It’s been two days now since Virgina Tech was tarnished by tragedy and beyond the wounds that will never heal lie quite a few questions. Foremost among them, why? Why did Cho Seung-Hui do what he did? Why wasn’t he monitored more closely after his disturbing actions of the past? Why was the response of the authorities so slow after the first two murders in the dorms? Most of all, just plain why. Why did this happen, why does it continue to happen to innocents who’ve done nothing to effect their murderers. I can’t begin to imagine what it must be like for the families, for the friends, for the community itself. Its a life changing experience and the shocks that will radiate out from it for months and years to come will be groundbreaking.
We thought our society would change after Columbine and it did. We witnessed a crackdown on school security, the eroding of student rights even further and a rentless assault on video games and music which some think are to blame. I cant help but wonder what the changes will be that result from the dark day that was Monday. Who and what will be blamed now?
One result of the shooting that has infuriated me was the literal frenzy the media went into just hour afterwards. The press conference held around 4 p.m. Monday was an embarassment. The questions asked of the schools police chief were ridiculus and harmful. Many questioned why the school waited so long to send out a warning; many asked why the school wasn’t on lock down. The answer is simple: size. Virginia Tech is an institution that sprawls over 2,600 acres, has more than a hundred seperate buildings and a student body of over 26,000 people (roughly 9,000 live on campus).
You have a population of a small town, widely scattered, with varying primary methods of communication. The one method the schools have that scale well is email, which is how they first responded. Two hours after the first shooting. Some say that if an email had been sent early and the school locked down the second shooting might have not taken place. Thats bullocks. Even if the email had been sent minutes after the first shooting the likelihood of the majority of students seeing it before arriving on campus is minuscule. If the school was then placed into lockdown, you would have students milling around on campus before slowly leaving. What would be created is a target rich environment. Instead of groups of students in known locations they’d be scattered over those 2,600 acres. An impossible to defend target. Having said that, the school should have responded earlier but as they say, “hindsight is 20/20.”
One final thought that I can’t help but ponder, is what the effect would have been in just one of those students or teachers had been armed. If just one had carried a concealed handgun the entire chain of events could have been different. The key point is could have been different. The person would have to be trained, unlikely to freeze, and in the right place at the right time.
I’ll close this post with my prayers reaching out to those affected; the families and friends. Tragedy affects us the world over even if our eyes are too closed to witness. Here are the closing words of Nikki Giovanni’s speech, preaching defiance in the face of pain:
The Hokie Nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong, and brave, and innocent, and unafraid. We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imaginations and the possibilities. We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and through all our sadness. We are the Hokies.