Condolences, Perspective & The Future

2007-04-17

Kids, all of them, that in a few years will be going off to college. Hopefully they won't be facing the kind of sorrow our nation is feeling right now.

But the outcry of why the University erred in judgment is a little harsh. The incidents took place over a few hours, and half a mile apart. Except for a network, they are asking why something wasn't addressed on the PA system, if they even have one. I think that would have caused wide spread panic and sent even more people into harms way.

Think about the randomness of attacks and how complacent we all are in our daily lives. Imagine you are sitting at your desk today, and one of your co-workers decides unknown to you, that he is sick of management and he is taking matters into his own hands. How protected are you? Unless you work for a company that has security onsite, you are just as unprotected as the university.

President Bush should have kept his pie hole shut, offered condolences, and stopped from politicking his point about gun control. There is some school of thought and postings that there are not enough guns, and if the University allowed handguns on campus, perhaps there would have been minimal damage.

Killing is not so easy for a rational mind. Even our soldiers, who are trained in battle and experience it first hand, have shown that the mind is not really capable of murder, whether it is for a cause or not.

I know heroes exist. Many have gone on before us and they live between the pages of history, and the one's who aren't so famous live in our hearts and minds. However, self-preservation is a stronger instinct.

I'd like to think that if it were me, teaching a class of students, and someone walked in with a gun and started shooting, I would have the opportunity to fight back. But I think the element of surprise was utilized and the professors were probably taken out from a distance. Possible with a 22 and a 9mm and then the doors were chained and a tactical assault carried out.

This wasn't carried out on a whim. It was planned, timed, and unless a note was left, we won't know the gunman's reason. Whether or not it would have been as effective if he didn't have a gun, is an argument in favor for abolishing the right to carry and own guns in this country, but falls silent now. If someone wants you dead, and goes to this much planning they will do it one way or another as other losses have shown us.

We can't continue to live in fear, but we do have to continue to live. We also have to remind ourselves how precious life is, and make sure the ones we love know it everyday. Life is hard enough, but it is a four letter word. However, as one of my favorite authors wrote; Life isn't fair, it's just more fair than death.

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DELETE ME PLEASE (2007-04-19)
I have lived in fear, then I found NA and nothing scares me for when my day comes there isn't a damn thing I can do about it =)

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