Matt Lauer is calling this a "National Tragedy". He then also called it "unspeakable," and now is proceeding to speak about it for the next two hours. I cannot help but wonder how the Nation would have reacted if this happened in 1900. There would probably have been a couple of paragraphs in the local paper 1-3 days after the fact, and the story would have died several days after that. I have to ask myself what people did before they had people in their homes telling them how they were supposed to "feel" about these things. People from every local news station in the country have rushed to Blacksburg to make certain that the can "become" part of the story. "The Nation morns." I cannot help but feel that they are playing on the fears of all of us who have children on college campuses across the nation. That is probably the cynic in me, but the "media" and their somber, soft talking heads sicken me in these type of situations. Already, they are questioning "why" the University did not warn, or "lockdown" after the earlier shooting. COME ON! How could they possibly predict this??????? But still, that is "The Media's" job, right??
The media will NEVER ask this question, but what occurs to me, is that this guy was able to kill ALL of these people, and NOBODY was able to stop him? Now I am not certain if ,in fact, somebody did not try, but he ended up killing himself. Where are the heros? As far as I know, this guy was not using automatic weapons. Were the guys in the classrooms content to play dead, run, or cower, while this guy shot the girls around them? A classroom of 15 people could have rushed this guy and maybe 5 might have died. Have we all been so "sensitized" by "The Media" and made so afraid, that we , as a nation, are too afraid for our own safety that we will not fight for "the greater good?"
There is a reason why we call the generation of the WWII veteran,"The Last Great Generation." I just watched "Flags of Our Fathers" last weekend. Would you, today, be willing to be in the first wave at Iwo Jima, or Normandy facing slim odds that you would survive? Would you be willing to have your child on that beach? Would you be willing to try and take out a gunman in a classroom like what happened yesterday? Would I? I don't know. Have we become so scared by the images of war, murder, and suffering to which we are exposed, that we prefer to run, or cower, or "negotiate" over taking the immediate action that needs taken?
I know that this happened quickly, and these were kids, but I have made up my mind, that if I ever am faced with this situation, or something similar in a plane, I am going after him before he comes after me.
Maybe that is because I am older, and have less to lose, but what was the average age of the guys at Iwo Jima? Sorry if I have offended.