 On Point Vincent Carroll, editor of the editorial pages, writes his On Point column most weekdays. He is also an author and freelance writer. Reach Vincent Carroll at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com. |
Vincent Carroll: A decent interval
The first rule of an American tragedy: Exploit it for your own ends.
Perhaps you have an agenda, pro or con, involving guns. Perfect. Shout it out while the victims’ bodies are still warm. That’ll get the public’s attention.
Perhaps Virginia Tech reminds you of Iraq and the fact that most Americans, in your view, are too insensitive to notice. Don’t miss your chance to point out our blindness. If at all possible, thrust your moral superiority into our faces before the killer has even been ID’d. Why squander the moment?
Or maybe the massacre proves to you that U.S. institutions are failing to take security seriously more than five years after 9/11, or that Cho Seung- Hui’s status as a South Korean native exposes a broken immigration system. Jump right in.
And don’t, please, fumble the opportunity to denounce the Virginia Tech president and police chief as blundering fools for failing to shut down the campus in time to prevent the second round of shootings. Naturally, that’s the action you would have taken without any benefit of hindsight. Why, it’s only “common sense” (to quote a morning talk show host on Sportsradio 950 who seemed especially sure of himself).
Or maybe you’ve got a plaintiffs attorney’s mentality, convinced that deep pockets must be looted after every tragedy lest the world slip out of joint. By all means go for it. After all, as one law professor exulted, “A lawsuit and a substantial jury verdict would help put all universities on notice that they must be fully prepared for such shooting incidents ...”
They must be “fully prepared,” that is, for a heavily armed maniac on a mission to murder with absolutely no regard for his own life. Sure, that’s reasonable. Maybe they could assign a bodyguard to every student.
Don’t misunderstand: All of us argue by use of examples, so it’s inevitable that Virginia Tech will be cited to buttress this or that belief. But the next time something so terrible happens, couldn’t our political warriors have the decency to wait, say, 24 hours before transforming it into just the latest talking point?
Not a whit of bigotry
For once I’ve got to defend Sen. Sue Windels. The Arvada Democrat’s hostility to charter schools may be an insult to parents who simply want the best possible education for their kids, but she has every right to describe some students who opt for online schools as “lazy” without opponents playing the race card and calling for her head.
Some students are lazy. That should not be a news bulletin. Whether online schools harbor more lazy students than elsewhere is questionable, but there’s nothing that smacks of bigotry in Windels’ claim that some kids “see online as a ‘quick, easy’ way to get a diploma without having to put in all the seat time and effort.”
Vincent Carroll is editor of the editorial pages. Reach him at carrollv@RockyMountain
News.com.
Cho Seung-Hui May Be 9th School Shooter Under Influence of Psych drugs
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http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/com/313759876.html
Posted by cord on April 18, 2007 06:40 PMVince would never exploit a public event to advance his own agenda. Oh no!
Posted by VInce Carroll is a schmuck! on April 18, 2007 08:10 PMOnce again, Vince Carroll is right on. The liberals can't handle the truth!
Posted by CC on April 19, 2007 02:42 PM