As soon as the news of the massacre had really sunk in, I waited for what I knew would inevitably happen.

The Blaming.

So far, we have the Devil, violent video games, Guns, hedonism, Guns, Al Qeada, Guns and occasionally Guns.

To me the whole concept of “why” is an exercise in futility.  As much as anyone could explain this, only the killer can come close, assuming he actually knew what drove him, and he took that with him to whatever awaited him in the afterlife.  All we get are speculations, theories, allegations, accusations and the like.

Even after hearing about and seeing his sick manifesto of dementia, there are no real answers.  He rambled on in such a bizarre fashion that the only reasonable conclusion is that he is crazy, a conclusion that was pretty much evident by him shooting up a college campus and killing 32 people.

And so the airwaves are crowded with competitive experts all presenting “the reason”, as well as a bevy of friends, and acquaintances who cannot make up their minds whether he was a quiet guy, a creepy guy, a bizarre guy or a quiet creepy bizarre guy.

We now find out that he actually didn’t buy his guns legally, he lied on his application.  For some reason he felt it necessary to omit the fact he had been committed to a mental hospital at one point.

Go figure.

NOTE:  A more recent news report contradicts that information.  Apparently Virginia law enforcement is claiming their Detention Order did not constitute a committment and his purchase was legal.  LSU

How did that get passed the background check you might ask?  Well being crazy is not a crime, it is a medical condition, and our society insists that medical records and issues are a matter of privacy, so the question was pointless in the most extreme.

I keep trying to tell the gun control crowd that gun control laws only affect honest people.  The dishonest ones snicker in their sleeves and game the system.

Thank God he sent a package to NBC.  Not even 2 days after the event the families get to see this guys most incoherent ramblings.  I cannot speak for them, but honestly I would want to see it eventually, but let’s bury the dead in peace first.  What comfort do they get as they cry out and ask “why” and the answer is the insane ramblings of a kid with guns?

I have a few unkind thoughts about the whole event, in regard to the media presentation and our cultures view of it. 

We are horror and tragedy junkies. We tune in with our skin crawling, our hands over our mouths and a stifled scream, only to change channels to make sure we do not miss anything.  The Media Outlets package it up, seasoned with exaggerated claims and sensational tags, and feed it out to the masses waiting for their daily dose of “the bad stuff”.

Take the Manifesto.  How quickly did they rush it to air, and how quickly have the blogs and news media jumped on it.  The pictures of this guy stare back at me from all sides.

Not a single one will grace the pages of this blog.  I may link to them but I will not display them.

My God what that says about us.

And the shooting itself…Was it horrible?  Yes.  The worst shooting in our history?  Apparently so.  An unprecedented act of brutality?  Yes, but in that regard there are plenty of harsher contenders.

How about the New York Night Club Fire in 1990 where jealous boyfriend tried to kill his girlfriend by setting fire tot he joint.   87 people died, though not her.

And without even mentioning terrorism, there are many other examples, like Hurricane Katrina, the Indonesian Tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands, the school shootings in Beslan that killed over 300 including 144 little kids…all these have left me numb to tragedy. 

I am not seeking to diminish the ugliness of the shootings, I am just keeping it in perspective.   People talk about this uniting us, and us sharing the tragedy as a nation.

I heard that about 911, which killed nearly 3000.  And a few short years later, more people daily sign on the bullshit conspiracy theories.  Blaming.  It is a human curse.

Humans are born with the word “why” hovering on their lips.  Ask any parent of a toddler who has taken them down the why road.  The insatiable curiosity of the human being demands answers, and will continue asking till satisfied, and the media is the patient parent who throws endless answers till one works.  For now anyway.

Back to the shooting, I reach back to when I watched the events unfold, and I wonder:  Why don’t I feel more?

I hate myself that I felt just moderate sadness at hearing about Virginia Tech, but nothing more.  Was it that I didn’t know anyone there?  Would I have cried for them had I known them? 

Am I unfeeling or just a product of a desensitizing culture, a selfish desire to only worry about what affects me, what I can see and touch?

Is this a reflection of my cynicism, which leaves me mostly unsurprised that a person could commit such brutality?

I am unsure.  But this I do know.  I may be unfeeling, cynical or just desensitized,  but I can recognize a simple truth that the media and all the experts cannot:  We will never be able to answer the questions they insist we ask, and even if we could it wouldn’t matter as it would only apply to Cho, it wouldn’t be a recipe for the prevention of schools shootings.

All the psychoanalysis, explanations, precautions, laws and measures we find, create or enact will not stop the tide of senseless brutality. 

Close the doors and the evil creeps in the windows.  There are simply people that for some reason are wired to do bad.  The devil, genes or even the Twinkie defense, it matters not.  They exist, and they will continue to exist.

The only glimmer if hope is the people who rise to the evil and stand against it, who take a stand for greatness in the face of certain death.

In this case, I speak of Professor Liviu Librescu of Israel who barred the door of his classroom, with his own body.  He literally gave his life to keep the shooter out of his class

Who better then a holocaust survivor to recognize the face of evil?

In the face of the worst that humanity can become, we have also been a witness to the best the humanity can achieve.

How bittersweet.

Trackposted to Sister Toldjah, Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson’s Website, Helium, Shadowscope, Stuck On Stupid, Leaning Straight Up, The Amboy Times, Pursuing Holiness, Pet’s Garden Blog, Rightlinx, third world county, stikNstein… has no mercy, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, Right Voices, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, The Random Yak, Adam’s Blog, Maggie’s Notebook, basil’s blog, MONICA, Cao’s Blog, The Bullwinkle Blog, The Pet Haven, Conservative Cat, Conservative Thoughts, Faultline USA, Blue Star Chronicles, Planck’s Constant, CORSARI D’ITALIA, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.