Tragedy in Virginia

Earlier today one of the greatest tragedies in the history of our country took place. A man, who has yet to be identified, entered the campus of a Virginia college and killed two people in the early morning hours. Two hours later, he was in another building on campus, chaining the doors shut to keep both people in and authorities out and took the lives of more than thirty others and wounding dozens more.

Life went on today though. When I awoke in the late morning, I knew nothing about what had happened in Virginia. I knew little more than I did yesterday. I knew that the job interview that I had scheduled for this afternoon had been postponed but that's about all. I continued with my daily life and while I began to start my day with my coffee, I saw little snippets of news regarding the massacre at Virginia Tech. I saw a posting in a friend's journal mentioning the shooting. Still, I continued on my day and knew very little. I read a report soon after and still, went on with my day with little if any real change in my demeanor and still, life continued on except for the victims of this terrible tragedy.

Details began to trickle out slowly. News agencies swarmed and reports were on all day updating the story. The number of fatalities gradually rose and journalists continued to report and scrambled to be the ones that broke the latest news or have the most compelling interviews including and news channels put students who were still locked inside the second building on the air for interviews, another channel put a student on the air who had been wounded with a gunshot wound to the arm on the air. Life continued.

Politicians made this part of their daily agendas though thankfully, not nearly as much as one might think. Presidential candidates Obama and Edwards both sent their well wishes to the families of those who were struck down today and both Senate and Congress began their days with a moment of silence for those victims.

President Bush gave a live speech sending his condolences to the families of today's victims. According to a report on NBC news, President Bush was having a private lunch in the west wing when an aide interrupted to tell him about the death toll rising above 20 and that is when the President turned on the television and began monitoring the news. He gave a speech that sent condolences to those that had lost friends or family in this senseless tragedy.

One woman stood up and decided to spin this though. Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy (NY - D) released a statement today saying "The unfortunate situation in Virginia could have been avoided if congressional leaders stood up to the gun lobby." McCarthy is from Long Island, NY and in the early 90's lost a husband in another shooting. Her son was gravely injured in that shooting as well. Commentators said that given her history, it was understandable why she would make a political comment.

And that is where I am breaking away from the pack and speaking out. I don't care about your history at this moment. When did we become a nation so cynical that someone in one our highest elected offices can decide to put spin on something like this? Sadly though, I cannot make this sound like this is the first time that this has happened. Elected officials have always taken tragedy and turned them into opportunity. Ms. McCarthy did it today; President Bush has done it repeatedly over the last few years every time he feels the need to invoke 9/11 as his reasoning for doing anything. People turn tragedy into opportunity and rarely does someone speak out or bat an eye.

We have become a nation of uncaring cynics and I include myself among those who inhabit it.

This is not an essay meant to demean those that I live with, share this country with, those that I work with, speak with or even those that I have never met. This is an essay that came to me this afternoon when the real inhumanity of both myself and the country hit the worst.

Everyday I write for a celebrity entertainment blog. It is not a well paying job but it is extra income that I need and I get paid for every item that I post within this blog. This afternoon I heard about the tragedy but as I mentioned above, knew little and didn't particularly care to search out more information about it. What I was concerned with was finding entertainment news so that I could do my job. When I found that today was lacking in entertainment news, I put up a post in my personal online journal that said something along the lines of "I can't believe how much of a slow news day it is," and I proceeded to make a lame joke about wanting a celebrity to get caught doing something illegal so that I'd have something to write about.

A friend of mine that I've known for years read that post and was justifiably upset since she lives in Virginia, 30 minutes from where the shooting took place and was actually at the campus just yesterday.

So America, I am one of you. You may know some of my more intimate details and you may know more about who I am and will say that I do not fit the typical mold of what a 'typical' American should be. But what I did above was absolutely no better than what the reporters did today when they scrambled to get the best people to interview, it was no better than the authorities and campus security that failed the warn the students of the danger they were in, it was no better than the congresswoman who made a political statement mere hours after the shooting took place. It was nothing short of my proof that I am a typical American: callous, selfish and cynical.

I sincerely hope that as the rest of this week plays out, Americans will stand up by the dozens if not the hundreds or best yet the thousands and show me how wrong I am and I won't have to think about today as a day in which life continued for millions of Americans while the lives of dozens of Americans didn't.