What do the murders in Blacksburg mean for America?
April 19, 2007 — Geneva (apj.us) — I am struck speechless by the cell phone video captured by Virginia Tech graduate student Jamal al Barghouti from outside Norris Hall where Cho Seung Hui was committing mass murder. That video, which features the deafening sounds of 27 gunshots, has been shown over and over again on international television over the past few days.
It was riveting video.
The other video I wonder about is the one that runs even more continually, featuring what appears to be a 300 pound policeman racing toward the crime scene like a spindly sprinter. He was heroic, and later I saw a still photo of him carrying a body with a few more helping later on. I would think he might be interviewed.
Instead we see a non-stop slide show of kids who attend Virginia Tech somehow trying to inject themselves into the melee, or more likely being dragged into it by overzealous third-rate reporters trying to make a name for themselves.
These early interviews of course will soon be replaced by interviews with people who were actually shot at and survived while 30 of their colleague students and professors lie dead around them. Then will come the parents and siblings, trying to control themselves, hoping their talking to the press will somehow honor their blessed dead.
In the end, we can learn little that will help us to avoid such slaughter in the future unless, as usual, the mainstream media drives public thought and stirs the nation to once again look at even more security, more cameras, more gun control, less gun control — and mark my words, someone will point the finger of blame for the carnage at the administration of Virginia Tech once the initial grieving is over and "respect" in no longer an issue.
Then American newspeople can get down to the dirty — something they do well, and enjoy.
I had to laugh at the spectacle of Wolf Blitzer standing around looking stupid on the Blacksburg Campus. Already? I thought Mr. Blitzer was an expert on making lying politicians and staff appear honorable! Now here he is, ringleading a zoo of CNN "reporters" jabbering nonsense to fill air time.
Already the National Rifle Association is sending out its most brilliant nitwits to fight what they know will be another attack on their ability to buy rocket launchers for hunting rabbits.
News anchors are "whispering" about the President of the School, the campus and local police, and anyone else they might decide to blame for the mass killing — although they are not yet hitting them below the belt. Just wait. They will.
My God. What a waste of breath it will all be, except of course for the parents and families of the dead.