VT Massacre and Aftermath

If I haven't said it before, I'm saying it now. I hate the media. I hate their self serving, scandalizing, over the top, 'anything for drama' attitudes. What kind of organization(s) capitalizes on this kind of situation. They're creating the story. They somehow only talk to the people who want to blame the school. They don't talk to other school administrators, they don't talk to experts, they just talk to anyone that will throw the University under the bus. Its a sad sad situation.

This kind of event cannot push us to a 'lockdown' society. Every shooting can't stop life, every event cannot cancel school or evacuate 8 buildings. I'm sure that in the near future we'll be in a period of overkill, where anyone will be evacuated for anything. Then they cycle will go back around, and people will stop taking threats seriously, because they're so often empty. The media won't be there for that part. They won't pay much attention to the natural progression. I read a stat this morning in a TIME article (which I disagreed with on other grounds) that cites a Department of Justice Study:

"...in 2004 less than .1% of all homicides involved five or more victims."

This is not a crime that can be easily prepared for. This is not a fire drill, or a tornado drill. Every single instance is different, every single event could involve an entirely different approach. In some circumstance, mandating a 'lockdown' could work in favor of a sociopathic murderer. In other situations, mandating an evecuation could do the same. In all reality, even regulating such, can be of benefit to a sociopath, because they're going to do what they want to do, and if a uniform plan has been made, they know whats coming.

On another note, I am somewhat appalled at this idea that everyone who shows a little mental instability should be locked up. That seems to be what the newspapers are saying. Is there no where left for civil liberties? You can't judge individuals on their writings, their personal decisions in the way they act or dress, or socialize. There are thousands of Americans who are strange, anti-social, unfriendly, and indeed mentally disturbed. You can't lock them all up, you can't watch them all, all the time. This is not the Soviet Union.

Freedom is worth every cost. Even those people who died at Virginia Tech. Freedom, in the end, is all we really have. Once we let terrorists, lone gunmen, and the media scare us all into barricading ourselves inside, then they win. We might as well stop voting, stop working, stop going to school.

This shooter violated the social contract. But that doesn't mean its no longer valid. I would hope that through time and patience, we could look beyond the devestating events that took place at Virginia Tech, and that the Nation will heal. Because we can't walk with fear, afraid of what might happen.