Such a Tragedy

I think no matter what kind of tragedy, no matter where, regardless if you are personally affected or not, it still hits close to home. We hear about bombings in the MiddleEast pretty much every day. Suicide bombers who kills dozens, even hundreds of innocent people every day. We're used to hearing about that in the news. It's extremely unfortunate that so many people die every day and without reason.

When I first saw on the news on Monday morning, that at least 1 person had been killed at the Virginia Technical Institute, my first thought was "wow, that's pretty bad - I wonder what's going on down there." As the day went on and more casualties were being announced, I knew something bad was happening. I didn't know anyone who died or even anyone who knew someone down there, but I was affected by it emotionally. How could someone do this? It shouldn't matter if you have a million dollars. It shouldn't matter if you have five Mercedes or BMW's. It shouldn't matter if all of your jewelry is gold and has diamonds all over it - who cares!? Why would that ever be a reason why you need to end a person's life, or 30+ lives?

I was watching Extra last night and they were showing pictures of people who had been killed on Monday, along with their age and a short description of their life and I found myself in tears watching. All these people in a classroom, sitting in their chairs, innocently learning about French. Who knew that going out your daily routine could get you killed. It's not even about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In fact, it was the exact opposite. Of of the girls who's picture they showed had a myspace page so I went on her site and read the comments from the bottom all the way up. There were several comments on Monday from friends and family asking her to let them know that she was safe. They heard the news and they were all worried about her. As I got further up, the name on her page had changed to "RIP". It was extremely eerie and even reading the comments on her pictures, most of the people who had left her comments were complete strangers letting her know that they were thinking of her and how sorry they were that this happened to her. Many people are saying that the victims are all in a better place. How can they be in a better place if they were fine beforehand?

There no sense on looking back and saying "what if" - you'd drive yourself crazy with those thoughts, although everyone does it. There's really no way that you can't ask yourself how you could have done things differently. There's a simple answer. You couldn't have. There's no way anyone could have known that Monday's horrible tragedy could have been prevented. If there was a way, it would have been. I also think that the media should focus less on the killer and more on the victims and their families. I feel that there should be more respect towards the families while they mourn their loved one's as well we after. I don't think it was wrong for NBC to let the world know about the package recieved - that was information that people needed to know. I do not think they need to continue showing the pictures and video.

There was another threat of same kind of incident that took place on Boston this past Tuesday. Fortunately, this guy (Rosenbaum) was caught and is now in custody. A former student at Marist College in NY who took the semester off was taking an Art & Religion class at BU. He recently e-mailed an ex-girlfriend, a student at Wheelock College threatening to re-create Monday's tragedy. The recipient then let her local police know and they arrested him at his parents house in Needham. The police have been told that Rosenbaum has recently lost his grandmother, followed by a recent break up and is to wear an ankle tracking device until his trial. There are several other threats this week from different college's and universities, and I'm sure there will be more to come.

Let's just hope they are caught and/or prevented.

To all of those who knew someone; the friends & families of this horrible tragedy, my heart goes out to all of you.