VA Tech

It's been a couple days since the very sad events at VA Tech. So many questions have been raised, not least of which is, since a lot of people recognized that Cho Seung-Hui had some serious emotional issues, why didn't he get the help he obviously needed? What went wrong? Are we so afraid of Big Brother that the people who desperately need help fall through the cracks of privacy rights or civil liberty claims? Or was he one of those people who wouldn't have gone to therapy and didn't want help? And as horrific as this was, can we even imagine if this was a daily occurence, like it is in Iraq or Sudan or many other countries?

Why didn't the Virginia Tech admins cancel classes and find some way to warn their students after the 7am shooting that killed two students? Not by cellphone/text-message/email - I'm wondering what happened to old-fashioned air raid sirens? I know we had them at UMass Amherst, and that was back in the mid 1970's. I saw them everywhere when Queenee and I were in San Francisco. I heard on NPR that VA Tech had a system similar to UMass' installed just weeks ago. Why didn't they use it? Why? Because authorities believed that the shooting at the dorm was a domestic dispute where the boyfriend shot his girlfriend and the poor hapless friend who came to her defense. When are we going to start taking domestic violence seriously? How many people have to be beaten or killed before we stop saying it's just a domestic dispute? Is thirty-three enough?

And today I read that the Scientologists are going to do their part to recruithelp the grieving families and students overcome their sorrow. Geez.

There is still so little to say except, what a waste. In reading about the students and faculty who were killed, one can't help but be impressed by the many hard working and decent, caring young people are out there, their diversity, and how many dedicated educators are devoting themselves to bringing out the best in their students. What an incredible waste.