My friend Ellen went to Columbine High School.
Back when I was in college, while everyone else was celebrating 4:20 in a most corrupt fashion, she would spent the day all bent out of shape thinking about her friend who got shot by one of her classmates. It was a tragedy everyone knew had happened, but frankly it was a hard tragedy to relate because it is hard to imagine those things happening to people "like us".
...and yet, they do happen and then like now all we can really do is hope that things like that don't happen again ...
But they do continue to happen.
Thirty plus people died yesterday at Virginia Tech at the hands of what I can only qualify as a mad man.
I'm not one to follow the news unless there are some good news somewhere within them; however, I've been following this closely because in a university of 26,000 that really could have been any school at any time. And what's more, a handful of those deaths could have been prevented if someone had taken action either after the first shootings or before, when the shooter was writing those twisted plays that have become paramount in this investigation.
My stance on Freedom of Speech is that we should each be allowed to say what we want and that we should take the Don Imus' and Rosie O'Donnell's of the world with a grain of salt. But as a person who demands the right to feel safe at work/school/life environments, I EXPECT that when someone writes something that could be an obvious hint of a potential threat, that someone should do something. That's why we have counselors and the such!
Unfortunately, our society is not one that is very egalitarian and it is not one that shares values.
"rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" are a part of our culture and we can choose to embrace them or not, but by no means should they have to worry about getting shot on their way to class for being the way they are!
My thoughts and prayers are with the friends and family of those who lost a loved one yesterday...a mere week before the Columbine shooting's anniversary. My thoughts and prayers are with the friends and family of anyone who has lost anyone and shouldn't have in these horrific incidents.
All I hope, and hope is a strong force, is that we will learn from these unfortunate mistakes and people will learn to take action when necessary and those who are disturbed will learn the value of human life. I can't imagine bringing a child into a world so unsafe. We lead wars abroad but we should worry about our own wars, the ones being waged by our kids in our own backyard.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
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