Yesterday, as I heard the news unfolding on the Virginia Tech tragedy, I had a familiar sinking feeling - encountered and even conditioned by events over the last ten years of tragedy and life lost: tsunamis, terrorism, hurricanes, and school shootings. Natural disasters produce questions of "why" and “what could have been done differently”. But when a person (or group of people) takes the lives of others, it pushes to the front self-evaluations of "what does it mean to be human"? How can someone be so possessed with anger/rage/hatred? The daily optimism I feel for new approaches in education, technology, and the creation of a more humane and equitable world suddenly feel like child's play and wishful thinking. The duality of humanity – capacity for great love and great evil - tear at my ability to filter the world through my existing cognitive make up. My daily activities feel small.
My heart and prayers go out to those affected. David Carter-Todd - one of the first bloggers I followed - reports he and family are safe. Greg Ritter shares personal reflections as a former student of Virginia Tech...and concludes: "And as miserable and helpless as I feel, I can't imagine how horrible it is for those living through it."
...and, on a personal note, I find few things more distasteful than the premature desire for people to lay blame and start to promote personal agendas. Too quickly, the conversation has moved from human tragedy to gun control - for and against. I've read accounts of a student representative who put forward the notion that this tragedy could have been averted if everyone had been carrying a gun (assuming someone would have shot the shooter)…and others who state that if stricter gun control were in place, this could have been prevented. This is not the time for those discussions. Let people mourn. We'll have time to step up to pulpits to express our ideologies. For now, it's not about us or our own views about guns and culture. It's about the people who lost loved ones.