"Love one another." How do we survive this kind of tragedy? By loving one another, coming together. Survival is through community, and not letting go of each other. The massacre at Virginia Tech is one of the most tragic reminders of how much our nation needs healing, on every level. We should be more responsible in conveying values beyond the quick satisfaction of material needs. The constant glorification of violence through the gun culture, videoames, news broadcasts showing incessant bloodhsed, hatred, torture and bullying tactics on shows like “24″… yes the gunman was deranged, but there is something deeper going on in our American Dream.
Go to PlanetBlacksburg.com and leave a prayer message on the Wall. I am also sending out a blessing and prayer to Josie, my friend in Nebraska who is going through cancer surgery today. xoxo
"No Spur Of The Moment Crime"…9 mm Handgun Purchased On March 13…Returned To Dorm Room To Re-Arm After First Shooting, Left A "Disturbing Note"…
Why don't we have a more rapid response to violence like this, whether it's terrorism or random violence. The fact that the campus didn't sound a SIREN, send out an alert and cancel classes over a loudspeaker or alarm... or text messaging! In this day and age, in light of the times, why don't we have "rapid response" and lockdown immediately in the case of a crisis like this?
Excerpted from Jane Smiley's Blog at HuffingtonPost.com:
Some years ago, I was talking to a man about guns. At the time, I didn't really know anyone with guns (still don't), but he did. He had had guns himself. He said, "I gave my gun away, because when I had it, every time something happened that made me mad, my mind would start circling around that gun, and I would be thinking about using it.
So I got rid of it and I'm glad I did." Right up front I will say that I am opposed to casual gun ownership, but I also realize that Americans will always have guns. Period. It's a national fetish. But the mental state my interlocutor was describing years ago is the price we have to pay, along with, of course, the accidental deaths of children and other unprepared and careless people who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and in proximity to the wrong gun. What I would like is for the gun-toting right wing to admit that there is a price we pay, that senseless accidental deaths and traumas are a national cost and that it's not so clear that it's worth it, but hey, we pay it anyway because so many guns are in the hands of so many people that there would never be any getting rid of them. I would like the right wing to admit that guns are not "good" and that the right to bear arms is not an absolute virtue and that the deaths in the US caused by guns are at least as problematic, philosophically, as abortion. But I'm not holding my breath...
Read more at HuffingtonPost.com
