I’ll Share The Hate Mail

I know that one can draw from the Virginia Tech massacre all sorts of extenuated lessons that are off base, and that distract from the facts of the event itself.

Many commentators have remarked that if students or faculty had been allowed to carry firearms at VT, the rampager might have been stopped in his deadly tracks. That is an extenuated argument, but one worth considering. This is another such.

As Judith Klinghoffer says, “I know I am going to get hate mail and I may be rushing to judgment. But it all seems to follow such a familiar pattern,” in writing “As Sheep To The Slaughter Yet Again” at her History News Network blog.

Of course, standing up to bullies is no longer the expected even of trained fighters. How can one expect young people at a university to behave more courageously than British marines confronting Iranian bullies? We better. For as Gandhi expected, in the current atmosphere bullies are multiplying and the price of continuing to go as sheep to slaughter is getting higher and higher by the day.

As individuals, as nations, we see natural running away from vicious challenges to our decency, our way of life, and our very lives. We see those few brave enough to stand against the door denigrated and deserted by their effete critics, while barbaric acts they try and fight to prevent or punish are ignored, excused or even supported.

VT, Flight 93, Iraq are around the corner from all of us.