Troops and VT

I've shed a few tears for the victims at Virginia Tech, but not as I do whenever I even think of service members killed in war. I hate to weigh tragedies like fat celebrities, it's not a competition in horror, but I know I'm not the only one to connect the two. Actually, it wasn't that difficult since the next day newspapers ran the obligatory Iraq violence report which was, that day, over 300 deaths from blasts in Iraq - and it never made a leading headline.

I've been trying to understand why I feel a degree of numbness to the VT killings. Those kids were the same age as many of our casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, and even more, they were victims of chance, unlike a SAW wielding man in uniform whose job is ultimately to kill or be killed. If anything, I should feel worse for those students and teachers, but I don't. I've read the features about a particular victim, tried to get to know who they were as individuals and not numbers, but every time I do, I think, "What about our troops?" I don't think their deaths evoke the same level of shock when they are killed, four years into this war. Sadness, and verbal beating for the president? Yes. Shock? No.

Don't misunderstand, my imagination cannot fathom how utterly terrified those students must have been to see every other person shot right next to them. It was sobering to read of the Holocaust survivor who gave his life so his students could escape.

Nevertheless, it's all tragic, a frightening reminder of the evil, crazed people that walk among us until they snap.

And speaking of people who snap. I was completely disgusted that 99 percent of national newspapers ran photos of the murderer on the front page, guns pointed into the camera. (And consider that if you cut and pasted Angelina Jolie's face on his, it would have been an ad for Tomb Raider.) I had to dig deep to remember my news design and layout courses, but I did see that some editors at least tried to let their front page photos represent the order of priority in this tragedy - victims first. Those editors had large photos of mourning students and family members juxtaposed with a photo of Cho, one third the size of the larger image. Don't get me started on NBC running the videos. Why not just tell every mentally unstable person who is at the brink of insanity that they, too, can become famous by going on a killing spree, just so long as they give NBC the scoop.

Also, the thought occurred to me: somewhere on an otherwise empty golf course, Don Imus and Gary Condit are comparing stories.

I promise to deliver a more cheerful post soon. We're closing on our new home Wed!