Rage

[eelsalad]

The feeling which keeps coming back for me whenever I read things about the VT massacre is rage. Rage that the lives of 30+ Americans are somehow worth more than the lives of the 100+ Iraqis who died the same day in bombings which were just as senseless. People aren't writing beautiful, moving elegies about the Iraqi dead

Comments

[eelsalad]

Thank you. I am really glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. I mean, is the massacre terrible and sad? Of course! But so is every other damn massacre on the damn planet, and there are a lot!

Sigh. Humanity makes me want to *headdesk* a lot.

[ewigweibliche]

I agree with you, but I think the difference is that we Americans assume we are safe. The shooter wasn't involved in a war, gave little signs that he was about to massacre others going about their business. We assume that schools are safe. 9/11 was similar: no warning and shock that we are not safe from random acts of terror in the US. This is the same reason that a horrific random rape/torture case will be splashed across papers, while the boring but daily saga of rape, usually perpetrated by people the victims know, goes un-outraged (if I may make up a word).

But it's not a zero sum game. It's all horrible.

[eelsalad]

I heard the gunman had been involuntarily committed to a mental institution, and that one of his teachers had alerted the police that she suspected something was wrong with him. He was definitely unwell. But of course he didn't display overt threatening behavior, so there was very little that the cops could do without infringing on his civil rights (as someone who has also been known to display signs of being mentally unwell, I'm kind of glad that those restrictions are in place. There are lots of us who aren't well but also aren't going to shoot up our schools).

I guess... I just feel like this sort of thing can't really be stopped without a huge change in the way our culture views mental illness. But things like the war in Iraq and the genocide in Darfur can be stopped. People are wasting their time talking about gun control and regulating media violence as though either would have stopped this guy. We should be putting that energy to helping the hundreds, thousands of other people in the world who are going to die while we sit by

[eelsalad]

Well said.

[elorie]

And I'm getting seriously tired of people sneering at other people's feelings.

You know what? I don't believe in the notion of limited compassion. I've been plenty upset by what's going on in the world for quite a while.

But it is NORMAL for people to feel something close to home as....close to home. It's not hypocritical. It doesn't make them callous or elitist or what the hell ever.

I work at a state university. I work with students and teachers every day who are just like the ones who were gunned down. One of the people who WAS killed is a graduate of UGA's linguistics department. People are upset and well they should be. Telling people they shouldn't feel how they feel is the behavior of a jerk.

The terror of apathy

[ravenfirestorm]

Americans become fiercely protective of our own when a tragedy like this happens. We scramble to find some piece of evidence, a clue, some sign that it was going to happen, so we can protect ourselves. It's easy to do in hindsight; we make a list of the warning signs and look over our shoulders and watch each other. And when this doesn't happen again in one month, three months, a year, we will go back to our lives. Except, of course, for the ones who won't.
For some people, death hurts more as it comes closer. For others, it hurts more the farther away it is. The importance of who reacts in what way to death is not HOW. The importance is that there is a reaction at all.

Re: The terror of apathy

[eelsalad]

we make a list of the warning signs and look over our shoulders and watch each other. And when this doesn't happen again in one month, three months, a year, we will go back to our lives. Except, of course, for the ones who won't.

Yes yes yes.

The importance of who reacts in what way to death is not HOW. The importance is that there is a reaction at all.

Bingo. I think what sets me off about all the folks who are grieving people they never knew and never would have met is that nobody seems to be doing it for the other folks dying around the world. On the one hand, I'm sort of relieved folks feel sad - they'd be inhuman if they didn't. On the other hand, it just highlights what I perceive as American indifference to the suffering of those outside our borders or otherwise below our radar.

[vanison]

THANK YOU. I've been wanting to say that, but I've honestly been more afraid of how people would react than anything. I'm glad someone else thinks that way.

Did you see the report about 80% of Iraqi school children having anxiety issues like stuttering and bed-wetting due to the sheer terror of their home-state? And also the fact that most children have to pass dead bodies on their way to school? Shit's terrible.

[eelsalad]

Thanks for chiming in! I am always glad to hear I'm not alone in feeling this way.

I hadn't seen that report, but it doesn't surprise me in the least. It's horrifying, the things those kids have to deal with. There was a bombing this week that killed 115 people. A SINGLE BOMBING. WTF. It's horrible.