~Do I follow my instincts blindly?~
Apr. 18th, 2007 11:06 amI wasn't sure if I should post this... it's gonna be a little controversial. But it's how I feel, so I'm just gonna out with it.
The Virginia Tech shooting. It's all over the news. It's the headlines on every newspaper, the words on everyone's lips, and my friends page is littered with tributes. The shooting was a huge tragedy, that much is certain. I will not dispute this. It was a TERRIBLE thing to happen. Horrific, unprecedented, extreme. I feel deeply for those affected. Something like this should not happen to ANYONE. But (and here's where I get controversial), it's NOT the most terrible thing to happen this decade, this year, even this week.
Here's what bothers me. The western world is acting like the Virginia tragedy is the worst thing to happen in a long time. Everyone's pouring their hearts out in sympathy, sorrow, grief. Most of us didn't know anyone who went there, but still the tributes pour in, everyone talks about the meaningless deaths, everyone talks about how horrific it is and how they can't believe such a thing would happen. They talk this way because this kind of thing DOESN'T happen often in the western world. But because of that, the western world elevates this disaster above all the other tragedies in the world.
Tell me, the people who posted their condolences and their horror and their wishes to the families of the deceased... do they also do this for the families of all the innocents who die EVERY DAY in places like Baghdad and Basra? Why are American (or British, if the tables had been reversed) lives more worth grieving over? I can understand why there is more shock over such a thing happening in America rather than, say, Iraq. But when everyone who doesn't even personally know the victims start waxing lyrical about how awful these deaths are and how terrible it must be for the families and how their hearts go out to them... I just think, why doesn't anyone openly react this way to all the stories of car-bombs and backpacks exploding in city streets in the Middle East, killing dozens and sometimes hundreds every single day? The people who die in market places and highstreets in those wartorn countries are just as innocent as Virginia Tech's students. They are parents, they are children, they are ordinary people who have committed no crime, and yet are killed in the prime of their lives by a maniac with an agenda. WHY DOES THIS NOT TUG AT PEOPLE'S HEARTSTRINGS AS MUCH?
And it's not just that it happened in America and so Americans are grieving more. Because the UK is reacting just as strongly. All our papers had the same headline. Radio stations. TV. Everyone talking about it here, like it's the worst thing they've ever heard, even though every day there's a new story of violence and deaths in the Middle East.
I guess maybe we're just immune to death in the Middle East now. We can only feel grief and sorrow and sympathy if it happens to one of our own or in a 'civilised' country.
Know what made me sick last week? A car bomb went off in Basra. It killed more than 60 people. All innocent bystanders in a marketplace. It wasn't even headline news. What was the UK headline that day? PRINCE WILLIAM BREAKS UP WITH FIANCÉE KATE MIDDLETON. What the FUCK?
Let me say this now, My heart DOES go out to all those who were affected by the Virginia Tech. But in this moment, while everyone's hearts and minds are focussed on that tragedy, I'd like to spare a moment to think about those who live every day not knowing where the next bomb will go off in the street, in the marketplace, in a carpark. To all the families torn apart by this unholy war. To all the innocents who are dying in the most horrific ways EVERY SINGLE DAY. And if I believed in God, I would thank him for the fact that most of us here live in places safe enough that we ARE shocked by events like the Virginia massacre.
No innocent death is worth more than any other innocent death. If we're going to cry for those who died in the Virginia shootings, let's also cry for those who died in horrific circumstances all across the world that same day. If our hearts are going to reach out to the Virginia families, why can't we also spare a few words for those families outside of America whose lives have been destroyed just as badly? Why should we single out these few people as deserving of our direct prayers and hopes and feelings? Maybe we should just cry for humanity.
My thoughts go out to every innocent who died on the day of the Virginia massacre, across the world. And to every innocent who died on all the other days that didn't make headline news. Every day, somebody's 'someone' isn't coming home. Every death is as tragic as the ones in the headline news. Every death is equally worth mourning. Innocents die EVERY SINGLE DAY. No one mentions them. No one posts LJ posts commemorating them. No one seems to give them the time of day.
I will.
