A Very Grave Danger

Let me start by saying, as most of my compatriots on Stain Club have, that my heart and prayers go out to those families at Virginia Tech today who lost loved ones to senseless violence. It struck home with me because I have a high school classmate who goes to the university and when I heard the news, I called him immediately to make sure that he was okay. There's not much to report except for the fact that I thanked God he answered his phone. He was okay as were his friends at that point.

I'm never certain what to take from such tragic events such as this. I feel as if its a constant reminder not necessarily to live life to the fullest every day because let's face it, we can't always do that. We have responsibilities in this life that can prevent us from enjoying ourselves as much as we want to. But to be in a classroom, working to get a degree, no matter what the circumstances, to have one's life cut short for a senseless act of violence is not fair to anyone involved. Not to the people who died and not for the families and friends who mourn for their loved ones.

The trigger-man committed suicide and the speculation will begin as to how could he have done this and why would he do such a thing. Fingers will be pointed at his upbringing or other sources of aggravation that caused him to flip out. I am no pyschologist and have never claimed to be, but I presume that this person may have had little support in his life. I know I certainly could be wrong on this, but I believe that when a person assumes he has nothing left to live for, something snaps. Without anyone there to calm him down, or simply listen to him, human nature can turn out to be a very cruel thing.

Experts say humans supress the need to be violent all the time, and I have to presume that is in part because of our supportive nature. If a person can vent a little to a friend, it prevents said person from letting something unhealthy build-up inside to a breaking point. I am lucky enough to have friends who will listen to me and not let things get me down. I have to say one of the hardest things in life a person will ever face is the feeling that you are alone on something and no one can help you. Maybe that is the twisted lessons in all of this terrible crap: count your friends, because I know in my life, without any of them, life just ain't worth living.

Moving on, I dedicate this little link to my compatriot S.Q. as he is correct about the more pressing matters at hand (sometimes I feel like I'm beating a dead horse as Hagglepuss normally takes the Iraq War by the horns everyday; just think of me as an alternative news source that tries to find more trivel on how the government continues to fuck up). Anyways, the article concerns one of his hot topics: torture as well as secrecy. I'm a big history buff and the first half links a court case of John Lilburne to the present day torture scandals.

This other little link talks about how there is a lot of talk concerning pulling out of Iraq, but there's very little action because of the dire fallout that will occur after we leave. I believe I speak for everyone when we all fucking know that there's going to be fallout, violent violent fallout because we've been there for so long. All this "progress" we've made is not worth shit and additional troops and extended time of duty will not fix our current president's plan to pawn off the consequences of the exit strategy to the next elected president. That's the United States government for you, the best damn government on the planet.