Blacksburg -- Closing Words

This will be my third and, hopefully, final post on reactions to the Blacksburg tragedy.

I'll start with a comment left by my cousin, Nuke Watcher -- in particular for what he says about the people at Nickel Mines. With his kind permission, I have edited his comment slightly for clarity.

Horrific……….the act.

Then again, lets make it about the people who stand to really benefit by the attention drawn to their cause, their product, mainstream media, or promotion.
The politicians could not get to Blacksburg, VA. fast enough to capitalize on the moment and make it about them.

Geeze, I felt so much better when I saw how the Codpiece could turn a somber event into a sort of "Pep-Rally", even as parents of the victims, were trying to retrieve their children's remains and start to bring closure.

There is no delicate, or gentle way to perform an autopsy and these parents have no say, as to what the "Body Parts Harvesters" may have gained through the back door.

OBSCENE....please, the obscenity is only starting with the video wallpaper of what is yet to come with the likes of Nancy Grace, getting First Hand Eyewitnesses, one after another, to tell their story.

With these few comments of rant, I will simply point out, if you were to take 99 people and ask them if they remembered the event that played out at Nickel Mines, PA this past winter -- ask those 99 what was the name of the killer. Ninety eight, would not be able to answer that question.

The reason is that the Amish handled their tragedy in the manner in which they did. They showed that here lives a culture of people who banded together, put the politicians and media at bay, forgave the killer and supported his family, as everyone grieved together. The school building was demolished and a new one erected, leaving us to say, there is indeed a way, to forget the name of a killer.

Living in Denmark, I have had the good fortune of not having been bombarded in the same fashion as those of you in the states. That haunted visage quickly stopped peeking at me from the newspaper racks. Except for a short clip, they did not show the video on television*.

But, even from here, I can see from here that the hypocritical hand wringing and using the tragedy to further other agendas, that I mentioned earlier would come been forthcoming.

We have already heard from the usual bloviators that murders occurred because liberals hate America, because of video games, because of permissive child rearing, because of atheism, because there weren't enough guns on campus, because effeminate students didn't take the bozo out, because PC lawyers tied the hands of campus police, because of mind control. The list, although not endless does go on and on**.

Finally, last but not least, according Franklin Graham [yes, that Graham] it happened because the fellow was demonically possessed by evil spirits. In his kindness and charity, Graham sent 20 "rapid response chaplains" to Blacksburg. I swear, if such a one started praying at me, I'd smack them in the kisser***!

And I will stop here -- for those of us not affected by ties to the deceased, our tears are dryness and our sorrow a shallow stream.
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* If one needed to see it, for understanding, curiosity or simple voyeurism, it was on the Danish Radio web site.

** I'm not going to post links because I don't want to support these people with attention.

*** I remember an anecdote from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross about a minister who told the bereaved family of a girl who had been abused and murdered that "She was now in heaven and had it better" or some insensitive crap like that -- the father floored the minister, knocked him down, he did.

It's not a Perfect World...

One of my eccentricities is to make an active effort to forget the names of people who commit a...

Hmmn, I run into a problem here -- I have forgotten the word I need to use.

The reason is that the word refers to the name of a bozo in ancient times who destroyed a city. He not only had it wiped it out completely -- he had all records of its name destroyed. He did this for no reason whatsoever except that history should remember that he had done it.

When I read that, I immediately swore to myself that I would forget his name and the name of anybody who did ugliness simply for that fifteen minutes of fame.

When John Lennon was killed with four shots from a handheld gun, I decided I would forget the name of that charlie brown. I remember Mr. Lennon, but the perp behind the gun is a hole in my memory. Likewise, the name of the barf-for-brains who took out Isaac Rabin and lit the fuse for the third world war.

At the risk of sounding a bit provincial, not PC or even slightly racist, I will find it easy to forget the name of the perp in Blackburg -- heck, even the newscasters stumbled over the name...

On the other hand, I will have a problem with the face.

I can't avoid the face, it stares at me on the newsstand when I buy gas or go to buy a loaf of bread at the bakery. That face is almost as iconic as the mugshot of that Heaven's Gate weirdo -- I can forget his name, but the image was burnt on to my retina in the same way.

O, well, like I like to say, "It's not a perfect world and we prove it every day -- but do we have to try so hard?

A Terrible Parallel...

Juan Cole's "Informed Comment" is a must daily read for anyone who wants to be generally well-informed about what is going on in the Middle East in general and Iraq in particular -- especially as regards the motives for and effect of US involvement in the region.

Yesterday, Professor Cole drew a terrible parallel between Iraq and the US.

I quote and the boldface type is Cole's own:

I keep hearing from US politicians and the US mass media that the "situation is improving" in Iraq. The profound sorrow and alarm produced in the American public by the horrific shootings at Virginia Tech should give us a baseline for what the Iraqis are actually living through. They have two Virginia Tech-style attacks every single day. Virginia Tech will be gone from the headlines and the air waves by next week this time in the US, though the families of the victims will grieve for a lifetime. But next Tuesday I will come out here and report to you that 64 Iraqis have been killed in political violence. And those will mainly be the ones killed by bombs and mortars. They are only 13% of the total; most Iraqis killed violently, perhaps 500 a day throughout the country if you count criminal and tribal violence, are just shot down. Shot down, like the college students and professors at Blacksburg. We Americans can so easily, with a shudder, imagine the college student trying to barricade himself behind a door against the armed madman without. But can we put ourselves in the place of Iraqi students?

Two V-Tech-style attacks every day? That is almost too kind! What happened in Blacksburg is a rare zero event, magnified by the ownership of semiautomatic weapons by some bozo gone amok. In Iraq, the murdering craziness is organized and has goals.

Also, since the US has more than ten times the population of Iraq, we should perhaps speak of, not two, but twenty daily incidents. That would be equivalent to a daily Twin Towers -- doubled up!

True, such parallels are somewhat false, but have a use in putting a perspective on the despair and desperation we have engendered in Iraq -- and for what?

Indeed, those are the questions, why? and for what? A mask of righteousness ensconced behind a pack of lies and flatulence?

Virginia Tech Headlines

Well, well, here it comes again.

Texas Tower, Columbine, Nickel Mines and now, Virginia Tech -- how many this time?

Like a Santa Claus distributing bits of wrapped candy to small children, death once again gets handed out, casually, indiscriminately and, except for the cough of the guns, in a total mask of silence.

Brace yourself: once again, we are going to be subjected to a chorus of hand wringing well salted with hypocrisy from political and religious leaders.

There will be demands.

Leaders will pretend that they will "do something".

A policeman on every corner, metal scanners at every school, a lock on every door, the obsequious presence of video cameras, vain calls for morality and righteousness in homes and public life and a guard behind every bed. All this and more will be demanded -- and none of it will help, not one little bit.

Why the shock? Why the outrage? Why the smacking of lips?

The shock: I suppose is because the emptiness of our public space is revealed and laid bare for all to see.

The outrage: because it is only the right of leaders such as presidents to deal out death in mass doses -- that is why we often hear such inane rhetoric about terror.

The smacking of lips: Most of us nurture an ugly little creature in a cellar where we seldom go. We need to know if there was some particularly sickening detail for it to feed upon. Or, perhaps this new dingbat set a record of some sort?

In any case it is a terrible tragedy -- for the families and loved ones left behind. For the rest of us? Well, I've already said what I meant about that! But I'd like to add that this waste of human life will have competition in making it to the headlines in Baghdad.