Flames? :\
The Virginia Tech shooting. It's all over the news. It's the headlines on every newspaper, the words on everyone's lips, and my friends page is littered with tributes. The shooting was a huge tragedy, that much is certain. I will not dispute this. It was a TERRIBLE thing to happen. Horrific, unprecedented, extreme. I feel deeply for those affected. Something like this should not happen to ANYONE. But (and here's where I get controversial), it's NOT the most terrible thing to happen this decade, this year, even this week.
Here's what bothers me. The western world is acting like the Virginia tragedy is the worst thing to happen in a long time. Everyone's pouring their hearts out in sympathy, sorrow, grief. Most of us didn't know anyone who went there, but still the tributes pour in, everyone talks about the meaningless deaths, everyone talks about how horrific it is and how they can't believe such a thing would happen. They talk this way because this kind of thing DOESN'T happen often in the western world. But because of that, the western world elevates this disaster above all the other tragedies in the world.
Tell me, the people who posted their condolences and their horror and their wishes to the families of the deceased... do they also do this for the families of all the innocents who die EVERY DAY in places like Baghdad and Basra? Why are American (or British, if the tables had been reversed) lives more worth grieving over? I can understand why there is more shock over such a thing happening in America rather than, say, Iraq. But when everyone who doesn't even personally know the victims start waxing lyrical about how awful these deaths are and how terrible it must be for the families and how their hearts go out to them... I just think, why doesn't anyone openly react this way to all the stories of car-bombs and backpacks exploding in city streets in the Middle East, killing dozens and sometimes hundreds every single day? The people who die in market places and highstreets in those wartorn countries are just as innocent as Virginia Tech's students. They are parents, they are children, they are ordinary people who have committed no crime, and yet are killed in the prime of their lives by a maniac with an agenda. WHY DOES THIS NOT TUG AT PEOPLE'S HEARTSTRINGS AS MUCH?
And it's not just that it happened in America and so Americans are grieving more. Because the UK is reacting just as strongly. All our papers had the same headline. Radio stations. TV. Everyone talking about it here, like it's the worst thing they've ever heard, even though every day there's a new story of violence and deaths in the Middle East.
I guess maybe we're just immune to death in the Middle East now. We can only feel grief and sorrow and sympathy if it happens to one of our own or in a 'civilised' country.
Know what made me sick last week? A car bomb went off in Basra. It killed more than 60 people. All innocent bystanders in a marketplace. It wasn't even headline news. What was the UK headline that day? PRINCE WILLIAM BREAKS UP WITH FIANCÉE KATE MIDDLETON. What the FUCK?
Let me say this now, My heart DOES go out to all those who were affected by the Virginia Tech. But in this moment, while everyone's hearts and minds are focussed on that tragedy, I'd like to spare a moment to think about those who live every day not knowing where the next bomb will go off in the street, in the marketplace, in a carpark. To all the families torn apart by this unholy war. To all the innocents who are dying in the most horrific ways EVERY SINGLE DAY. And if I believed in God, I would thank him for the fact that most of us here live in places safe enough that we ARE shocked by events like the Virginia massacre.
No innocent death is worth more than any other innocent death. If we're going to cry for those who died in the Virginia shootings, let's also cry for those who died in horrific circumstances all across the world that same day. If our hearts are going to reach out to the Virginia families, why can't we also spare a few words for those families outside of America whose lives have been destroyed just as badly? Why should we single out these few people as deserving of our direct prayers and hopes and feelings? Maybe we should just cry for humanity.
My thoughts go out to every innocent who died on the day of the Virginia massacre, across the world. And to every innocent who died on all the other days that didn't make headline news. Every day, somebody's 'someone' isn't coming home. Every death is as tragic as the ones in the headline news. Every death is equally worth mourning. Innocents die EVERY SINGLE DAY. No one mentions them. No one posts LJ posts commemorating them. No one seems to give them the time of day.
I will.
Flames? :\
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Date: 2007-04-18 10:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-18 10:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-18 10:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-18 11:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-18 11:03 am (UTC)All murders are equally devistating. No matter where the deaths take place. And just because the deaths happened in a place where deaths don't usually occur in such a consentrated ammount doesn't mean the families are suffering any more deeply than those in the middle east, or in Africa. And then after the bleeding hearts are done writing about it on LJ and filling the airwaves with condolences, the fearmongers step in with their "We must highten security in schools! We must ban video games! We must make more laws! Our children need to be controled and monitered We can't let this happen again!" -.-; it's going to happen again... tomorrow... in Baghdad... you just won't hear about it on the headline news.
