Virginia Tech

[howeird]

Calm down, people. One whacko kid snaps, and the media is making like there'll be mass killings at school every day for the next year. The boy was insane, was being treated for it, but obviously it failed. There are insane people all over the world. Most of them are taken out of circulation before they cause this kind of damage, but every now and then one is going to slip through the cracks.

I have an aunt who is locked up somewhere in Florida in a place for the delusional. Luckily for her and society, her disconnect with reality took the form of believing she was a professional caterer. And rich. Both her children were born with neurological defects which gave them IQs below 90. Her son should have been in an asylum, but he moved to LA where his disconnect took the form of believing he was the next great stand-up comic. He died on the streets, homeless. His sister eeks out a living as a caregiver. Her disconnect is she believes she is an LPN. I am sad that they all had excrement happen to them, but relieved that it took a gentle, pro-social form.  


On the other side of the coin, there was some major league heroism on campus, as well as the ultimate tragedy. I feel as sad for the victims and their families as I did for the Iraqi innocent victims of "Shock and Awe". Excrement occurs. We hope it does not occur to us.

Comments

V Tech

[bigcatroary.livejournal.com]

My brother and his wife are both professors at Virginia Tech. Neal was a couple buildings away but didn't find out anything until it was all over. His wife was off campus at the time. They did lose a friend and colleague though and are helping comfort the widow. The most interesting thing I've heard is someone make the observation that shooting that many people is not something the brain typically allows. The observation has been made in wars that eventually you just can't take any more killing and you end it yourself. This guy was able to push past that envelope to kill as many as he did. I hope the clown President of the University is canned soon. My brother and his wife were disgusted with the press conferences and politicalization of the convocation.

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

What you don't remember all the killings after Columbine? Oh, yeah, there weren't any. They kept trying to create more of them (someone would kill one or two people) but the fad faded.
On Tuesday, I told my son what had happened, told him to be careful (copycatting can happen). But also reminded him to be careful walking home from school, because crazy drivers cause more deaths of pedestrians than all the school shootings combined. I do keep track of the stats.