Virginia Tech

"In violence, we forget who we are."
-----Mary McCarthy

I've been glued to my television, radio, and computer since the Virginia Tech shootings on Tuesday. I'm fascinated by the media's response to it, the role the Internet has played, and people's desire to immediately identify heroes and simultaneously point fingers. I've been surprised and sometimes embarrassed by my own thoughts as I think about the shooter. It seemed clear that multiple people thought he was unstable. How should he have been treated? Would it have been appropriate to require him to get treatment even though he never committed a crime for which charges were pressed? What is wrong with our society that anyone feels so isolated and separate?

I wonder--each time something like this happens--about the safety of my own school and how I might respond if this kind of tragedy happened in my own building. I feel immense sadness for the people who lost a loved one or directly witnessed the violence. Maybe there's just no way to make sense of the situation.