Honestly what frightens me much more than suddenly all the pyschopaths coming out of the woodwork at universities and shooting fellow students is this whole honey bees situation. Now that's something worth worrying about.
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Date: 2007-04-18 03:29 pm (UTC)Of course it'll happen again, it'd be ignorant to say it won't. That doesn't mean we can't step up to decrease those chances of happening often so we can work on this and make it right. Would you rather not see changes made about the thought of gun control? How should people react to it when it hits home like this? We're talking about again one of the mere premiere schools in the nation and why it may hit home to so many. Our college here now is responding in the right ways in evaluating the right procedures during emergencies like this. It's a wake-up call that some schools probably needed so that this type of thing doesn't happen again.
Just because I may offer tribute to those who died makes me think any less about what is going on in Iraq but because this incident again relates to me so much in many ways it's something I'm not going to simply ignore but reach out as much as I can to those kids in Virginia who's lives are simply never going to be the same again.
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Date: 2007-04-18 11:38 am (UTC)Yesterday, I heard at least three sirens go off, in the span of about three hours.
I think, what's really pissing me off about this, is the fact that people are trying to blame video games on this incident. If video games were indeed the factor, I think that every single person who every played one should be locked up. Because, you know, we're all going to shot someone, knife somebody or even find a way to use magic.
That's sad about the bombing. It's sickening to know that no one cared.
I agree with you though, Jai. While it's not mentioned in every newspaper, people are dying. Every single day, every hour, every minute, every second.
Oh, one more thing that makes me mad: Someone from ddrfreak posted this and Sir Orin posted this post in the thread for it:
Surprise, surprise. I no more than tune into Fox News to hear some coverage of the story while I'm at work, and they do something that makes me absolutely livid.
Those sons of bitches had the gall to interview some of the kids, repeatedly asking them about how tough the situation was and other obviously exploitative ratings questions. But that wasn't what got me mad, because that was to be expected.
The kids they interviewed were incredibly brave and spoke rationally and coherently. What they said made sense, and they held nothing back, while still holding themselves upright and strong. I admired their courage.
So what do they do? They don't get the hysterics they were wanting, so they pull in some teabag psychiatrist who starts insisting that the kids are repressing their emotions and that the reality of the situation hasn't "Hit them, yet." How DARE they!? How DARE someone take the courage it took to speak in a strong, forthright manner after experiencing the greatest tragedy of their lives, and turn it around to make the kids look like they're ignorant of what's going on!?
It just made me sick. They don't get the tear-jerker they were playing for in hopes of a ratings grab, so they bring in some dime store quack to talk about how little the kids know about their situation and how it'll "Come crashing down on them."
Listen, you self-righteous son of a bitch (I say to no one in particular, since he's obviously not reading this forum), the reality already HAS come crashing down. And just because you'd like them to be simpering in front of the camera like you probably would have been, doesn't make your interpretation any more valid.
Reality happened. Just because the kids aren't showing it, doesn't mean that they haven't been hit with reality. Blah.
... I agree with you though. Big 'word' to you Jai. While this is being called the deadliest incident, I'll spare a moment to those who die everywhere else.
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Date: 2007-04-18 11:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-18 11:45 am (UTC)Then later, on CNN, Dr. Phil made an appearance.
Both of them were blaming video games. :/
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Date: 2007-04-18 11:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-18 12:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-18 12:41 pm (UTC)Dr. Phil on CNN.
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Date: 2007-04-18 04:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-21 09:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-18 12:00 pm (UTC)We're not mourning the dead of VT, or at least, not JUST mourning them. America is mourning another slap in the face to its own innorance (Innocence/Ignorance), and people are using the faces of the thirrty dead because they can't explain something that abstract.
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Date: 2007-04-18 12:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-18 12:12 pm (UTC)Also, many of us Americans have sort of tuned out Iraq. I won't lie and say I haven't. Why? Because we can't do anything about it. No matter how much we try to make things right, Bush and his administration will bend the constitution to make things go his way, and there's nothing we can do to stop him. Even if there were, who would end up in his place? Probably someone worse and more likely to just go with it. We can protest, but what good does that do, except get us arrested and kicked out of places unfairly? We're hostages to our own country's foreign policy. We don't like that feeling... so we try to tune out Iraq and what's happening there, becuase what's the point of suffering for something we can't do anything about?
