I don't have all the details. I have heard snippets here and there, from both the radio and from co-workers and a family member. But, in all sincerity, this world often sickens me. It's becoming harder and harder to see the good in the world, to see the diffuse glow of Benevolence. The shadows grow thicker and the world suffers in encroaching darkness and encroaching madness. What else could one call it? The world is sick. It is a candidate for an impromptu lobotomy, anything that might--might--quell the ubiquitous violence.
First, we have Iraq. Even the name of the country makes me blanch. Spearheaded by an incompetent boob as our "Commander-in-Chief," the war started out as a cakewalk, was declared as a "Mission Accomplished," complete with aviator gear (live that one down, you fucking boob), and has degenerated into a bloody clash, a political and religious civil war in which the American soldiers are playing the part of the Keystone Kops, running hither and yon, taking a cue from the little Dutch Boy and jamming their fingers in the dike, only to have 10 more leaks open up. That's bad enough.
Today, 33 people (at this time) were gunned down at Virginia Tech University. I'm sure the death toll will climb, as at least a couple scores of others were wounded. How badly? Time will tell. I did a double-take at the radio when I heard the death toll. Thirty-fucking three?!?! How is that even possible?!
I haven't heard a lot of details--I have not watched the TV nor sought it online; it makes me sick--but, from what I have gleaned, apparently at around 7:15 this morning a gunman shot and killed someone in a dormitory. Maybe his girlfriend? Maybe someone vying for the "love" of his girlfriend? Maybe neither of those? I don't know, yet. But, yes, at 7:15, someone was shot.
This is where it gets baffling. Apparently, a classroom (?) was shot up two hours later. Two hours later?! What. The. Fuck. I can understand someone getting shot and then the killer going on the lam, as it were, but can someone please explain to me how in the hell that person can elude the police/security forces for two hours and then sytematically kill tens of people two hours later?! Let me take that back: I can understand the elusiveness. This is Virginia; I'm sure there are heavily-wooded areas around campus in which a shit smear could hide. But HOW THE HELL ARE KIDS STILL IN CLASS?!!! Why wouldn't the campus be shut down?!
Another thing that boggles my, admittedly, fried mind: I heard that the kids were lined up against the wall and shot, execution-style. Are you telling me that the gunman was able to kill as many people as he did--with only handguns, mind you, not a machine gun--in the style in which he did? Don't you think that if you were lined up against a wall, facing away from a nut with a gun and said nut starts blowing brains all over the dry erase board, your survival instinct might not kick in and you would RUN FOR YOUR FUCKING LIFE?!
This society sickens me, some times.
I am reminded of a Stephen King short story: "The End of the Whole Mess." In the story, the narrator's uber-intelligent younger brother discovers a veritable Nice elixir in the waters of a small New Mexican town. He mines the mineral and drops it in an active volcano (suspend disbelief for a moment) and the mountain blows and the Earth's atmosphere disperses the Niceness. It ends badly, as the people effected--though there had been a brief period of world peace and harmony--end up going slowly stupid until, ostensibly, only the narrator is still living, albeit as a worsening idiot. We need a volcano; we need some gosh-damned human compassion in this fucking world. This is getting to be a fucking mess and I really don't see that it will get a damned bit better.
One last thing. Yes, I thought of terrorism and, in fact, I am quite shocked that this has not become a modus operandi of those motherfuckers. Can you imagine the terror that would be wrought if even a hundred of those "martyrs" took it upon themselves--or were given the directive--to spread random acts of carnage at local malls and schools and hospitals? I dread that, most seriously. This country is going to turn into a police state. The science fiction writers, though wrong thus far about the flying cars, hit the bean on this one. There will be check-points at the grocery store and eight o'clock curfews and people's civil rights will continue to dwindle--as the nation baaaaaa-s--and eventually, we'll all have to ask King George the Second, as he rigs the Constitu-cartoon so that he can stay in power indefinitely, if we can please use the bathroom, if we can please wipe our asses.
Much of this world sickens me.
Excuse me whilst I go to the farthest reaches of this world--with my boy Lou. We're going to live amonst the moutain goats and the yaks. Last I heard, yaks don't go around blasting people because of lost love.
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9 comments:
Well, I don't really have anything more to say...
You're so right, though, dude.
Fucking sick.
Hell in a handbasket.
Welcome, Kristina! And, yes, hell in a handbasket. I am curious, though, to know the facts of this shit. I'll read the morning paper and maybe they'll have some sort of idea.
I'm thinking this: The guy shot and killed whomever at 7:15 and then went and hid and, during those two hours in hiding, rethought his impulsive action and determined that, hell, life was over for him, so why not go out in a blaze of "glory," taking as many people with him as he could?
Sure. Why not? Sick fuck.
Damn straight Adam.
I have been mulling this over all day. I went outside on a weed removal mission and had an epiphany--evil people are like fucking weeds, they are impossible to eradicate, they like to multiply like bunnies and they take great pleasure in stealing all of the life from the ornamentals.
I am getting closer to the hills by the minute. >:^@
I like the analogy, Nightie. But, please, when you go to the hills, make sure you have Internet access! =o)
it sickens me. one girl reporting on cnn from a phone in virginia said she was "so angry," and the news anchor has the audacity to ask, "why?" what the fuck do you think, man?
Very well said
If two people were killed on a dorm on this campus, I don't think the school would be shut down. And if whoever shot them managed to hide or blend in long enough, they could pretty much go anywhere they wanted. There'd be police everywhere, and the floor or the whole dorm temporarily off-limits, but I just don't know how much reaction* the initial shooting would get.
I can't believe he killed 33 people. I just can't believe someone would do that.
*wrong word, but I can't come up with better at the moment.
You know what's kind of interesting? Cho had "Ismail Ax" written on his arm in red ink. I ran it through the anagram machine and one possible outcome is "Alas, I mix." Interesting in that it was written in red ink on the arm of an extreme loner, from all reports. Then again, maybe it wasn't an anagram. Maybe it was a reference to Ismail, from 'Moby Dick.' Didn't Ismail end up dying? Went down with the ship, as it were? I don't know. I just find it, well, interesting. My sis sent me some of his writings that she found somewhere. It think they'll be--yes--interesting to read.
@ You Da Mom: Amazing, indeed. That news anchor needs to get his head out of his ass.
@ Sugar Kane: Thank ya, ma'am.
@ Melmac the Great: I see your point about the near-impossibility of "locking down" a campus the size of VaTech or MSU. And, of course, I'm sure that they were cognizant about not inciting panic. But I still think that classes should have been...I don't know. Hindsight is always 20/30. It's just the damned time-frame that gets to me. They had TWO HOURS to construct a plan of attack and they didn't.
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