Lest We Forget

A Day of Mourning for Va. Tech Victims April 20, 2007 - 6:40am By MATT APUZZO Associated Press Writers BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) - As experts pored over Cho Seung Hui's twisted writings and his videotaped rant, parents and officials urged people to instead focus on the victims of the deadliest rampage by a lone gunman in modern U.S. history. (WTOP)

With all due respect to Gov. Kaine and with sympathy to the families of those killed, I have to raise my hand here and ask why?

Are these people more worthy than those killed in Oklahoma? New York? Washington? Pennsylvania? What about the victims of the Uni-bomber? Boyd and Malvo? What about the thousands killed by abuse every year, be it elder, spousal or child? How about those people that will die on the highways this weekend due to alcohol, fatigue and carelessness? And then there are the thousands of men and women in Iraq, putting themselves in harms way every single day for reasons that no one has yet been able to clearly explain to me and those that are not killed, will be forever changed by their experience.

Thirty two people died in Blacksburg on Monday. That is a tragedy that needs to be prevented from ever happening again. We do not need more armed guards and security cameras in out nation. We do not need more metal detectors and bars on the windows. What we need is a society that is paying less attention to whether some celebrity is wearing underwear and more attention to what is going on around us. We need a society that cares more about raising children that can think for themselves and act independently than it does about "staying in power." We need a society that is willing to step up, take real responsibility for their actions and worry less about trying to "keep their job." We need a society that is willing to hold not just its leaders, but itself accountable for its actions and its ill and be willing to take the steps necessary to change. Until then, the deaths at Blacksburg are meaningless. And that is what we should be grieving.