I make myself numb so as not to cry, but the VT shootings are way too close to home to me, in the sense that their situation is so much like my own, that I can't ignore it.
And if you're curious about my pursuit of numbness... things that wound me deeply make me act that way. I can't get involved with fundraising for cancer research because every time I think of this little girl I knew who died of cancer, my whole heart comes crashing down around me. So I avoid the topic.
Maybe I'm a coward for running away from the Middle East. Maybe we all are. But you know what? Sometimes you can be too brave. In the words of Alien Ant Farm, "You should try not to be so courageous/ These dismal moods have become contagious."
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Date: 2007-04-18 12:20 pm (UTC)It makes me curious that you can't get involved in cancer fundraising because you knew someone who died from the illness... surely having experienced a death close to you would make you MORE willing to try to fundraise for it, to prevent similar deaths? Or are you putting your pain before hers and that of people like her?
I guess people just work in different ways. :\
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Date: 2007-04-18 12:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-18 12:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-18 12:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-18 12:32 pm (UTC)And a lot of people are just apathetic because it doesn't effect them. In this country and every other.
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Date: 2007-04-18 12:41 pm (UTC)Apathy is a terrible thing. How can we EVER hope to make a difference if we've already accepted we can't? It's a goddamn self-fulfilling prophecy.
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Date: 2007-04-18 12:18 pm (UTC)But like Jai said, what this is really about is the way people treat it like the worst tragedy of the times, and sending their condolences and prayers and starting up foundations and all this stuff... but does the general public ever have such an outcry of emotion when we hear about all the people dying in the middle east...? Not really... infact, there are people out there that rejoice in hearing the "enemy" has been dealt a blow. That's the true ignorance.
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Date: 2007-04-18 12:29 pm (UTC)It isn't about the kid who shot people. It's about who was shot and where. This took place on a small college campus. In America, these places are seen as safe havens from the violence of the rest of the world. Most campuses ban weapons and security is fairly tight. You only die in college of alcohol poisoning or meningitis, or so we tend to believe. To suddenly have so many dead by a single shooter at one of the safest places in our concept of the world is jarring. It isn't about the people who died at all--we're mourning the loss of our own naive ideas about security. But we can't say that. We can't go out and say "oh my god, I'm scared, if I had lived in another state that could have been me!" or "my children go to college, what if it had happened at their college?" So we reach out to the families and campuses who have experienced the tangible loss instead, as a way of comforting ourselves.
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Date: 2007-04-18 03:18 pm (UTC)The reason why this is such a tragic incident is HOW it happened. VT, being one of the top schools in the nation, has exploited a major issue with gun control and campus safety. As a college student myself it really hits come to me because I could've been just like those students walking down the hallway to class. I can't speak on your behalf and it is sad what is going on in the Middle East, every damn day. But to treat this like it was a small thing, I can never see it the way you do. It's a huge issue and I hope that in the end more good will come out of this in how we all look at how precious life truly is
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Date: 2007-04-18 01:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-18 03:38 pm (UTC)It's not really worse than other tragedies that receive little or not attention. It's disturbing that we only report things like this when they're 'out of the norm.'
My heart's out to everyone, kupo. It's a tragedy that a large portion of college students moving forward got their lives cut short. Same goes for the innocent in other areas, even if it's not reported here.
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Date: 2007-04-18 03:51 pm (UTC)Now, since I've been sending my condolences so often I'll speak why. As a college student I follow a lot of the same procedures as these kids every day in college in the morning. Get up, go to class, study, do homework, relax, then go to bed. So this killer decides he's going to take his anger out on the world, kill his girlfriend that cheated on him and the RA in the building, go to another building opposite side of campus, lock the doors and open gunfire at anyone he sees. I can't even begin to fathom the chaos for those kids trying to hold back the doors as they watched classmates bleed to death. For this to happen in one of the top schools in the entire nation so easily, that in itself makes it one of the worst tragedies this country has ever had to endure. If it were in a college in like Division AA or say a community college this I don't think would've created such as big headlines as this has. I could go on but I want to get to your point.
