A day of violence, a day of mourning
By Michael J.W. Stickings
There isn't much to add to what has already been said. I learned about the Virginia Tech shootings from a colleague at work. And, as the day went on, the death toll rose. It now stands at 33. As CNN puts it, it was the "deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history".
For more, see The Washington Post -- although everyone is covering this story.
For reaction in the blogosphere, see Memeorandum, where it is currently the lead story.
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Violence at home, violence abroad
I prefer not to lump stories together, but, without in any way dismissing the violence at Virginia Tech, I must report that there was yet more violence in Iraq today. Here are the details from the BBC:
What a horrible day.
There isn't much to add to what has already been said. I learned about the Virginia Tech shootings from a colleague at work. And, as the day went on, the death toll rose. It now stands at 33. As CNN puts it, it was the "deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history".
For more, see The Washington Post -- although everyone is covering this story.
For reaction in the blogosphere, see Memeorandum, where it is currently the lead story.
**********
Violence at home, violence abroad
I prefer not to lump stories together, but, without in any way dismissing the violence at Virginia Tech, I must report that there was yet more violence in Iraq today. Here are the details from the BBC:
At least 13 Iraqi soldiers have been killed in an ambush in the northern city of Mosul, police say.
Gunmen opened fire at a checkpoint in the Abdaiyah area of Mosul, also wounding four soldiers, police said.
In other violence, US forces killed three Iraqi policemen in a "friendly fire" incident in a raid on suspected insurgents in Ramadi, west of Baghdad...
Also in Mosul, gunmen reportedly killed a university professor near his house.
In another town north of Baghdad, Hawija, gunmen reportedly killed the imam of a Sunni mosque and three bodies were found near the town of people shot and tortured.
What a horrible day.
Labels: crime, Iraq, Just another day in the life and death of Iraq
posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at
11:08 PM
4 Comments:
Is This Event A Symptom of our "Chain Letter Society"?
Read an analysis of the influences in our "Chain Letter Society" that may be precipitating events like the tragedy at Virginia Tech and how our focus on winning and being number one may be fostering a generation of children with fully inadequate coping skills who have a misguided sense of self-worth...here:
www.thoughttheater.com
By
Daniel DiRito, at 12:03 AM
I know most people will think this is a hugely assholish statement, so I'll bury it in comments, but this is nowhere near the "biggest massacre" or even the "largest mass shooting" in US history. There were probably over a dozen massacres of Native Americans that killed more than 33, and indeed which often saw hundreds killed in a day. I don't have a sophisticated account, or any account at all, of how this is related, but acknowledging our violent past might be a good way to begin to come to terms with why this sort of thing keeps happening here.
By
., at 12:23 AM
I don't disagree with you, Heraclitus. And I think one can make the point, as you do, without denigrating the events of yesterday.
By
Michael J.W. Stickings, at 12:59 AM
m.j.w.s.: The stories DO go together in our heads. Along with your well-chosen zeitgeist masterpiece, they form collages of discomfort. I am a peacenik to the core and get so unsettled by the randomness/purposefulness of death from the point of a gun or the explosion of a bomb.
Who has the wisdom to figure this out?
By
Carol Gee, at 1:52 PM
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