The Cho Show

Ugh…the Virginia Tech massacre is a real heartbreaker, huh?

I think it’s terrible that people are trying to point fingers at the school administration and police officers just so they can have someone alive to blame. And then there are issues with
Virginia gun laws being so lax…Let’s face it. There was a ‘gun law’ on campus that guns were prohibited and it was obviously broken. More laws don’t solve the problem of violence in this case. Should Cho Seung-Hui have even been eligible to purchase a gun? In hindsight, no. But in foresight, how could anyone really have an to answer this given all that was known?
I’m preparing for days and weeks of debates on gun issues, and whether or not student English papers should be subject to evaluation for psychological imbalances (where would Scorceses and Tarantinos end up?), and whether or not video games and violent films are contributing to school violence, discussions on school security and communication issues, Columbine conversations revisited. I could likely write the very transcripts before they happen.

BUT one refreshing piece of commentary on this I owe to one of my favorite media personalities: Matt Lauer of the Today Show. It was a very brief statement on Monday night, standing next to Stone Philips after having interviewed student survivors and paramedics that were on the scene of V.T. tragedy. In essence, in regard to the reaction of shock upon hearing this classified as the most violent mass murder incident to-date in U.S. history, he casually mentions to Stone on camera, (paraphrase) “and yet you and I have had a similar reaction to when 30 U.S. soldiers are killed in a single day in Iraq.” There is a gleam in his eye and flash of a smile to the camera, a discreet acknowledgment that someone somewhere is cursing him for having made the comparison, and I think to myself…Nicely put, Matt. I love that Matt Lauer.
In that moment, he knew full well that our future holds countless news specials on these victims, and ceremonies, and dedications, and prayers, and interviews, and articles, some book deals and maybe even a made-for-t.v. movie on the victims of Virginia Tech. We may even be able to recite their names in a matter of days, all of this occurring while people (including many young Americans) are murdered every day in Iraq. Maybe, just maybe, we will catch a glimpse of the names of U.S. military casualties on a scrolling credit of a news program against a still photo of a U.S. flag and think to ourselves…that’s too bad, isn’t it?...that those people died. And what we won’t see are the names of 60 plus Iraquis killed in a day, so we might not even have a fleeting thought about them. And they, too, will have died horrific deaths, needlessly, leaving families, and wives, and husbands, and babies, and friends, and brothers, and sisters to grieve and walk around wondering what they could have done to change the outcome. And it wouldn’t have been a text message that might’ve saved them, but perhaps a legal document created by people who sit all too comfortably in executive chairs and well-shined shoes.

------------------

Don't mind me. I've been on a bit of a rampage, myself. Not the gun-wielding kind, but I have more angry lately. Mostly about people being full of shit: bull shit, chicken shit, it's all the same. I have no patience for this. I used to have a lot more patience for this, but these days...I can't help but wonder if there are many people left in the world that can be counted on. Really counted on to do what they say, to be who they are, to speak truthfully, to stand up for something. I've met enough selfish cowards to last me several lifetimes. And I'm not saying that I'm a saint or anything, but I am saying that it can never be said that I didn't make the effort to live with a certain dignity.

Read more...