BCT Editorial – 4/19/07

This page was last updated on April 19, 2007.

So it goes; Editorial; Beaver County Times; April 19, 2007.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“The Virginia Tech massacre will change nothing.

“The ferocity of Monday’s carnage was stunning. Thirty-two people were murdered in two attacks. At least 20 people were taken to hospitals, some seriously injured.

“These were pointblank killings. The murderer, who killed himself, was described by one student as having ‘no specific target - just taking out anybody he could.’ It was the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.

“Almost as soon as news of the shootings hit the airwaves, questions started to fly. What made the killer do this? How could this happen? Was security at fault? Could school officials have done more? Should they have reacted more quickly? What can be done to prevent similar acts of violence from taking place in the future?

“In the coming days and weeks, Americans will be flooded with an orgy of media coverage of the tragedy. The infotainment cable channels will go 24-7 with speculation and second-hand analysis of the situation. The funerals of those who were killed will receive wall-to-wall coverage. Newspapers and the networks will be filled with the lives and deaths of anonymous people we would not have known about if they hadn’t been in the wrong place at the wrong time on Monday morning.”

[RWC] You have to love the name-calling. While the editorial has no problem labeling the cable news channels as “infotainment,” it doesn’t see the same trait in the Times. Here’s a question for the author. If the Times isn’t about infotainment, can you explain the comic pages?

“And nothing will change.

“After all the anguish and anger, after the recriminations and the second-guessing, after the final piece of dirt is tossed on the last grave, we will go back to living our lives.

“As always happens, we’ll have the argument over gun control, but don’t expect much to happen. First, the National Rifle Association is too strong a lobby, not just in Washington but in state capitals, too. Second, statistics can be juggled to mean anything, but the problem is societal as well. Canada has a higher per capita rate of gun ownership than the United States but a lower murder rate.”

[RWC] I could be going out on a limb here, but I interpret this paragraph as supporting more gun control. For the life of me, I don’t understand why some people want guns only in the hands of criminals or why law-abiding citizens should be denied the right to defend themselves.

Note the editorial gave us two reasons not to expect more gun control, but failed to note “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms” is guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. If you recall, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit recently struck down a Washington, DC, gun law, stating in no uncertain terms the law violated the Second Amendment.

“In his novel ‘Slaughterhouse-Five,’ Kurt Vonnegut, who died last week, would end his descriptions of the horrors of war and the tragedy of life with the phrase, ‘So it goes.’ (A German cab driver’s ‘mother was incinerated in the Dresden firestorm. So it goes.’)”

[RWC] Please don’t ask me to explain the Times infatuation with Kurt Vonnegut. Perhaps I can’t explain it because I was forced to read a couple of Vonnegut’s books for college English/literature classes. If you recall, just three days ago we were “treated” to an editorial eulogizing Vonnegut.

“Thirty-two innocent people were killed on Monday morning as they went about their lives. At least 20 people who had harmed no one were injured, some seriously. Mothers and fathers are mourning the death of their children. Brothers and sisters are grappling with the insanity of what happened. Americans are riveted to the news, trying to make sense of something that is senseless. And nothing will change.

“So it goes.”

[RWC] As is a regular trait of Times editorials, this editorial never tells us what it wants changed. So it goes. <g>