Remembering Virginia Tech
By Ben Cohen
(photo by MzMullerz)
Chez Pazienza recalls the horrific day, exactly two years ago, when the deadliest mass shooting in U.S history occurred:
Then, as the hours and hours passed and the body count skyrocketed --
the sheer enormity of the violence finally becoming clear -- I moved on
to logical analysis, followed by a kind of rational righteous
indignation. I shook my head at what I knew would surely be the
knee-jerk reaction to come: the hand-wringing and political posturing
over what might have been done to prevent what was, in reality, a
devastating human anomaly -- one that may have been anticipated, but
likely couldn't have been stopped by anything short of locking up a
troubled and dangerous kid who, until Monday morning, hadn't
technically broken the law. I swallowed outrage at the vile opportunism
of Scientologists, who were quick to claim that psychiatry was behind
the gunman's brutal impulses, and Jack Thompson, who wasn't even aware
of the killer's identity and yet was already pointing the finger of
blame at the time-honored boogeymen of video games and pop culture. I
clenched my fists, closed my eyes and exhaled my fury at one television
news anchor agreeing with a local pastor's unforgivably trite nostrum
that God sometimes works in mysterious ways. I worried about the
possibility that a substantial portion of creative, dark, shy or
otherwise unusual kids might now find themselves eyed with suspicion
and apprehension -- simply because of one twisted bastard with
delusions of martyrdom and the weaponry to bring his furious fantasies
to life. I wondered if someone might demand to know why it's as easy to
buy a Glock 19 in this country as it is to buy a Happy Meal -- and
finally do something about it.