Virginia Tech

Is everyone in shock? It seems like the official, formal entities have responded to the shootings in Virginia - the president spoke, the Queen spoke, the flag is at half-staff, the same gruesome picture is on the front page of all the newspapers. But on a more personal level, people are avoiding this. They seem curious. They want to know about it - they read the newspaper over people's shoulder, spend lots of time on it online. But they don't talk about it. Two people mentioned it to me today (not counting my mother and sister, who emailed) - a friend who confessed to being obsessed with it (pretty healthy, I think), and my boss, who made a bad joke and then apologized, kinda. Everyone else avoided it, including me. The blogs avoid it, too, at least the ones I've looked at. I've been thinking about it a lot, so I figure that everyone else is, too, and that no one knows how to deal with it. Or maybe most people are like the folks on the ferry tonight - happy, cheerful, oblivious. Except for the lacrosse team, who talked and joked about it. They're teenage boys, that's how they deal with it. But the other ferry people kind of annoyed me. How can they be so cheerful? How can the people next to me happily talk about which colleges their daughter is looking at, and not even mention it, or at least be a little less cheerful for a second? Did they forget? Lucky them.

Most of us have been in the position of the people who were killed. We have lived in a dorm, we have gone to class, many have taught. This could have happened to any of us. When I was teaching, I had a quiet, loner-type student who had a military background and a short temper. I didn't have any trouble with him (much), but I know that the university authorities were worried about him. Would he just flip out someday? If so, what would he do? I never worried about him shooting down scores of people, but maybe I should have. I would worry about that now. We had a murder-suicide on the University of Washington campus a few weeks ago. Campuses are not secure at all. They can't be, unless we build walls around them and check absolutely everything that goes in. That sounds very medieval, and would not be a helpful solution, I think. A more realistic solution is making sure that no one is left to brood on their own to the point where they hate everybody, including themselves, and want to destroy everything. We have to stay connected to each other and to the human race. That's what prevents people from flipping the switch and becoming a murderer. It's one thing to tell yourself to be connected, but I don't know how to tell someone else to be connected. It's hard to force someone to participate in society if they don't want to. Do we have to worry about everyone who just wants to be left alone? If so, then the introverts of the world (and I think that described most of the people who read this blog) are in trouble. But there's a difference between being an introvert and being a murderous loner. So, psychology friends and family, please comment!

I almost forgot to say: my prayers go out to the family and friends of those who were killed, and to all the Virginia Tech community. Also to the family of the gunman.