect ourselves from the dangers of the world without putting an undue restraint on our freedoms. If we want to live in a free society, there are certain risks we have to accept, and one of those risks is trusting our fellow human beings to respect our right to life. When that assumption proves falls because of a disturbed individual, we have to deal with that person (ideally, prevent him/her from being a danger to society in the first place) and move on.
I know that advice would probably ring hollow with the relatives of the victims, but I think it's the grim truth. At the end of the day, a determined individual will find a way to do something terrible; we just have to decide how much freedom we want to sacrifice to make enacting such violence difficult. It's a trade-off, and I hope we'll err on the side of freedom instead of security. If one of my friends had been a victim, I'd like to think I would hold the same position, but I pray that hypothetical will never be tested.
First and foremost, shame on the media, especially the TV news networks, for how they've covered it, and it was so predictable too. Immediately, they tried to use some hackneyed theory to explain this student's acts before any real details about him were known. "Oh, he was a loner. That explains it." Yeah, try again: Being lonely is part of the human condition; that trait by itself won't cause someone to do what this student did. Jack Thompson, infamous for his branding of video games as "murder simulators", was even picked up by Fox News before we knew whether the student played video games or not! And even if he did, playing violent video games may be a symptom of a disturbed personality (although it normally isn't; otherwise, there would be a lot more shootings), but it is certainly not the cause of such wanton disregard for human life. This morning, I turned on the TV and found that the Today Show was airing from the campus of Virginia Tech. I'm not sure I can think of a clearer example of exploiting a tragedy for better ratings. I mean, how does going to the campus help you cover the story any better? Perhaps you want to talk to students and faculty, but can't you send reporters to do that? You don't have to hold your entire show on campus and make a circus out of it. I can't find the article where I read this, but the parents of this murderer even had to move out of their house because, if they hadn't, they would have been trapped inside their house due to the flood of reporters after the identity of the shooter was revealed. Basically, I can't watch any of the major news networks for more than a minute before becoming disgusted.
And I was genuinely saddened by this news. It's hard to keep one's faith in humanity after hearing about an incident like this. But here's how I have: You have to recognize that this kind of event is extremely rare. The fact that we're comparing this to Columbine, which happened about 8 years ago, proves that. If humans were generally evil, shootings like this would happen much more frequently, because, quite frankly, executing something like this is fairly straightforward and hard to prevent. They're the exception, not the rule. So concluding from one shooting that humans are evil would be rash, to say the least. Also, the show of solidarity from other schools (even Lehigh, which held a service yesterday) has been heart-warming.
But my main concern has been, how are universities going to react? Obviously, there's going to be a lot of pressure to prevent another shooting from happening, not just at Virginia Tech but anywhere, and suggestions for how to do so will run the gamut from the reasonable and feasible (stricter gun control, better counseling services available, paying better attention to warning signs of our peers, etc.) to the draconian and absurd (arm the students/faculty, constant room inspections, etc.). I hope cooler heads will prevail and realize that there's only so much we can do (and should do) to protect ourselves from the dangers of the world without putting an undue restraint on our freedoms. If we want to live in a free society, there are certain risks we have to accept, and one of those risks is trusting our fellow human beings to respect our right to life. When that assumption proves falls because of a disturbed individual, we have to deal with that person (ideally, prevent him/her from being a danger to society in the first place) and move on.
I know that advice would probably ring hollow with the relatives of the victims, but I think it's the grim truth. At the end of the day, a determined individual will find a way to do something terrible; we just have to decide how much freedom we want to sacrifice to make enacting such violence difficult. It's a trade-off, and I hope we'll err on the side of freedom instead of security. If one of my friends had been a victim, I'd like to think I would hold the same position, but I pray that hypothetical will never be tested.
Powered by ScribeFire.
No comments:
Post a Comment