What I Learned From Virginia Tech

I learned that 32 people can be killed in the course of several hours and no one in this country really gives a damn. Don't mistake the voyeuristic media coverage for actual concern. Yes, people are upset by what happened and their hearts go out to the students and staff at Virginia Tech, but few people are talking about what's really important about this massacre: that we live in a culture where this kind of thing can happen anywhere at any time to anyone.

Isn't that just a little disturbing? Forget about all the political crap that goes along with this tragedy. Forget what the kid said on the videotapes that the media has so insensitively aired on national TV. Forget about the debate on the 2nd Amendment and the people's right to have guns (even though we don't have the right to decide what do do with our own bodies, we have what we need to decide what to do with the lives of others). Forget that he's an Asian kid from Virginia and has probably been the victim of horrible racism since he came to this country (trust me, I've lived in VA). Sure, he had mental problems. How many people are there across this country with some sort of mental illness? How many of them have access to guns? How many of them have motive, real or imagined, AND opportunity?

This tragedy is a symptom of the violent culture of America, as were about a hundred other SCHOOL shootings in the past 10 years (not including Lancaster or VT). We live in a country where we cannot say with reasonable certainty that our children are safe in school. How do people not find this alarming? How are people not rioting in the streets? This tragedy has illustrated beyond a reasonable doubt that gun violence is OUT OF CONTROL in the United States and the only people truly outraged DON'T LIVE IN AMERICA. More children are going to die. If we don't do something now, we might as well get used to seeing higher and higher numbers of casualties in tragedies such as this, tragedies that could have been prevented.

And let's not forget the other victims of gun violence:
3,315 US Soldeirs killed in Iraq
24,764 US Soldiers wounded in Iraq
Over 60,000 Iraqis killed