I can't speak on behalf of what the media does because God knows that's gone down the toilet. As a Christian I go to pray every week at Church for the sick and suffering in this world. That doesn't just include here the US but to all of those in Iraq and other countries that suffer from dictatorship and prejudice. I may not write entries about but I damn sure don't ignore it. People should think about what's going on overseas, at least keep it in the back of their minds.
However, because of the scale of the murder caused right here on American soil and so close to where I live here on the East Coast, I feel for those kids. It's a wake-up call that was needed that has brought us college students together to refreshen our minds to not take life for granted and enjoy as much of it as possible. I've followed this school for years in sports and to see so many people come together like in
The lady in the video I posted though said the same things you did Jai, although I assume you haven't watched it yet. She mentioned the babies dying of AIDS in Africa and other global issues that don't get the same headlines, great stuff.
I do agree with you in certain aspects of why you would be upset but your LJ, you choose to write about what you want. Period. And don't let people pressure you into having to write or do anything.
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Date: 2007-04-18 04:01 pm (UTC)We are Virginia Tech.
We are sad today and we will be sad for quite awhile. WE are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.
We are Virginia Tech.
We are strong enough to know when to cry and sad enough to know we must laugh again.
We are Virginia Tech.
We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did not deserve it but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, but neither do the invisible children walking the night to avoid being captured by a rogue army. Neither does the baby elephant watching his community be devastated for ivory; neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.
We are Virginia Tech.
The Hokier Nation embraces our own with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid. We are better than we think, not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imagination and the possibility we will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears, through all this sadness.
We are the Hokies.
We will prevail, we will prevail.
We are Virginia Tech.
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Date: 2007-04-18 05:14 pm (UTC)I'm sorry, but pretty words don't cut it. It's great that Virginia Tech is taking a strong stance about what happened, but what bothers me more is all the UNRELATED people who wax lyrical in their journals or on TV or on the radio about the 'tragedy', and then... do nothing about it.
How about instead of sharing pretty little sentiments across an LJ, people actually went out there and lobbied for tighter gun control? You know that 99% of the people who post beautiful flowery epitaphs won't do a single thing proactive!
People like to make themselves feel like they're 'doing' something, by making speeches and writing about it... but in a few days, those flowery words have washed away like they were drawn in the sand.
Come back after you've actually DONE something about the tragedy instead of just blogging about it, and maybe I'll take you a little more seriously.
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Date: 2007-04-18 07:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-18 04:51 pm (UTC)Wow, Sull, you totally completely utterly missed the point XD
I'm not "letting what other people say get to [me]", nor am I in any way feeling "pressured to write" about anything.
Also, the hypocrisy in the first line of your thread kinda pissed me off too much to read the rest. You say "everyone has the right to their own opinion", yet you also wonder why I created this post. Let me answer that. I created it because it is MY opinion, just as valid as everyone else's.
Deal, y'know. I don't feel the same way as you. I don't like the media reaction or the public reaction. That's my opinion and I will write about it in my LJ just like you or others may write about stuff in yours.
I might've paid attention to the rest of that essay you wrote if you hadn't totally patronised me within the first couple of sentences x.o
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Date: 2007-04-18 07:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-18 05:11 pm (UTC)You really, REALLY should start giving him a lot more credit... he isn't some emotionally unstable child x_o;;
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Date: 2007-04-18 08:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-19 07:21 pm (UTC)Don't act like such a hypocrite when you can't even handle that yourself. You're not worth the energy arguing with.
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Date: 2007-04-19 08:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-19 08:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-18 05:31 pm (UTC)I think it's because we want to not only feel more civilized, but feel safer than other countries.
I commend you on your ideas and your words. We need more people who think like you. ::nod::
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Date: 2007-04-19 07:35 am (UTC)The easiest solution would be for the customers to decide they wouldn't buy a particular product.
Also, more Westerners have probably been to a college campus than out of their geographic area, so it's easier to relate to the experience.
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Date: 2007-04-20 07:19 pm (UTC)Also. Playing the guy's tapes? Bad taste. Telling people with similar issues that they can get the attention they want. (Actually, I can't help feeling they're spamming the hell out of THIS to draw attention from the abortion decision and the sneaky ID card law.)
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Date: 2007-04-20 07:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-20 07:26 pm (UTC)Go right ahead. Internet frenz!
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Date: 2007-04-21 12:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-21 12:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-21 12:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-21 12:29 am (UTC)