Sometimes I really hate being stuck in my cubicle...

[elanurel]

...because, like an idiot, I'm posting dorky stuff when there's something a lot bigger going on than my tirade about mastadons...

My heart goes out to everyone hurt by this.

Comments

[refined_mirages]

I use to live 3 blocks from VT. My ex supposedly still goes there. My mom called and told me about it. Her first thought, "I wonder if the shooter is my daughter's ex."

[headdesk]

I think it's horrible nonetheless. It's pathetic that someone feels that mass murdering people is the way to find some peace/sanity/revenge/etc.

[elanurel]

It's pathetic that someone feels that mass murdering people is the way to find some peace/sanity/revenge/etc.

It is... I just can't fathom why anyone would do something like that, or why they think that's the only course of action to take.

And, it occurred to me, that it's pretty close to the anniversary of the Columbine shootings. Part of me wonders if that's a deliberate connection we were supposed to make.

[refined_mirages]

Can't fathom it either.

Perhaps. Hard to say at this point.

I think that VT handled it badly too. I think a lot less people would've been killed/hurt if better action had been taken.

[elanurel]

The date connection is probably nothing, and I only remembered it because I got that same sick feeling in my stomach as I did with Columbine while I kept reading the news. So I checked the dates and, yep, it's four days off of the eighth-year anniversary.

From what I can gather, it does seem to have been handled poorly. I hope that doesn't prove to be true as more of the story is uncovered...

[elanurel]

Sadly, it was someone else's post on LJ that prompted me to check out the news. Usually, we listen to NPR into work but this morning we didn't...and I don't usually surf the Internet.

It does make me think. Some days, I wish the Winchesters and people like them were real, taking out the real monsters. I know that's not very self-actualized but, still...

[elanurel]

Oh, absolutely. And, I was the girl who made up a hero for herself when she was growing up.

I am still having a hard time wrapping my head around it, and I'm going through nothing compared to those really impacted by it. More just shock that someone could think that was an okay action. And a little dismay at my own vehement response that the gunman is lucky he's dead, because that was the easiest out he could have been given...

[embroiderama]

It's a crazy thing, no doubt. For me, it's weird to have to react seriously to VA Tech because my default mode on all things VA Tech is OMGSTFU. The big boss at work (who works in the office across town) went there and is a massive VT cultist (like, he has a VT tiffany-style lamp in his office and he *mows* the VT logo into his *lawn*). His son, who's worked with us over various vacations, goes there and is okay, but still people are freaking out.

[elanurel]

It's hard not to. My day has pretty much been blown by this and I'm not impacted by it at all. Just the thought, though... Maybe I'm feeling sympathy echoes because of Columbine (which was a lot closer to home, obviously) or something but I keep wishing I could at least understand why, like that would make some sense out of the senselessness. I know it wouldn't, but still...

[quellefromage]

I've been watching this all morning. A friend's daughter goes there, and there were some tense moments this morning, waiting to hear if she was okay.

and the news...SUCKS. On CNN, over and over again, playing video where you can hear gunshots. That's someone's son or daughter being murdered, and they just keep playing the thing, and it's all about the ratings, and not about trying to respect the families. I hate the news.

[elanurel]

But she is okay? (Gods, I hope that she is...)

I've only seen a couple news articles on Yahoo at this point but I'm not surprised. CNN also kept showing the twin towers collapsing every ten minutes on 9/11 and I remember thinking the exact same thing, that I was watching people die over and over...

[arwensouth]

We get CNN headlines on our default browser page at work, and there's a video screen down in the lobby that's also always showing CNN. I'd never really watched them or paid much attention to them before coming to work here, but as a result, my impression of them is that they're big on headlines and low on actual content. They may get the first headline about something, but then they'll keep broadcasting the exact same info over and over for the next three days.

I have to say that my initial reaction was (as it was for Columbine) one of anger at the gunman/gunmen for assuming the right to choose who lives and who dies, and then for evading the responsibility for their actions by committing suicide. Because it makes them look like heroes to other losers out there who are contemplating doing the same thing. "Look! I can make them sorry they ever messed with me, and there won't even be any consequences, because I'll be dead!"

Damn them.

And I mean that in the very literal sense.

[elanurel]

Oh, no, I share your initial reaction. I said that death was too easy a position for the gunman. And I'm sticking by that assessment...

[isabelladangelo]

We have big screen tv's all through out the office. We all saw it unfolding on one of the TV's during an office Birthday party.

All I can say is this: It looks like a murder suicide. The guy was distressed because his ex broke up with him. She is believed to be one of the first two that died. The other was her new boyfriend.
He then went half a mile across campus to take out his engineering class. Why? I have no idea. The rumor is right now is that he was failing classes.

My prayers go to all affected by this.

[elanurel]

Knowing that almost makes it worse, that love got so twisted about into something else...