Reading these first stories about the shootings at Virginia Tech, I want to throttle those students for being so oblivious:
Ms. Bernards said she walked toward her class, preoccupied with an upcoming exam and listening to music on her IPOD. On the way, she said, she heard some loud cracks, and only later concluded they had been gunshots from the second round of shootings.
But even at that point, many students were walking around the campus with little if any sense of alarm.
I want to yell at them all: “Can’t you pay attention to the guns?” But I wouldn’t do it. You don’t spend long in front of a classroom of freshmen without learning that obliviousness is part of what makes students special. Maddening, yes; often irresponsible, too; but also frequently able to do pretty neat things and think up really smart ideas because of it.
Anyway, something similar happened here 16 years ago when a former physics graduate student executed his professors. In spite of the fact that students come and go and that cycle makes the distance more final, the campus still remembers. Something like this doesn’t go away, not for a very, very, very long time.
The list of victims (also here) is sobering for many reasons, not the least of which is how much this has affected families across the world—this massacre is international. American universities are the most significant and positive ambassadors of American values that exist (so much more than any war could ever be).
by greg—Apr 17, 01:49 PM
B’s brother is probably going to start college in America this fall. It wouldn’t surprise me if their mother hears about this and demands he go to college in Turkey instead.
by JH—Apr 17, 02:17 PM
Reassure her that he’ll be fine so long as he stays away from 1) quiet, loner Koreans, and 2) John Doe.
by greg—Apr 17, 02:33 PM
re: (2)
(shudder)
by JH—Apr 17, 02:43 PM
I know. I’ve been rather speechless about it ever since I read it, three weeks ago. I still can’t really come up with anything good to say that’s not followed by my spitting on the keyboard.
by greg—Apr 17, 02:47 PM
Holy sh#t.
I will challenge your attempts to indoctrinate my children in our schools????????
Hey, Terrorism 101 was my favorite subject! How dare you eliminate it from the curriculum?
Has everyone gone completely mad? Okay, maybe that question is a little late in coming….
by kl—Apr 18, 08:41 AM
I don’t know about everyone, but Michelle Malkin’s certifiable. She wrote a book, for example, that defends Japanese internment camps during WW2 by basically saying “they weren’t as bad as everyone makes them sound!”
by greg—Apr 18, 08:59 AM
My favorite part was the bit about resisting the imposition of Sharia law in the taxi cab.
Check out this quasi-confrontation between her and Max Blumenthal from The Nation. Watch her eyes, if you can stand to.
by JH—Apr 18, 10:43 AM
I like this:
It’s just so Green Eggs and Ham meets citizen counterterrorism, you know?
I watched that video before. “My book has mistakes… but it’s still right!”
by greg—Apr 18, 12:27 PM
Yeah, the whole piece is written in an attempt at a sort of macho, staccato style. As you say though, it just comes off laughable.
by JH—Apr 18, 12:39 PM
John Doe sounds like a douchebag.
A douchebag with a concealed handgun most likely.
by GKB—Apr 19, 01:21 PM
Another favorite part? The salutation: “Dear Muslim Terrorist Plotter/Planner/Funder/Enabler/Apologist.”
by greg—Apr 19, 03:24 PM
@9: yes, now that you point it out, it does sound like Dr. Seuss—Dr. Seuss meets Newt Gingrich.
by Laura—Apr 19, 09:02 PM
Funny you say that, because Newt Gingrich was a lot like the Cat in the hat: He showed up in the House promising big fun (though whoever thought a contract could be fun deserved him), helped his friends make a huge mess, then skedaddled when he discovered he’d outworn his welcome.
by greg—Apr 19, 10:13 PM