I thought we were past this
I don’t know how to start this post. I know what I want to say, but I don’t know what words to use and how to put them together. Here it is as best as I can say it: There have only been a handful of times when I’ve been as shocked by news as I was today.
Around 10 am I got word of the shooting spree at Virginia Tech. I went to CNN.com. The main story box was wider than normal, and the banner headline punched me when the image loaded: VIRGINIA TECH RAMPAGE. I read the basic facts in the story teases. I thought out loud: “Holy shit.”
The ordeal had been over for hours. I’d been sleeping when everything happened — 4 am and 6 am Pacific (we live in an enormous country, but that’s beside the point). The initial investigation was underway and, just like the fucking cons they are, presidential candidates had already released statements, using the massacre to bolster their image.
I didn’t know what to do. My body and mind were galvanized for action; I wanted to run to the scene and help. But I couldn’t. There was nothing I could do except morn for members of my generation, one that’s been scarred this way more than once.
I thought we were past this. I thought Columbine was the end-all, be-all of school shootings. I through wrong. I guess I was naïve that way.
Today’s rampage rocked me to the core. It ruined the day. Nothing I did, thought, or heard got me past it. All day I was locked in the magnitude of the event. It turned my stomach.
It’s one of those things I don’t know what to make of. It was sick and unnecessary, that I know. But I don’t know what to make of it’s meaning. What does it say? The Echo Boomers (Millenials, whatever our generation is called) have been mired in violence and self-destruction. I’ve turned it over in my head all day. The gears and cogs of my decoding mechanisms are still working.
I don’t know what else to say, and that’s always a good time to end.
Around 10 am I got word of the shooting spree at Virginia Tech. I went to CNN.com. The main story box was wider than normal, and the banner headline punched me when the image loaded: VIRGINIA TECH RAMPAGE. I read the basic facts in the story teases. I thought out loud: “Holy shit.”
The ordeal had been over for hours. I’d been sleeping when everything happened — 4 am and 6 am Pacific (we live in an enormous country, but that’s beside the point). The initial investigation was underway and, just like the fucking cons they are, presidential candidates had already released statements, using the massacre to bolster their image.
I didn’t know what to do. My body and mind were galvanized for action; I wanted to run to the scene and help. But I couldn’t. There was nothing I could do except morn for members of my generation, one that’s been scarred this way more than once.
I thought we were past this. I thought Columbine was the end-all, be-all of school shootings. I through wrong. I guess I was naïve that way.
Today’s rampage rocked me to the core. It ruined the day. Nothing I did, thought, or heard got me past it. All day I was locked in the magnitude of the event. It turned my stomach.
It’s one of those things I don’t know what to make of. It was sick and unnecessary, that I know. But I don’t know what to make of it’s meaning. What does it say? The Echo Boomers (Millenials, whatever our generation is called) have been mired in violence and self-destruction. I’ve turned it over in my head all day. The gears and cogs of my decoding mechanisms are still working.
I don’t know what else to say, and that’s always a good time to end.
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