32 innocent people died yesterday, assassinated in cold blood by a crazed lone gunman. The tragedy at Virginia Tech is palpable across the nation, as the losses of young lives in a safe environment gives us all pause and hones our sense of perspective. The families and friends of those slain will suffer and the impact on the survivors will be devastating.
As usual, the onset of an unpredictable tragedy now has set in motion the two deleterious falicies that always seem to follow such events. First, the finger pointing. The media is in a frenzy about how the two sets of shootings were isolated by two hours yet the university did not go into "lockdown". They claim it would have saved lives and not allowed the massacre to continue. You can almost smell the hundreds of lawyers booking flights from NYC to Blacksburg VA. Lawsuits will be filed against the university, the president will be asked to resign, and the police will be questioned about their appropriate response.
Sorry, there's just one person to blame and he's dead. And of course, if the police did go into lockdown and notify all students, staff and faculty of a wandering gunman the pandemonium would have certainly had consequences as well. Plus, this is campus security in Blacksburg, VA. I think they were forced to make decisions above and beyond their training and expectations, and should be commended for their courage and a job well done.
The next deleterious falicy is the actions that will now be taken to "Secure our Campuses". You can see this one coming, another erosion of personal freedom and another notch up in the New World Odor. There have already been cries for heightened security in academic buildings, metal detectors installed, new training for elite university police forces.
One knucklehead suggested arming professors. Now I like professors, but I don't want someone to have to put down their pipe to address a crime in progress with a deadly weapon. I say lovingly that most professors I know (and I know many) are partially mentally ill and show affectations and compulsions that most people don't. The academic system breeds for this. Who else would work 80 hours a week and willingly deal with 20 year olds for shitty pay and no job security? They should not be armed, but bulletproof patches for the jacket sleeves may be a good compromise.
The most likely residue will be enhanced security checkpoints, card readers, limited access etc. This is horrible for the free scholarly environment that a university represents. It is important for students to stumble through hallways and smell the stench of science. They need to see the cool equipment and interact with the weirdos that gravitate to academic pursuit.
Another genius on TV suggested deporting all international students. Sorry, but if you did that the labs in engineering and science would be empty! The US pays a postdoc $30,000 a year-- these are people with Ph.D.s and years of experience. They are overwhelmingly from Asia because domestic students will not stay in these thankless careers.
Bottom line, the tragedy in Virginia Tech is awful as it stands. In our haste to make the pain go away (and insulate from liability) we'll now see dramatic remodeling of our freedoms to make everyone more comfortable. I didn't even mention the effect this will have on banning firearms.
This action was one idiot, a price paid for living in a free society. I'll take my chances with freedom. Pull out all the stops. If we're allowed to live strong and live free bad things will always happen along the way. However, it is critical that we not let these instances derail our misson and surrender irrevocable restrictions imposed to give us a false sense of security.
