As a seldom viewer of television and not a daily news junkie (unless, possibly, political news), I was somewhat late to the game in terms of learning about and reacting to the Virginia Tech shooting. Actually, I first learned about it from the blog of a friend.
Not long after I heard about it, a John Edwards campaign event scheduled for this evening at the Ryman was canceled/modified. An event is still occurring, but now it is “a community service to honor the victims.”
This got me to thinking about what constitutes a national tragedy in our 24/7 information age with news everywhere. Is it body count? Isn’t homicide, terrorism, torture, war on any level a tragedy? I was even wondering if this was a big enough deal to merit a wholesale transformation of the Edwards event.
As communication about the day’s event went on, I finally came across the item that seals the deal in terms of how I feel about President Bush, and it’s his heroic response to the day’s tragedy, which came (from the AP) in the form of these simple and inspiring words:
“The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed,” spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
Which is good, because my first reaction to the shooting was, “Holy shit! I bet President Bush is going to knock on my door this evening to fucking take my guns away! No goddamn motherfucking way!”
The careful reader might note that there is enough emotion behind my words this afternoon that I’m using expletives in my satire. Ordinarily, I don’t find them to be particularly useful means of expression when conducting civil dialogue, but I’m not sure the president’s response merits civility.
Are we that far gone as a civil society that the most extreme defenders of a single of our rights must be consoled in the immediate aftermath of what the Nashville Post tells us is “… the deadliest shooting at a school or university in American history and the second worst mass-murder at a place of education.”? Are we?!
Because I’ll tell you, my personal first reaction is, “How can we prevent this type of tragedy from occurring again?” There is no clause tacked on there. My reaction is not, “How can we prevent this type of tragedy from occurring again and speak publicly about it without drawing the ire of gun nuts everywhere?”
Just as I had hoped there would be a more public rejection of the values of the NRA when Charlton Heston and company set up shop right next door to Columbine to reassert their fundamental right, I hope that the president suffers mightily in the public eye for his awful, cynical view of the world. And I hope that the Republican party he has led to this low point reaches depths plumbed by the Tories in Britain during the Blair era. This sort of leadership deserves the very lowest regard.
Hats off to Edwards for his respectful response, and finger up to Bush for his utter lack of one.
It took me some time to understand what was happening. As the news of the day sank in, the reactions among people I was talking to got more and more distressed. I started the day mulling over whether the information age is causing global magnifcation of things that used to be small, local events and ended the day just kind of emotionally drained.
I wouldn’t describe my writing about the status of the event as a “complaintâ€, just an early observation later amended. I remain hopeful, though, that we don’t create a horse race in our media to cover only record-setting gun violence but continue to focus on the need to reduce all gun violence.
I am a bit confused about your complaint that this was treated as a national tragedy. Are you proposing that this event should not be mourned by the whole country and should not receive news coverage, or is your point that the we should have comparable news coverage for everything that happens everywhere? Are you saying that the Edwards event should not have been a memorial? Or are you saying that it took some time for you to understand what had happened? Just curious, because the paragraph is somewhat appalling without knowing what your intentions are.
I agree with you that the article you linked to with Bush’s response is infuriating. I am thankful that the news sources I was exposed to on the day quoted more appropriate comments from Bush and others.
This, which Bush said to Charles Gibson in an interview yesterday, is similar to what he should have advised Dana Perino to say on Monday: “Now’s not the time to do the debate until we’re absolutely certain about what happened and after we help people get over their grieving. But, yeah, I do think there’s going to be a lot of discussion.”
I’ve gotten a number of responses to this post, not all of them in the comments section. It has been a mix of positive and negative. The negative response has largely been about the strongly worded nature of the response, which is uncommon for me. I know that I’m not alone in having experienced an emotional reaction to the VA Tech shootings two days ago, and this response, while personal, is also public. I hope that it will be seen in the context of the emotional environment of that day, but I do take responsibility for my words as written above.
Bush has publicly and personally demonstrated a respectable leadership and compassion since the shooting, and that I appreciate despite my stated lack of appreciation of his press secretary’s remarks on the day of the shooting. To me that is still a strike against Bush.
I also appreciate the sincere interest of people in having a civil dialogue about how we can end or dramatically reduce gun violence in America, and I look forward to participating in that discussion.
Tman, is there ever any time I get mad at Bush when you don’t feel compelled to make a snarky comment and generalize my remarks to a concerted personally and aggregate effort to wage a campaign of hatred?
Is there anything that ever happens to you where you don’t get mad at Bush about it?
well, and appropriately forcefully, said.
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