What makes us so fucking special?
by: Ian Kleats
We've been reminded in the past days of the failure of American society to control its own weapons of destruction. The loss of 33 lives is certainly tragic, but do the same Americans who cry and pray for those 33 respond likewise to other, greater losses of life. This one act of violence will be in the news for two weeks or more, yet there is barely a passing mention of thousands of innocent Iraqis killed in the civil war we have facilitated. Moreover, the genocide of Darfur is practically invisible to the corporate media in this country. What makes us so special that 33 American lives are worth more than the people of Darfur or the citizens of Iraq? What makes 33 college students and faculty more deserving of sympathy than over 3000 soldiers we have needlessly sacrificed in an unjust war? As you reflect on the events at Virginia Tech remember that violence perpetrated against anyone, Iraqi or American, college student or serviceman, is an affront to everyone. Stop the violence and honor the lives of the Virginia Tech victims by ending this war.
4 comments:
The line I have been using is "Man, we should have given that kid an M-16, desert fatigues and sent him off to Iraq. He could have killed 33 innocent kids and no one would have batted an eye." Needless to say, that wasn't a very popular take on the events.
I can't say my take on it is entirely popular either. We'll see how it goes, though; it was just published in the daily campus paper.
People are going to miscontrue it as saying that we shouldn't feel sympathy for VT, but the message is about recognizing our connections to everyone through the human condition. Oh well. Like I said, we'll see...
I think it's a good comment, however for me still misses the point that few in the US are talking about. The national statistics for gun related deaths in the US are 80 per day, this works out at ~30000 a year. When you take these figures it kind of makes the US troop deaths in Irag seem less dramatic, after they are at war. Although not a fan of stats as a way of describing events, VT is a minor peak in total figures. My next least favourite stat is if you add up all the American's killed by gun related instidents in the US since Ronald Reagan came to power. It now exceeds the total US troop deaths from WWI, WWII and the Korean wars. Thankfully though Fox news is keeping me informed about American Idol gossip, instead of publicising this little US secret.
More important than just the fact that guns are responsible for so many deaths is that there are so many other evils in our country and the world, like hunger, lack of medical care, bigotry, and other violence. If people reacted to these things and those these things affect like they do for VT, we could see real social change. Instead, they choose to remain apathetic and ignorant.
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