MiA's ShAkEn NoT StiRReD BLoG
5 years ago
4.25.2007
Perspective
Everyone and their brother is still talking about the massacre in VA. It got me thinking....stuff like this happens EVERY DAY in Iraq. Dozens are killed and more wounded by bombs or execution squads. Where is the outpouring of grief for them? Why is it so much more tragic when it happens at home? I'm not trying to take away from the tragedy of so many lives lost at the university. Really. But what about those people in Iraq? Are their lives worth any less? Damn, I don't remember the last time I read the news and didn't see something about an suicide bomber blowing up people near a mosque or bodies found alongside a road or American GIs killed. Why isn't that splashed on the front page of every paper? Why isn't that the opening story on the 11 o'clock news? Am I the only one who reads the news? Am I the only American aware of what's going on overseas? Am I the only one who cares about the war? Am I the only one who remembers? On days when the big news stories revolve around spoilt celebrities or stupid reality shows I begin to think I'm the only one who remembers that there are two wars going on. Iraq is long lost and unless we refocus and reprioritize we'll lose Afghanistan too. And all the death and injury will be for sh*t. Nothing will be better. Feeling all too pessimistic today.
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6 comments:
You said it yourself Jane stuff like that happens every day in Iraq so when we hear/read about it on the news even though it is heart wrenching it is not unexpected. After all there is a war going on over there. Here it’s different these students were not in a war they were in their classrooms supposedly safe from the madness going out in the world . The fact that they were killed by a fellow student who despite obviously needing all of his life never got it makes it even worse. The fact that if people had really cared and done their jobs as humans it all could have been prevented makes it even more tragic.
You’re not alone in your anti-Iraq war stance polls show that 55% of Americans are with you. Let’s keep hoping together that Bush comes to his senses.
Mia,
I have to be honest here. I truly don't believe anyone could have stopped this obviously troubled young man from lashing out at others. People like that have their minds set. I doubt meds or counseling would have changed the outcome. It's like people who really decide to commit suicide. Nothing and no one will stop them from trying. He was hurt, angry and unstable. Something bad was bound to happen. Again all I can think is if just one person had a weapon of their own so many lives could have been saved.
As for being somewhere safe, well, I don't believe it in. The only place I feel truly safe is at home where my doors are locked. Anytime I leave my home I am on my guard. Whether I am at my dentist's office or shopping for groceries. I don't expect anywhere public to be safe. I guess that kind of thinking started when I lived in a pretty rough neighborhood in Chicago. Anyway I am always watching, aware of the people in my surroundings. Maybe that makes me paranoid, I don't know.
People dying in war should be the headline story, no matter how many people have died before. We should have daily reminders of what is happening. I am so f*cking sick of Britney Spears or Anna Nicole sh*t being the front page story. They are not worth it. I don't want to see it. I avoid it as much as I can but when I read the online news the headline is right there. It seems most people would like to forget that our kids are dying overseas and that regular people are being murdered there every day. It's sickening.
To sum it all up I guess I am tired of the media which seems to be more interested in stupid spoiled slobs than in what is real and awful and wrong. What we need to know is being replaced by fluff and mind-numbing crap. I don't know where the journalists have gone but it is a sad time for the media.
Jane: The thing with this kid is that what I get from reading about his childhood was that he's basically been needing help since he was a kid.
Perhaps if someone would've sought help for the kid then this could have been prevented.
As for the current state of the news in regards to celebs I got you. I feel the same way.
Since the 70's there has been a tendancy not to hospitalize people who are potentially violent -- there were plenty of warning signs about this kid but it is very difficult to get people admitted for the possibility that they might commit a crime -- lots of people are anti-social and it's difficult to know who will crack and do what that guy did.
Also since the 70's there are lots more people living on the street who should be in a place where they have food, shelter, and medication -- but that's just my opinion. Life on the street is very difficult and people who should have better care end up using and the wear and tear of life on the street along with self-medication results in a much shorter, and more painful, life span it seems to me.
Of course people know that al Qaeda is busy killing people in Iraq. Don't beleive polls, no one wants to lose to Al-Qaeda unless you want to see NYC nuked.
i so agree w/ you... but you know, in america this stuff never makes headlines. it's as if they want to shield the eyes of americans so they don't have to think about such, while over here in the middle east, it's on every channel all the time. you are bombarded w/ it in the papers, on tv... everywhere. sometimes i think it's too much blood and gore, but then i think about how you never see this stuff on american tv or in the news.... and i don't understand it.
i somewhat think it's government controlled. this way, if no one is reminded of it, then ppl won't think about it and then it can go on and on and on and on....
i watch some daily show here... can't remember what it is, but usually at the end of the program they'll dedicate time to list all the men that have died in battle (americans). it always breaks my heart to see how young the guys are.
but... i'll also say this, the middle east, i feel, should be more up in arms about all of this violence w/ car bombs and suicide bombers hitting most every day, killing tons of iraqis, but they aren't. instead, it's usually a blame game w/ america being the target. i also get tired of this.
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