Adding to the din

I had a chance to go for a short bike ride Wednesday morning -- just about 10 miles because it was so dang cold! We had a northeast wind -- how odd around here. We're used to strong westerlies, especially in the spring.

As I was riding, I had a chance to think about the shootings in Virginia. I was hoping to come to another conclusion, but I didn't, so I'll probably piss you off. My apologies in advance.

The confusion

First, a challenge in this, as in any tragedy, is to see the Atman in all. That is, we need to see the good beneath the bad in all people involved, including the shooter.

Also, the people shot were all victims (a tragedy), but not all heroes (a fact). Let's not be TV news and make martyrs out of everyone.

Second, remember that on the same day (or thereabouts), more than 200 Iraqis were killed in car bombs and execution-style murders thanks to U.S. intervention, and people were murdered in cities including Chicago, Milwaukee, Houston, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Buffalo and Grand Rapids -- and we hardly read anything about them.

Third, and this will be the one that angers you the most, we continue to perpetuate a violent society. Just look at our role in Iraq. U.S. soldiers kill (I still call it murder, by the way) Iraqis daily. The media just calls them "insurgents" so we can dehumanize them.

If the shooter in Virginia had a uniform on and pointed his gun at "insurgents," he'd be a hero. In our society, killing isn't wrong -- it's killing without state authority that is wrong.

So, what does this all mean?

I don't know. I expect I'll spend my entire life searching for the answers to these questions that have plagued humanity since the beginning of time. I don't expect to find those answers, by the way, because there are none. It's the searching that's important, not the discovery.

I do know that the next shooting will be bigger and the gunman or gunwoman will top 32 victims because our society rewards people who do better than others, even in a warped, violent way. I think I can write the headline with words like "rampage," "bloodbath" and "massacre." And you'll read them!

Look at TV news, your online sites and newspapers. Do you know the name "Columbine," even the shooters' names? Do you know the name of the man at Virginia Tech?

If so, he (and the Columbine shooters) have been a success, and we've made it so. They are famous, have risen from obscurity and have followers who recite their names in praise.

Do you know the name of the man or woman who delivers meals to the homebound senior down the street from you? Will their pictures be on the front page of newspapers, or be top hits online, for days at a time? Will there be a five-year anniversary special on their service?

Thought: I can't wait for the wind direction to change.