2008April16

Preface

Anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings cannot go by without comment...

Ponderings and Worries

On the day of the first year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings, and in general, it can not be ignored what happened, though we may never know what really happened, in the minds of the shooter, victims, and the mourning communities, plus the general public, as many people have opinions and lots of panels, plans, reports, analysis, proposed changes and feelings still remain...

Given that there were violent actions before in younger school systems like Columbine, in Western Fairfax County and that the Virginia Tech shootings coincided with Columbine, anniversaries like this take on even more meaning in stopping the violence...

One nagging feeling of mine has been about faith.  Stereotypical Asian culture includes buddhism perhaps more than in traditional America.  I have a vague recollection of SH Cho not being buddhist but of a christian background.  But so are millions or even billions of people.  People tend to ritualize mourning with faith.  Funerals are held in churches, synagogues, temples, mosoleums (and I need to learn more about Islamic traditions as well as the mere simple spelling...) on campus and quietly in people's hearts on days like today and many other days...

The Dahli Lama (also check spelling...) has visited the Washington DC area, and remarkably visited a homeless shelter, reportedly commenting that he has been homeless,, and the Pope is in the Nations Capital area as I write this, early on Wednesday morning, having the courage to discuss priests sexually abusing children while on the plane approaching...

Leaders must be responsible to the people they lead and those they serve.  And some cats (aka herding cats/lions/etc), rebels, anarchists, young people, adolescents. old and middle aged, are just not going to be followers, of faith, schools, teachers, classmates, peers, dogma, morality, bureucracy (can't even spell it, so must be a Freudian issue right? ;-} ) or even what is considered common sense let alone sanity.

After such an event, it may be easier to consider that the person is just 'crazy', sick, ill, diseased, etc.  But from a socialogical and systems perspective,

we ALL have a part in this...

Another troubling part of the environment we live in, for me is FPS, First Person Shooter games.  When I was a kid, we didn't have the technology to do such things with computers, and certainly not in individual's home, with laptops on the road, etc.  If someone were to be interested in such things, they needed to get access to physical items, i.e. weapons which are what could be considered analogous to controlled substances/ materiels.  I'm not one to think that all games are bad, and don't even dislike technology, in general,  but I am not blind to the differences that kids, adolescents and the general public face today...  The best we had was PacMan, Galaxia, etc at an arcade in the mid to late 1970s and early 80s...

So I could probably ramble on further from the lack of sleep, troubling, and nagging suspicions that we, in general, are heading in the wrong direction,  and more personally, with possible jealousy of more people being funded from my unpaid advocacy, ideas and 'work', others just saving their own positions, while supposedly funded to help others and more deadlines missed plus the aftermath of another disturbing RRWG monthly general meeting where abuse and censure appears to be the norm, not the exception, but like the frustration of dealing with people who should know better and say 'they are not worth it'... 'They', that unspecified, 'everyone but you' type feeling, complete with the multiple meanings and interpretations similar to We, has it's consequences...

If you digged into my past, and looked into the last year's escapist 'Beware of the Ides of March', Star Trek and other frustrated tech vs human services 'blog' postings, activities, and whereabouts in Northern Virginia around Easter break and before, you might find that I may have met both M Kennedy, and SH Cho or someones similar, but I don't really recall with all the seasons events and funding deadlines. 

I will put forth a hypothetical.  If you met someone casually as described that we later find out was like the reported shooter, what would you do?  Do you have a crystal ball to tell the difference between someone venting which can be therapeutic, and freely expressing themselves, or the precursors to murderous rage or a cold blooded killer?  And like my experience last year of seeing someone on the street in the days following, of similar stereotypical general description and wondering what their experience is of life, frustrations with society, media, treatment, community, school, family and the rest merely based upon physical apperances or historical troubles?...

What can be done?  Have you ever committed anyone?  Called 911?  Worried about someone else's life or death situations?  Felt responsible for things you have little to no control over, but still have residual feelings about?  Have you created plans for yourself, friends, family, classmates or your organization in the event of something similar?  Do you have safety plans? Or more graphically disturbing, will you sign this 'safety contract' or any contract for that matter?

So while we mourn our losses in Virginia, in schools, colleges and universities, and at home, consider kindness, patience and caring instead of judgement, criticism, and blame...

Summary

A sleep deprived rambling, into uncharted territory...

Discussion

A place for feedback on the page presented, see the following process on the next entry...

Page History

20080416 Jerry

• Jerry created this page out of a sense of moral need...

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