I, like most people, was following the VTech shootings on Monday through various websites, and all I kept on going back to in my mind was Columbine. Obviously, it's next to impossible not to go back to that horrible day back in 1999 when something eerily similar happens, but what I couldn't stop thinking about was that day from my perspective. I remember it was my senior year of high school and watching the news during class and throughout the whole night when I got home. I remember being glued to the tv for hours and becoming very upset upon hearing more and more of the details being released. What was stopping something like that from happening at my school? How would I feel if I lost some of my best friends? All while praying for the families of those lost, and that some day, they'll be able to recover from losing their loved ones. I was a complete and utter mess that day, a day that marked the end of my childhood better than any other.
The reason why I'm troubled right now, and the reason I'm writing this, is my reaction towards Mondays events compared to my reaction with Columbine. I was upset and I kept updating the web pages to find out as much as I could, but something was missing. For some reason, I wasn't as traumatized by the events of Monday, something that is of equal or greater tragedy, than I was back in April of '99. For some reason, the faces of those who lost their lives 8 years ago are, and will forever be, more vivid in my mind than the one's from 3 days ago. Perhaps it was because there were more deaths, that instead of concentrating on 13 people, you have to expand you compassion to 32? I do believe the higher the number of people who lose their lives in a tragedy the more a victim becomes more of a number rather than a person. I do remember the faces of a majority of the people who were killed at Columbine, and at the same time I can't think of more than 2 or 3 faces who perished on 9/11. Which is a good transition into the actual reason, I think, for my lack of emotion towards VaTech...desensitization.
Maybe it's just on a personal level, but I think we, as humans, have become so used to death and tragedies that we when something like Monday does occur, it's hard to get terribly upset. After experiencing something like 9/11 in our lives, how can anything else really compare? Not only were the deaths a great number higher, but the enemy was someone more easily understood and therefore, easily hated. Obviously, Cho Seung-Hui was an extremely bad person, but I think most of us can agree that his evil stemmed from a deeply troubled mental state rather than a genuine distaste for humans. However, I don't think he will ever come close to the pure evil that is Osama Bin Laden. A person who some consider crazy, but directly hates Americans and our way of living. Bin Laden plans and tactically kills people who are no different than you and me. He would take your life because you are American, not because your are black, white, asian, or hispanic. He despises the one thing all of us proudly have in common, our home. Cho Seung-Hui was troubled and in some ways, hated a group of people that didn't even exist. I will never consider a psychopath that snaps on the same level as those who meticulously and routinely kill out of hatred, such a man is the purest form of evil.
Again, (sorry for the sidetrack) after experiencing something as devastating as 9/11, the Virginia Tech Massacre could never bring out such emotion. Emotion? Yes, but on a sympathetic level, not a life-altering one. It is sad that death has become such an occurrence that those lost are treated more as numbers than faces. We will hear more about Cho Seung-Hui than we will of Professor Liviu Librescu (I was wrong a couple posts back, there are still heroes in this world), and because of that, I think 9/11 had more of an effect on us than we could ever imagine.
On a lighter note, I was watching the (horrible) Phillies last night and caught a commercial for an upcoming game on Mothers Day. Apparently, mothers 15 and over get a free Chase Utley blanket. Seriously, are they worried all those mothers who are younger than 15 will show up and take all the blankets? Here's hoping there aren't THAT many of them in Philadelphia.
The reason why I'm troubled right now, and the reason I'm writing this, is my reaction towards Mondays events compared to my reaction with Columbine. I was upset and I kept updating the web pages to find out as much as I could, but something was missing. For some reason, I wasn't as traumatized by the events of Monday, something that is of equal or greater tragedy, than I was back in April of '99. For some reason, the faces of those who lost their lives 8 years ago are, and will forever be, more vivid in my mind than the one's from 3 days ago. Perhaps it was because there were more deaths, that instead of concentrating on 13 people, you have to expand you compassion to 32? I do believe the higher the number of people who lose their lives in a tragedy the more a victim becomes more of a number rather than a person. I do remember the faces of a majority of the people who were killed at Columbine, and at the same time I can't think of more than 2 or 3 faces who perished on 9/11. Which is a good transition into the actual reason, I think, for my lack of emotion towards VaTech...desensitization.
Maybe it's just on a personal level, but I think we, as humans, have become so used to death and tragedies that we when something like Monday does occur, it's hard to get terribly upset. After experiencing something like 9/11 in our lives, how can anything else really compare? Not only were the deaths a great number higher, but the enemy was someone more easily understood and therefore, easily hated. Obviously, Cho Seung-Hui was an extremely bad person, but I think most of us can agree that his evil stemmed from a deeply troubled mental state rather than a genuine distaste for humans. However, I don't think he will ever come close to the pure evil that is Osama Bin Laden. A person who some consider crazy, but directly hates Americans and our way of living. Bin Laden plans and tactically kills people who are no different than you and me. He would take your life because you are American, not because your are black, white, asian, or hispanic. He despises the one thing all of us proudly have in common, our home. Cho Seung-Hui was troubled and in some ways, hated a group of people that didn't even exist. I will never consider a psychopath that snaps on the same level as those who meticulously and routinely kill out of hatred, such a man is the purest form of evil.
Again, (sorry for the sidetrack) after experiencing something as devastating as 9/11, the Virginia Tech Massacre could never bring out such emotion. Emotion? Yes, but on a sympathetic level, not a life-altering one. It is sad that death has become such an occurrence that those lost are treated more as numbers than faces. We will hear more about Cho Seung-Hui than we will of Professor Liviu Librescu (I was wrong a couple posts back, there are still heroes in this world), and because of that, I think 9/11 had more of an effect on us than we could ever imagine.
On a lighter note, I was watching the (horrible) Phillies last night and caught a commercial for an upcoming game on Mothers Day. Apparently, mothers 15 and over get a free Chase Utley blanket. Seriously, are they worried all those mothers who are younger than 15 will show up and take all the blankets? Here's hoping there aren't THAT many of them in Philadelphia.
posted by Greg-Paul at
7:56 AM
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