Virginia Tech

So as everyone knows today in Virginia Tech 33 people were shot and killed. As a recent college graduate things like this are frightening - they strike close to home, and, quite honestly, fill me with sadness and regret.

And, of course, as often is in America, there is something else compounding that feeling. What I'm talking about is our erstwhile President George W Bush's comments about the situation. Basically what he says is that, "we ask a loving God to comfort those who are suffering today." It sounds like I might be just grabbing choice pieces from his statement, but honestly, all he really talks about is how God is great, God is good, God can help us all etc, etc, etc. Now, I guess, this taken by itself is not much of a problem (though based on my college experiences not every single freaking college student believes in the same "God" as President Bush - after all colleges emphasize diversity meaning that its very unlikely that everyone affected by the Virginia tragedy is a hardcore Christian like Mr Bush [and thus by his beliefs damned to hell]).

However, the statement issued by his "spokeswoman" is just ridiculous. What she said was, "The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed." Now that is just a bullshit, cold hearted thing to do. I'm imagining his mindset as he's preparing his statements about the incident. Let's pray for them but, at the same time, make sure we lose no ground with the NRA folks-that right pray for them with one side of the mouth, while, at the same time, making damn sure that it can happen again!! Nothing screams class like making turning a tragedy into a political statement on the very same day that the tragedy occurred (especially when the political statement supports the killer's right to bear arms).

So while I'm horrified and disturbed by what happened at Virginia Tech I am saddened to say that I'm also disturbed by my government's reactions (and i'm not even mentioning how badly Virginia Tech bungled the whole thing). I'm disturbed by the fact that Bush makes blatant statements that essentially ignore the diversity that our American college campuses feature (and thus the diversity of the victims) and I'm disturbed by the way the white house finds it necessary to spin such a tragedy in such a way that supports both their ideological and political beliefs (though the ideological spinning doesn't bother me quite as much). I guess my point is that Bush can praise God all he wants but approving a statement supporting guns is simply ridiculous.