Thursday, February 14, 2008

Nightmare time again

It's happened again...this time at Northern Illinois University in De Kalb, Illinois, about sixty miles from Chicago. A gunman described as a "skinny white guy with a stocking cap on," dressed all in black, opened fire on a geology lecture this afternoon on campus. The latest reports indicate five are dead and several others in extremely critical condition. Read the latest here.

Every time this happens, I am first outraged--people have no right to bring their private grudges and weaponry into a place of peace and exploration and reflection. That is a severe trespass on all that I treasure. Then I wonder how long it will be before administrators will be putting up metal detectors and checkpoints at key entrances to the classrooms and offices. That is the way I've always known universities to be overseas. You can't get in any campus buildings there, generally speaking, without proper documentation and/or someone coming to confirm that you are expected.

Finally, of course, I wonder how and when it became acceptable to exorcise your demons on innocent people in a place where people come to learn and improve themselves. What's happening to this culture? Can someone explain this to me?

2 comments:

german said...

well the best answer i can give is the lack of corporal punishment in the classroom. in elementary school and all the way up to college/university. its always the teacher fault or someone eles's. when they get to college parents are no longer the major sponsor and the student has to take responsibility for themselves in some cases i believe that it is too much for them and that is why they go so incredibly wrong

moville said...

well, i'm afraid i have to eat my words on this...this person obviously had serious psychological issues. he was briefly committed ten years ago for cutting himself, and he was supposed to take meds all the time. he refused them recently, which apparently sent him into a downward spiral. he bought the guns legally.

What I wonder is why people aren't required by the authorities to take medicines that allow them to function normally. there shouldn't be any choice if you have difficulties that might result in your doing something dangerous. people ought to be monitored, sort of on permanent probation, not as a punishment, but as a safeguard for the individual and the rest of society.