Virgina Tech 4/17

PINK ELEPHANT
You know, nobody even mentioned the pink elephant in the corner last night. Maybe somebody did and I missed it, maybe it was the need to get away from it for a bit. Nobody mentioned the tragedy at Virgina Tech. It was difficult for me to get away from the reports yesterday, with all my "research skills". I found it disturbing how camera phones and emails where the way the media covered the story. We had kids looking to get their minute of fame by capturing the cops reacting to nearby gunfire. You could almost feel him thinking, "I need to get closer." They communicated to students stuck in their dorm rooms by campus email. Can you imagine how scared you would be alone in a dorm room waiting for the all clear message to show up in your in box? I tried not to look, but I still found some of the first hand witness accounts hard to stay away from. To be in one of those classrooms? Trying to barricade the door before a madman gets in? That takes guts. We find out today he was a loner, with very few friends, who seemed to have a great deal of frustration with society and it's social networks. Strange, in a world of ever expanding ways to connect to people some still feel left out. I hope we all take a moment of these few days to acknowledge what is good in our lives, and be ever thankful for the friends we have.