No News is Good News

I have been wanting to post my thoughts about the tragic events that occurred at Virginia Tech ever since I heard about them (which was actually Tuesday morning - I've been a bit disconnected from the news recently). But what is there to post? I've been praying for the students and families affected by this awful tragedy, read the blogs of many who were in the building when the shots went off, caught some of the news programs about the event... but in the midst of this tragedy, does anyone really care what I think? Hopefully our thoughts are with those who have been devastated by these events, not with what general bloggers think about them.

But today I did have a thought I felt worth sharing. I saw online today that the gunman sent a package with video and photos to NBC after killing the first two people, before he headed over to the other building where he brutally ended the lives of 30 more. NBC did the right thing by allowing authorities to view the items for the investigation, but did the wrong thing by showing parts of it and distributing it to other news outlets.

This is exactly what the gunman wanted. He wanted to be famous. He had been starved for attention before his decision to take out so many, he hoped to at least get the attention after his suicide. He wanted to inflict all the pain he felt inside onto others, even beyond those who murdered and wounded with bullets. And NBC was his weapon of choice.

Rather than focusing on the gunman, which gives him the fame and might likely encourage future killers just as lonely, just as attention-starved, just as mentally messed-up, the attention should be solely on those whose life ended that day, or are in hospitals from Monday's events, or are related to those shot. Let's focus on the victims - make them the human interest story in all of this. Don't let someone with such deep depression receive the attention - he was starved for attention before the incident, it's too late to change that, so let's not try.

And yes, there is a reason I have not used the gunman's name in this post. Hopefully after reading you know why.