Thoughts and tears go out to the families of everyone killed or injured in yesterday’s horrible shootings at Virginia Tech. May they go from the darkness to the light.
The deaths that hit closest to home are those of Drs. G. V. Loganathan and Liviu Lebrescu. The professors of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Science & Mechanics, respectively, taught subjects close to my heart. Also, Loganathan is from the same state in India and looks almost like my own father, while Lebrescu survived a Nazi concentration camp to die like this. It’s just heartbreaking.
When I first heard of the campus locations of the shootings, I hoped and prayed (selfishly) that no scientists and freshmen would die. Sue me for harboring a soft spot for well-educated geeks as well as the young embarking on a brand new journey into learning. These were excited and hopeful individuals who wanted to make something of their lives, worked hard and look where it got them. It could happen to anyone – I could step out onto a busy street and be fatally hit by a bus today. This is why some of us pray, I suppose, that we are not the unlucky ones.
The crazies are at Pin The Tail On The Foreigner and More Guns/Less Guns again, going on and on about Pakis, why this incident should tighten up American immigration policy and whether this means we have too much or too little access to firearms. You know what, America, bad stuff happens regardless of the perpetrator’s age, sex, color and ethnicity and always will, and no incident can be The Deciding Factor, not unless it’s applied fairly and consistently in all cases. Way to use this incident to push personal political agendas instead of looking for the real reasons, which we may never find.
Once again, my sincerest condolences to the Virginia Tech community. You will rise up from this.
Yeah, they played the “pin the tail on the foreigner” game with Oklahoma City as well. Idiots.