We passed by Jeju Island (South Korea) earlier today…that was probably the only exciting point of my morning, only being beaten by an early dismissal from my field research class.
I’m currently sitting in the China post-port session, which has been turned into post-VT shooting time. A few speakers have said their words about it, and I’m confused as to some people’s reactions to the event. One girl is visibly very disturbed and crying, earlier having lead the Union in an ‘our father’. I’m observing about 3-4 more people (all female students) with some tears in their eyes. I don’t really get it – school shootings happen every few years, hundreds of soldiers have died in the middle east, and thousands of people die daily around the world – what’s with the emotional reaction? Do these people cry everytime one of these happens? If so, they’ve got to be depressed as hell – tragedies happen on an minute-by-minute basis in our world.
Or maybe it’s a religious thing. I’ve always considered religion the “opiate of the masses” –
Also, the East China Sea is not treating us well. We haven’t had rocking this bad since pre-Mauritius – even I am starting to become nauseous. Many people have their seabands and patches on, and we’ve almost run out of meclazine (only 5 packets left when I got mine at the purser’s desk).
Here are some potential reasons for people to feel upset about VT:
1. They know someone who attends or works at VT.
2. There are several differences between the deaths of the soldiers and others you mention and the deaths at VT. Among them is that one expects soldiers to be killed during a war. The death of a soldier is a painful loss for his or her family and friends, but it is one for which we might be somewhat “prepared”. I don’t think anyone sends their child to campus thinking that it is a real possibility that he or she could be seriously maimed or killed by gunfire.
3. This is the type of event that often causes a young adult to feel his or her vulnerability. A student often feels very safe on a college campus, the VT shootings can make one question this feeling. It may be the first time that some folks consider their own mortality and that people their own age DO die.
4. There is the possibility that this type of thing makes a person release emotions that are not strictly related to the specific event. It could have been the proverbial straw breaking the camel’s back – SAS can be a stressful time for some students.
5. This was the largest mass killing in US history. It was a big deal. We should not come to a place where we feel that this is just something that is going to happen. It is a relatively recent phenomenon that is shocking.
With all this, I am not saying you should feel badly for not being more upset. I did not cry either, but found it very unsettling since I teach on a college campus and have a family member who is a faculty member at VT. The individual stories told (for example the holocaust survivor who lost his life protecting his students) can be very moving. I feel the tears shed by your fellow students are actually fairly understandable – much more so than those who were absolutely devastated by the death of Princess Diana. Just something to chew on…
Comment by Anonymous — April 26, 2007 @ 2:41 pm