Monday, April 16, 2007

A Very Sad Day

I had another post thought of and partly written, but in light of the prominent news story of the day, I felt that I should take some time out to talk about it.

I am always deeply saddened when I hear news about killings. I really can't think of a more dishonorable act than to to take a gun and systematically kill off innocent people, with whom you have no previous relation to, and who have no ways to defend themselves. But I always have had a particular disgust with people who can kill students. People who are only beginning to experience what this world has to offer. It's sad and sickening.

This particular tragedy hits pretty close to home for me, for two reasons. First of all, it's at a college. In all the school shootings I've seen in recent years, the victims have been high schoolers and such. I essentially had a preconception that "that sort of thing doesn't happen in college." But it can, and it did. This particular tragedy happened at Virginia Tech, but it could have just have easily happened in any school, even at UC Berkeley. We always think that we're safe until someone comes along and proves us wrong.

The second reason that this really gets me is the fact that a number of the killings were done in their dormitories. Their residence halls. The kinds of places that I work at. And I can't help but wonder...what would have happen if it occurred here? What would I have done? What could I have done? People think RAs have the power to do things, but we're just students, like everyone else, and just as fragile as everyone else. I suppose it does me no good worrying about such things, but still, it's hard to help.

I'm pretty sure that we (students and especially hall staff) are going to be on high alert in the upcoming future. There's always the immediate danger of copycat crimes, and after that, we're still going to have this in the back of our minds. As sad as it is that we do have to think about such a thing, it's a fact of life.

I apologize if this seems a bit incoherent; I'm just feeling a bit incoherent now.

...*Sigh*...

Whatever divine power you believe in, please pray for the souls of those people who have prematurely gone to their rest. And pray for the perpetrator of the crime; their soul obviously needs it.

And call your family. Tell them you love them.

Rest in peace, friends.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Andrew, I'm sorry you're upset. and I'm sorry that you feel a little disillusioned. I wished that that didn't happened. what really brings me down is that this event has triggered those thoughts in your head and if you keep at it andrew it's going to change you. like last time. remeber that really long comment i sent you? that really got me upset. upset at you. I've always been jealous of you. See, I've always had those thoughts in my mind. I grew up afraid of death. I grew up with death. drive-bys, shots in the night, stabbings, the riots. the really sad thing is that i actully HAVE had to think about about such things for so long. perhaps too long. but if it happens at high school in middle america- it's tragedy. at a college-now it's so sad to see. now there's so much attention. now people start thinking. i grew up with very real threats in my life and also in my families as well. and you, you didn't have to deal with any of that. the most moving events you seemingly had were dreams when you were growing up. i guess what i'm trying to say is don't change. don't let this effect your life. this world is so very fucked up. and it's people so very fucked up, emotionally. its rare to see someone honestly happy. please, show me, let me hope that one day i COULD be as happy as you WERE yesterday.

Andrew Schnorr said...

Don't worry, this isn't going to ruin my life, or even change it in any dramatic way. It doesn't have that much control over. What it did do was allow me to think and reflect a bit. I actually called my home today, just to tell them I loved them. Why? Because I realized to myself that I hadn't vocalized such a sentiment in such a long time...

You're right, though, it does suck that these kinds of things are only brought to the spotlight when it happens in some grand fashion. And it's sad that it takes something like this to make people actually appreciate their loved ones and reflect a little bit. But again, that's just how humanity works.

I don't think there's anything wrong with this bringing me down a little bit. In a sad little way, it keeps me grounded, and gives me an reason to slow down and think for a bit, before continuing on with my oblivious little life.

The only thing I regret about that, though, is that 33 people had to die to do that. I think I'm entitled to regret that much.

Anonymous said...

This whole ordeal came as a major suprise to me...I had been isolated from the news on Monday, and hearing about this has been a bit disheartening. However, what I'm more upset at is the fact that it took an event like this to wake people up and think about a reality outside their own. It took this shooting to make people think 'what went wrong?' And yet, in two weeks from now, the explotation of a dead celebrity, the exploits of celebrities still alive and the fluff stories of small town, USA will once more reign. As Alex said, some of us in society are unfortunate to have this crap forced into our lives every day. While I have seen quite a bit in my travels, I haven't seen the half of what many others have. In any case Andrew, I understand what you mean and I sympathize that those people died...However, more disturbing is that it takes a dramatic tragedy like this to wake up Americans...Hell, tragedies like this happen every day in all parts of the world - I guess we should all be thankful that we don't experience things like this more often.

-Comrade Chavez