OAImages Blog

During the basketball season, I levelled my taunts against the Virginia Tech Hokies and their fans.  College sports rivalries are fun.   However, there comes a time when something bigger demands those rivalries be set aside.   This time it was a tragedy, an act of evil incarnate, that brings us together.   Today, we are all Hokies.

As you pray to God, in your own way and custom, remember in your prayers the victims of this evil act, and their families.  Also remember in your prayers the family of the murderer, who now bear the burden, shame and dishonor of what was done.   For the murderer, may God have mercy upon his soul for, right now, I have none.

Already some in the media are trying to turn this into something it is not.   They are concentrating on the killer’s words of hate against evil rich kids.  Some are trying to explain it away, psychoanalyzing his pain.  At least one commentator was labelling this as a health care crisis! Others are using this to opine about what is wrong with this country.   Finally, there are those who are using this to push their political agendas for more gun control laws.  

Let us not forget what this really is:  an act of premeditated evil.   It is folly and stupidity to try to justify it.

In time there are many questions that will need to be answered.  I am sure just the asking of some of them will be viewed as offensive by some.

There was a span of two hours’ time between the first and second rounds of shootings.  Why was he able to roam campus during that time, without opposition from those in authority?

The students were notified of the roaming gunman, nearly two hours after this situation started!   The university used email to notify the students.  EMAIL!?  The university had no plan to quickly notify their staff and students in the event of a campus-wide emergency!?   There was not even something as simple as a siren?

We have thousands of gun control laws.   Even though Virginia has a “concealed carry”, possession of firearms is illegal on Virginia college campuses, except by duly authorized law enforcement officials.   Yet this happened.   Why do some thing more stringent gun laws are the answer when it is clear the laws already on the books do not work?   There is no possible gun control law that would have prevented this: what he did was already illegal… and evil.

This is the hardest question, that demands soul search by society as a whole.   I aim this at all of us, not at the slain students per se.  It has been said the last 23 or so were killed by execution: they were lined up and shot.   Surely two dozen adults could have overtaken one armed person in close quarters.  Have we become so dependent on the government to save us, so trained not to resist a criminal, that we are not even willing to act to save our own lives?   We would rather stand by idly, expecting government to save us, than to take even our own lives into our hands?   

Have we become so cowardly, as a people, that we are unable to defend ourselves?  I sincerely hope not.  I am not a violent person, but hope that in such a time of trial, I would be able to summon the courage to save my own life when confronted with evil like this.

The families and friends of the slain will need our prayers and support during this time of grief.   Please remember them.

“Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis…

…Lux æterna luceat eis, Domine, cum sanctis tuis in æternum, quia pius es. Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine; et lux perpetua luceat eis. “