This Has to Stop

While I was teaching a class this morning at Oakton, someone killed at least 31 people in Blacksburg, Virginia on the campus of Virginia Tech. It is the worst mass-shooting in American History, according to MSNBC.

First of all, why does this always happen in April? It's like terrorism in September.

Maybe it's because I'm a teacher that I get so brokenhearted over something like this. I cried for a week every time I turned on the television after Columbine. It was April 1999 and I was about to graduate from college. Maybe it's because the victims are young and there is so much ahead of them that is lost.

And maybe it's because it's just not that deep. And by that I mean school. There is no reason anyone should do this. Nothing is that important, not worth 31 lives and counting taken. And I include the gunman in this. Because what happened is that this young man was consumed so profoundly that he took a hell of a lot of people with him.

Before I went there in 2000 I didn't know that Iowa had had a similar incident, five people dead and one injured severely in 1991 or 1992. A graduate student flipped out and took out his rival, some professors and staff. Van Allen Hall. I was at Iowa for the 10th anniversary of the shooting. That day I walked the same path across the Pentacrest the gunman took between two buildings, Jessup Hall and Van Allen Hall. Now, Iowa was a tough time and a tough place for me, as we all know, and it got dark at times. But I never saw anything there that was enough to justify these acts.

The anniversary was around the same time as 9/11 too. Another thing that felt so senseless even though I felt like I had acheived an understanding of where the attackers were coming from. At least the so-called terrorists have a point. They're sacrificing themselves (along with a bunch of other people, granted), for what they perceive is a greater good, a higher cause. What the fuck was this? Grades? An Assistantship? A Fellowship? A Publication? A Break-up? Why 31 people? He chained the doors so people couldn't escape.

It's too much.