One Year After Virginia Tech

[Plaid Adder]

Today is the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech massacre.

Around here the event is being marked by the closings of a number of local colleges, prompted by various anonymous threats of copycat shootings. I hope that none of these threats are actually serious, and are merely the work of people who either *really* want an extra study day or are competing for the title of World's Biggest ASSHOLE.

Obviously the impact is greatest for Virginia Tech's community and for the families of the victims. But everyone who teaches, learns, or makes it possible for teaching and learning to happen on college campuses all across America was affected by this. Everything is different now. Ever college or university has a plan in place for what to do if a shooting occurs. That's the prudent thing to do, of course. But it just is insane that this is something that we have to go around expecting.

I'll never understand why these things happen or why we can't seem to do anything to stop it from happening again. I hope that for the survivors at Virginia Tech, today is a day of peace and healing as well as grief.

The Plaid Adder

[Demeter]

1. It's Hard To Believe It's Only Been a Year

With all the calamity that has rained down upon our heads in the last 12 months, and the 6 years before that, even the most horrible things are obscured by the rising level of horror in general. And the pressure keeps building, the losses mounting, the terror (the real kind) increasing.

[Plaid Adder]

2. Yes, I was surprised too

It seemed like it had been longer. But in fact it seems it's only been a year.

This has been one looooooooong 21st century so far.

The Plaid Adder