Honor Those Lost

It's been over a month since I've published which doesn't bode well for the life of this blog. I haven't found anything that inspired me to write in a while but I feel I should address Monday's tragedy. If I were a religious person I would pray for the families hurt by the atrocity committed at Virginia Tech on Monday, but that's not who I am. Regardless of my religious views, that does not inhibit my sense or morality and I am deeply disturbed by the actions of this one individual. Nothing gave him the right to do what he did. But what disturbs me more is the rest of society. To begin things, Monday night I had to go to work regardless of the state of emergency and, wouldn't you believe, it was the busiest Monday night I've ever worked. The entire night I kept asking myself what reason these people could possibly had to be shopping. While down in Virginia an entire community was suffering all these people could think about was the sales at Kohl's. Maybe it is asking too much that people up here in jersey should be spending their time to help Virginia Tech (if there was something they could have done). Okay, so fine, you can't help Virginia. How about the insane flooding right here in our area. Unless everyone was buying cheap clothing to give to a neighbor whose home was under 4 feet of water, I don't think shopping at Kohl's was necessary.

Okay now on to what really is bothering me; the media. It is difficult to open my Internet explorer and seeing my homepage, CNN.com, load a new picture of grieving students but I kind of feel that is necessary. Mourning is a very difficult and important process, and for the time being the entire nation needs to experience it together. What is not necessary, however, is the attention given to the shooter. It is natural human nature for us to want someone at whom we can point our finger, but I don't think the news should be spending so much time on him and going so in depth. I read in the paper today that he saw himself as equivalent to Jesus. Well his press coverage might just give him the martyrdom he desires. There are definitely people who would open up the New York Times today and see yet another picture of Cho Seung-Hui wielding his Glochs and think "That could be me if I only tried." Giving this sociopath only gives vindication for similarly inspired lunatics to come out of the wood works. Not buying it? Look at the Senses Fail lyrics, "I choose to be a serial killer because the victims don't get any fame." We need to knock out that catalyst. He sent his video to NBC so that he could be on the news. He knew that he would become a house-held name. Knowing this, why then are we allowing him to get what he wanted?

So yes America, keep the victims in your hearts, but shut the killer out of your minds. If the death of one is a tragedy and the death of a million is just a statistic, then the death of 32 is unforgivable and providing fuel for a sequel is just irresponsible.

Christopher