Snipers and other bad people

I have no real substance to add to the media onslaught re: the tragedies at Va. Tech. But as someone who spent about 12 years in Virginia (may be my favorite state still) and I’ll bet I have friends who have kids at Va. Tech, I’ll make just a couple of comments.

When I was younger, I remember the sniper who made it up the tower at UT Austin and proceeded to shoot and kill a bunch of people. I don’t remember much else and suppose I could Google that but so can you.

I’ve worked on two college campuses and attended on two more in my lifetime and no matter what, I doubt there is any way such a tragic thing could be prevented.

No offense to anyone ay Columbine but a high-school would be much easier to secure. People come and go and certain times. People tend to be of a certain group and age. The limited security people can usually spot someone who may not belong and since Columbine most school systems have beefed up their on site security.

But a college campus is an entirely different animal. While classes run on schedules, people come and go at all hours of the day and night. And while the overarching demographic might skew young, there is much more diversity on almost any college campus. Plus you have buildings spread out over large areas. I thought I heard something like several hundred acres for Va. Tech. I know our large state university here runs 10 or more blocks deep and wide.

I imagine there will be a reaction and schools – at the parents behest – will have to hire more security, more IDs, more card keys to get into and out of buildings, more surveillance cameras – all the very things that institutions of higher learning - which tend toward honoring and revering our First Amendment to a fault sometimes – will also react against. A very long sentence but my point is that the things that will make a campus safer will only stifle some of the freedoms that students and faculty have come to enjoy on college campuses.

Balance is an overused word but somehow in the reaction to all this, there will have to be some sort of balanced response. Increased security; yes. But a realization that no matter what you do, bad people will find a way to do bad things. People will snap and in the right or wrong circumstances, wreak havoc on their surroundings.

I read Andy Whitman’s blog a few times a week – he is a music critic for Paste Magazine and today he has some good responses to the event. He has a daughter at Kent State – oh my, remember that one? – so he is a concerned parent but also at the end of it all – we just need to pray for the families of the injured and dead.

So that is what I will try to do.