Do you guys think the Virginia Tech shooter is a [insert profane name here] that should rot and burn in the deepest ends of hell?
Nope.
I suppose most people don't really know my background that well, as I don't share it especially often.
But.. I graduated from Thurston High School in 1998. And there was a bit of an incident in the spring of 1998 at Thurston HS. Kip Kinkel brought a semi-automatic .22 hunting rifle to campus, killed two students, and injured a lot more.
On most normal days, I would have had no clue what happened until a while later, when my mom rushing home early would have woken me up. The shooting took place just before 8:00 am, and my first class wasn't until 10:00 am.
But, that wasn't a normal day. There was some sort of awards thing before class started that morning, and I'd gone in for that. About when the shooting actually took place, I was on my way home, just realizing that I'd left my key at home, and wouldn't be able to get inside. So I turned around, heading back to campus, intending to track down my sister and borrow her key.
Instead, I walked into the first stages of the lockdown. I really had no clue what was going on, but was sent to a random classroom to sit and wait while they sorted things out. By the time we left, I knew as much as anyone, which was really just that there had been a shooting, and no one really knew who was injured. I was slightly concerned about my sister, but I honestly didn't expect any problems.
After the lockdown ended, I walked home, found my mom waiting (having come home from work when she heard the news), and my sister arrived shortly after me. It turns out my sister had been nowhere near the scene of the shooting, as she'd gone to her first class early to work on homework due in a later class.
But, had she not been procrastinating, she would have been in the cafeteria, probably sitting with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend was shot 4 times. He was out of the hospital the next day (a .22 hunting rifle doesn't do much damage unless it hits a vital organ directly).
Throughout the events of the following weeks, my only anger was towards the media that was exploiting us for ratings. I'd actually had a class with Kip Kinkel, the previous term. He seemed like a normal teenager. Whatever went wrong that made him make those choices, it was a tragedy, not infuriating. But I've always been emotionally cool about situations like that.
My sister isn't as rooted in the analytical as I am. She feels a bit more strongly, a bit faster than I do. So, after I got home monday night, I gave her a call. We didn't talk long, as the three hour time difference meant she was on her way to bed (I didn't get home from work until 8 or so). But, she told me she had a friend at VT. She'd called, and he was fine, but she was feeling rather ill anyway. The whole situation dug up memories she'd rather not have gone through.
But even she wasn't angry. She was sad.
Anger is an inherently destructive emotion. The more people let it run free, the more damage is done by this senseless act of violence. The longer anger and fear are harbored, the more they will be abused by people pushing their agendas. Focusing on anger, hatred, and fear is ultimately damaging to our society as a whole.
I just wish I wasn't so apparently alone in that opinion.
Nope.
I suppose most people don't really know my background that well, as I don't share it especially often.
But.. I graduated from Thurston High School in 1998. And there was a bit of an incident in the spring of 1998 at Thurston HS. Kip Kinkel brought a semi-automatic .22 hunting rifle to campus, killed two students, and injured a lot more.
On most normal days, I would have had no clue what happened until a while later, when my mom rushing home early would have woken me up. The shooting took place just before 8:00 am, and my first class wasn't until 10:00 am.
But, that wasn't a normal day. There was some sort of awards thing before class started that morning, and I'd gone in for that. About when the shooting actually took place, I was on my way home, just realizing that I'd left my key at home, and wouldn't be able to get inside. So I turned around, heading back to campus, intending to track down my sister and borrow her key.
Instead, I walked into the first stages of the lockdown. I really had no clue what was going on, but was sent to a random classroom to sit and wait while they sorted things out. By the time we left, I knew as much as anyone, which was really just that there had been a shooting, and no one really knew who was injured. I was slightly concerned about my sister, but I honestly didn't expect any problems.
After the lockdown ended, I walked home, found my mom waiting (having come home from work when she heard the news), and my sister arrived shortly after me. It turns out my sister had been nowhere near the scene of the shooting, as she'd gone to her first class early to work on homework due in a later class.
But, had she not been procrastinating, she would have been in the cafeteria, probably sitting with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend was shot 4 times. He was out of the hospital the next day (a .22 hunting rifle doesn't do much damage unless it hits a vital organ directly).
Throughout the events of the following weeks, my only anger was towards the media that was exploiting us for ratings. I'd actually had a class with Kip Kinkel, the previous term. He seemed like a normal teenager. Whatever went wrong that made him make those choices, it was a tragedy, not infuriating. But I've always been emotionally cool about situations like that.
My sister isn't as rooted in the analytical as I am. She feels a bit more strongly, a bit faster than I do. So, after I got home monday night, I gave her a call. We didn't talk long, as the three hour time difference meant she was on her way to bed (I didn't get home from work until 8 or so). But, she told me she had a friend at VT. She'd called, and he was fine, but she was feeling rather ill anyway. The whole situation dug up memories she'd rather not have gone through.
But even she wasn't angry. She was sad.
Anger is an inherently destructive emotion. The more people let it run free, the more damage is done by this senseless act of violence. The longer anger and fear are harbored, the more they will be abused by people pushing their agendas. Focusing on anger, hatred, and fear is ultimately damaging to our society as a whole.
I just wish I wasn't so apparently alone in that opinion.
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