Why?

Why? was Originally Posted on April 17, 2007 by lavarock

Years ago I visited Virginia Tech once. We were living in Southwest Virginia and drove up there to see a movie on a double date. I don’t remember much about the campus except is was a lot larger than ours and it was almost as far away from the “big city” as ours. My college and high school were in the “middle of nowhere”, so I can tell you that people in these communities have no inkling that something like this could happen. One other time I took a vacation to Colorado and drove up towards Denver to find the out-of-the-way hotel. I turned the wrong direction, drove through a quiet neighborhood and came upon a school, Columbine, the site a year or two before of yet another shooting.

My heart goes out to the students and communities who have to wonder “Why” this happened in such quiet and loving communities.

I don’t have CNN or many tv channels, and I heard about the Virginia Tech shootings hours after they happened. Even if I had it, I would have left it off because of how the news is handled.

Because Tech is located far away from civilization, there can be a real lack of up to date video feeds and I understand that the weather kept choppers from spending time over the area. It looked to be snowing on the few reports I saw. Because of this, I can only imagine the following set of events. CNN would switch from the occasional news flash to full reporting. Since they have little informatuion, they would have to rely on telephone calls from people nearby. Those people may be getting their information from rumors or from local stations who are guessing what is happening.

Then there would be the sketchy reports on the geography of the area, the weather and the reasons that there is little information coming from the region. There would have been calls to the local police and security guards, all of whom would have little information yet or no approval to give out what sketchy information they have.

Then there would be the phone calls from people who used to go to Tech, and perhaps a call or two from current students.

The above information will cause them to begin using the expression “We don’t want to speculate” followed by the the word “BUT” and then will go on to interview experts about the profile of the type of people who would do this, whether there was more than one person, why the police are not forthcoming with any information. There would have been parallels drawn to the Columbine and other shootings, with timelines given showing the number of people killed at other institutions like this. Someone will comment on how hard it is for students and the pressure they are under at school.

As you listen
None of this speculation and nothing up to this point will have helped answer the question “Why”?

I don’t know that I could do any better than this. I was in radio and reported a few news items, but I was not trying to fill in on a major news item and ceratinly not hold the attention of the world; but know that in the first days or so, little useable information is broadcast by any of these organizations. It is the nature of the business.

If the shooter is descibed as a quiet person, a family man, the neighbors will be wondering Why? If the person is troubled, peopl will demand to know why something was not done, or done sooner to identify and help this person. Schools all over the world will begin to review their policies of protecting their students.

The world will continue to ask WHY?