Trying to make sense of it all
WHY? I was going to post about something earlier this week, but the tragedy at Virginia Tech on Monday had kind of put things in perspective for me over the last couple of days.
At times like this, sports just don't seem all that important.
First off, I want to offer my condolances for all the victim's families.
As this thing plays out, and numerous media sources try to make sense out of a senseless act, the one thing that always seems to be forgotten are the victims.
32 innocent people were killed on Monday in what has become the deadliest school shooting in American history...and the media outlets are doing nothing over the last two days but broadcasting pictures and film of the coward responsible for this act.
So he sent a so-called 'manifesto' to NBC the day of the massacre, so what? Do we really need to see this?
NBC felt the need to broadcast what he sent, and then share the pics with every other media outlet in the country.
Is there really a need for the general public to see this coward holding a gun to his own head, pointing the gun at the screen or holding a knife in an attack pose?
I read today that some of the victims families cancelled their appearance on the Today show this morning out of protest for the actions of NBC. Good for them!!
This coward's face should not be known, should not be seen, and we should not waste our breath even saying his name aloud.
I understand the need to look closely at the case, in the hopes to find out something about the killer that might give the authorities some questions as to why he did this, but is this something that everyone in the whole country needs to ponder over? Isn't that a question best left for the police and not the media or the general public?
All the media will do now is scare the average viewer into believing that we are all at risk, that we are all a target and that our children are at risk for the same type of attack.
They will tell us that we need to medicate our children, alert them to friends of theirs who might seem a little quiet or odd, that we need to assume every single person we see has the potential to be a cold-blooded killer.
Then, they will move on to blaming the shooter's actions on violent video games, violent movies, pornography, easy access to guns, goth music, Marilyn Manson, the Beatles, etc, until we all recognize the shooter's name and he gets a page on Wikipedia and then his face appears on trading cards and t-shirts and he's hailed as a martyr or a messiah for the disenfranchised and lonely, like the two murderers from Columbine.
The media will then move on to make him out to be a sorrowful figure, probably because he was picked on as a kid, or his parents didn't love him enough, or he had a psychological disorder that caused him to have violent impulses.
Then the people who should have put him away will say that they did all they could, that they can't force people to take their meds.
And maybe then in response to the media's attack on gun rights, the NRA will stage a rally and make the statement that guns don't people; people kill people.
And the media will broadcast all of this, because, truth is, tragedy sells.
The sad about this is we don't know now, nor will we most likely ever know, why this coward did what he did on Monday.
And all this time, the names of those who were lost to their loved ones on that day will be forgotten.
Go Hokies!! This fall, when the fall out from this tragedy settles a little bit and the people from VA Tech try to return some sense of normalcy to their lives; I think the eye of the sports world will focus heavily on the Va Tech football team.
It's amazing how sports can have the effect of bringing people together at times like this. I for one plan on cheering on the Hokies every chance I get.
At times like this, sports just don't seem all that important.
First off, I want to offer my condolances for all the victim's families.
As this thing plays out, and numerous media sources try to make sense out of a senseless act, the one thing that always seems to be forgotten are the victims.
32 innocent people were killed on Monday in what has become the deadliest school shooting in American history...and the media outlets are doing nothing over the last two days but broadcasting pictures and film of the coward responsible for this act.
So he sent a so-called 'manifesto' to NBC the day of the massacre, so what? Do we really need to see this?
NBC felt the need to broadcast what he sent, and then share the pics with every other media outlet in the country.
Is there really a need for the general public to see this coward holding a gun to his own head, pointing the gun at the screen or holding a knife in an attack pose?
I read today that some of the victims families cancelled their appearance on the Today show this morning out of protest for the actions of NBC. Good for them!!
This coward's face should not be known, should not be seen, and we should not waste our breath even saying his name aloud.
I understand the need to look closely at the case, in the hopes to find out something about the killer that might give the authorities some questions as to why he did this, but is this something that everyone in the whole country needs to ponder over? Isn't that a question best left for the police and not the media or the general public?
All the media will do now is scare the average viewer into believing that we are all at risk, that we are all a target and that our children are at risk for the same type of attack.
They will tell us that we need to medicate our children, alert them to friends of theirs who might seem a little quiet or odd, that we need to assume every single person we see has the potential to be a cold-blooded killer.
Then, they will move on to blaming the shooter's actions on violent video games, violent movies, pornography, easy access to guns, goth music, Marilyn Manson, the Beatles, etc, until we all recognize the shooter's name and he gets a page on Wikipedia and then his face appears on trading cards and t-shirts and he's hailed as a martyr or a messiah for the disenfranchised and lonely, like the two murderers from Columbine.
The media will then move on to make him out to be a sorrowful figure, probably because he was picked on as a kid, or his parents didn't love him enough, or he had a psychological disorder that caused him to have violent impulses.
Then the people who should have put him away will say that they did all they could, that they can't force people to take their meds.
And maybe then in response to the media's attack on gun rights, the NRA will stage a rally and make the statement that guns don't people; people kill people.
And the media will broadcast all of this, because, truth is, tragedy sells.
The sad about this is we don't know now, nor will we most likely ever know, why this coward did what he did on Monday.
And all this time, the names of those who were lost to their loved ones on that day will be forgotten.
Go Hokies!! This fall, when the fall out from this tragedy settles a little bit and the people from VA Tech try to return some sense of normalcy to their lives; I think the eye of the sports world will focus heavily on the Va Tech football team.
It's amazing how sports can have the effect of bringing people together at times like this. I for one plan on cheering on the Hokies every chance I get.
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