"And that was all the killing there would be at one mountainside college campus on one awful Monday."
is this the end of a 'tonight on fox' grimm fairy tale knockoff? is there some moral to the story implied by this statement? a line from a high school newspaper reporting in VA? or is it just a very poorly-written conclusion for the nytimes aritcle about the chain of events last monday.
yes, the latter is true.
the mancave resident is an alum of virginia tech and these few months i've known him i've gone from never having heard of blacksburg toward associating it immediately with a class of uniqueness that must be particular to those old american landscapes of the colonial states. i don't think anyone i've met is actually from VA originally, but they seem to have adopted, just by living there, this gene from our founding fathers that makes them odd, talented, mischeavous, creative, determined in their visions, and easily compassionate. i know just a handful of fellow alums, but others from blacksburg turn up everywhere- i mean, everywhere- and often times gatherings in denver turn into impromtu blacksburg reunions where, when familiar faces turn up, the question isn't "did i know you in blacksburg?" but rather, "how well did i know you in blacksburg?"
m texted me at work on monday, where i was doing my produce thing with no access to national news events, and all it said was "tragic day in blacksburg". having the peripheral/personal connection to it that i have, i immediately wondered whether one of his friends had met with a terrible accident, or perhaps if a beloved landmark had burned to the ground.
anybody would be shaken at the least to hear that a building where they attended class was scene for a massacre. anyone would be shaken to hear that there was a massacre at all. but it was in this place that i've come to appreciate as a source, and, in my most selfish response to this event, i'm hurt that my association with blacksburg has been changed to include a sick young man brandishing guns.
and i'm mad that a write at the nytimes wrote the above sentence. come on.
1 comment:
Even though you and I have close ties to "the media" I think that the official corporate media has done a miserable job with this whole story. The story is that a disturbed young man who should not have been on campus after essentially screaming to his professors via papers and scripts; as well as actions toward other students, that he was a danger, for whatever reason decided to kill as many people as he could in quest for some sort of glory. I thought after Columbine that too much attention was paid to the killers, and not enough to the victims. I think NBC News made a huge moral mistake by running this guy's pr packet that he sent to them. They could have still had a big audience impact just by announcing that they had received the packet, shown the postage label, and perhaps one of the less offensive photos; and said that the rest was not going to be shared with anyone but law enforcement. The victims don't get a chance to have their own stories take up 15 minutes of primetime NBC nightly news.
Granted, there have been collages of photos of these poor people, but inevitably the media focuses on one or two of the more media-friendly victims, and the rest are lost.
And honestly....I would NOT want the satellite trucks on my campus at this point reminding me that the world was gawking. There is a time when you need to have peace as a community to heal and move forward.
My heart goes out to M., and his fellow Hokies wherever they are. Engineering/Tech schools are unique places, and I think there is a great bond between the people who manage to get through just the academic courses and move out into the world...and I also think there is a shared sense of pride between an engineering grad from Rolla, and one from VATech. It's that whole world of geeks, and I love 'em.
Oh, and the NY Times writer pretty much sucks...what an awful use of words.
Post a Comment