I don’t want to be sheltered from the painful story. But please, for the love of anything holy, spare me network news media’s automatically clever and seemingly instantaneous production of fetishized images: grieving school mascots; mourning ribbons (like those for AIDS and breast cancer) artfully superimposed on VT’s logo; long, slow, panning video shots of unseasonable spring snow on stately campus buildings; and newscasters in somber attire, struggling to find a transition back to reporting about a woman who killed her minister husband, basketball scores, or the latest political scandal.
Can we find a way to have a thoughtful, careful, factual, and productive conversation about alienation, guns, race relations, violence, immigration, education, mental health, finding a balance between security and freedom, and—yes, even blame and forgiveness, in the personal and public spheres? Yes, I hope. But is there any chance we can do so during a week when there isn’t a mass-murder and suicide catastrophe? And, just at this moment, can we fall silent, bow our heads, and hold in our hearts whatever love and sympathy we can, for those who are suffering?
Read more about Virginia Tech here
Art by Cam Cardow of The Ottawa Citizen
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