VIRGINIA KILLINGS
As the Rhino received word of the killings at Virginia Tech, he kept hearing the comparison to the Columbine shootings. When the shootings happened at Columbine High School, in the south metro area of Denver in Colorado, the Rhino worked maintenance at the school district next to Columbine.
The afternoon Columbine occurred there was a state of complete ahh and disbelief that flowed through each of the schools the Rhino visited. At first people did not even grieve. The depth of the deviation could not be comprehended. The look in the eyes of teachers and older students was searching yet bewildered. As the understanding emerged, schools were locked down and parents came for there children. Lock down in schools now is a common practice but at the time of Columbine this was new territory.
After the guessing and second guessing subsided and the anger passed, a pervasive sense of paranoia set in. Teachers were afraid to come to work and feared explosives were in the buildings. Those on maintenance were told to be visible and some were moved to nights. With faculty blessing and encouragement we searched every nook and cranny of the district. Privacy was secondary. Visitors to buildings, who were regarded only casually before, became objects of scrutiny and suspicion.
In incidence like Virginia and Columbine, the doer reaches a point of anger that creates a self righteous feeling of entitled vengeance. To the perpetrator the end justifies the means. It is a pay back that is designed to resolve anger and hurt. Weather these acts are a phenomenon of current history and a product of current problems is open to debate. Could the severity of the crimes be a product of the capability to inflict this mass anger? Over the counter automatic weapons can do as much damage as several guns two hundred years ago. The single or double murder of the 1800’s becomes a mass murder with the same effort and planning.
What can be done to stop that wild card of humanity that engages in this type of behavior? Is the measure of us as humans in our reactions to these almost indeterminate incidents? Are the victims the angels of opportunity for the rest us? Can we learn about our humanity starring into these tragedies? When we speak of peace can we develop it in the our hearts and those around us? What will your long term reaction to this tragedy be?