By the numbers by JonnyQuest

JONNYQUEST'S BLOG

JonnyQuest

By the numbers
Wednesday, April 18, 2007

We sit as a nation, yet again shocked and horrified by another spree killing. Of the families of the victims, we can only imagine their pain and grief. My blog is not for them. I could never put together words sufficient to comfort them in any way. Except to say “I’m sorry”.

My blog has to do with why we are continuously, consistently surprised by incidents like this. Somewhere Michael Moore is bellowing “I told you so!’ at his television set. CNN doesn’t hear him. Al Gore sits nearby and rolls his eyes; nobody really believes documentaries. Unless they’re about animals; Steve Irwin smiles. Do we really need to do the role call again? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_massacres Schools, colleges and universities, restaurants, post offices, factories, mills, events and on and on. People who have snapped. People who get their hands on the means to do bodily harm. People who might be sitting right next to us. I had a high school teacher who later went on to kill the superintendent who fired him (not my school; he had moved on). There was a Prozac connection. But there’s always something. Evil music, video games, the wrong crowd, disgruntlement.

For some not listed here, the pressure to succeed doesn’t take a lot of lives when facing failure, it takes only one. We’ve had a number of those since I’ve worked at the University of Michigan. Not even Regents are immune are immune from the Sirens’ Call. But why the surprise? Wherefore the shock? Haven’t we been treated to enough of these events to sing, “Oops there goes another murder spree, oops there goes another murder spree now; [beat] 'Cause he had high hopes, he had high hopes, he had high apple pie, in the sky hopes…!” There is a gross imbalance in our little part of the cosmos, our narrow view of the world. There is an old journalistic saw that states, (since I’m paraphrasing, I won’t use quotes). The farther away a story occurs, the higher the number of casualties there needs to be for us to consider the event newsworthy, i.e. “significant”.

Some statistics are slipping under the radar. Of course, my news junkie days have long since come to their middle, so maybe I just missed out and someone’s been all over this. I’ve just picked a very, very few of the newsmakers. These for me represent the most haunting, most notorious, of the larger group. Virginia Tech is burning way more candle power on the news than Baghdad, isn’t it? And I just can’t help weigh the 3300 American troupes in Operation Iraqi Freedom against the almost 3,000 9/11 victims. In Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan we knew what we were about, and that was a direct response to 9/11. The subsequent deaths in Iraqi Freedom were for…And most of us have heard of Kent State, but how many have heard of Jackson State just a week and a half later, with its darkly ironic Lynch Street?

Who can sleep at night with these figures running through their head? It’s supposed to be our leadership, and maybe some are Sleepless in Seattle and some are experiencing Awakenings, but many are sound Sleepers or in a Coma.

Locales/Dead/Wounded
This week
Virginia Tech University (April 16, 2007) 33/15
Baghdad (April 18, 2007) 191/250

University of Texas (1966) 15/31
Manson Family (1969) 9
Kent State (1970) 4/9
Jackson State (1970) 2/12
Jonestown (1978) 913
Waco (1993) 79
Oklahoma City Bombing (1995) 168/800
Heaven’s Gate (1997) 39
Columbine (Not including the 2 perpetrators) (1999) 13/24

9/11 (2001)
New York City 2,749
• World Trade Center 2,602
• American #11 88
• United #175 59
Arlington 184
• Pentagon 125
• American #77 59
Shanksville, PA 40
• United #93 40
Total (Not including the 19 hijackers) 2,973

Military Operations (2001-2007)
• Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) 380/1,141
• Operation Iraqi Freedom 3,311/24,314
Total 3,691/25,455

Add to the list some famous serial killers, mass murderers and spree people and my what a group. And these are just the most famous:
Aileen Wuornos, Andrew Cunanan, Atlanta Child Murders, BTK, Hillside Stranglers, Jack the Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Michigan Murders, Night Stalker, Son of Sam, Ted Bundy, Unabomber, Zodiac Killer. People make careers of studying them. We study them and are fascinated by them. But we cannot stop them.

Should be not be upset then? Of course we should upset. We should be running around, weeping and sobbing and beating ourselves on the chest and ripping open our garments and shaving our heads and wearing sackcloth and ashes; maybe we should be self-immolating. That is what we should be doing. But we don’t. People say that we are becoming—or have already become—desensitized to violence. I say we have always been this way. Unless the horror befalls us or those we hold dear, it isn’t horrible at all. So it continues and will continue. And we don’t wake up. We are simply insensate. And we should not hold to that. So we should stop running. We should aim to misbehave. If we can't do something smart...we should do something right.

Um, suggestions, anyone? I got nuthin’.

But then the real news hits us again and we can all sigh with relief. Sanjaya got voted off Idol, Britney, Paris and Lindsay are still partying, Angelina and Madonna are still adopting kids, Hollywood couples are still coming and going and coming again, and Marilyn and Anna Nicole are still dead, as is Generalissimo Francisco Franco. Honestly folks, we don’t need the Terrorists: Pogo was right so very many years ago.

And then there’s news that might interest FlyVote: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2007-04-16-bidets_N.htm

COMMENTS

Saturday, April 21, 2007 12:22 PM

BLUEEYEDBRIGADIER

It's definitely heroes like msg that are fighting the darkness taking over our society. Just wish there was more of them:(

What really makes me shake my head in frustration is the loopholes and hand-tying that goes on when it comes to removing threats from society. As someone who has worked in a security capacity for a university residence office, I know what it's like to have to wait for a student to really push the envelope before certain steps could be taken to have them removed or properly handled.

In the case of the Virginia Tech shooter, the university could only legally do so much to deal with him...even after being listed as mentally disturbed and a threat to others. Cuz all it takes is one person with mental illness getting railroaded by authorities when they never posed a threat in the first place for people to start protesting safety rules being too "stringent," forcing policies to change and more loopholes to form. However, going the other way - strengthening policies - means preventing anyone with the tiniest bit of mental instability to be locked away like they are trash...

BEB

Thursday, April 19, 2007 7:56 AM

NVGHOSTRIDER

We all have a part in the way we carry ourselves and how we influence others Jonny. Our connections are far deeper than most people of modern times can comprehend. All I can say is that we should leave the world in better condition than we recieved it in. We are borrowing it for a moment. If we can help others realize how all of our moments add up then maybe there is a better chance of those numbers having more significance.

Thursday, April 19, 2007 2:33 AM

JONNYQUEST

See, MsG, that's why we all think of you as a hero. We can only do it one person at a time. What distinguishes you is that you actually "do it"; the rest of us, for the most part, sit wishing it to be done. And then there's those that don't.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007 12:18 PM

MSG

actually we can stop the serial killers, but we won't do it. It requires us to create a system in which only the most caring, nurturing, and qualified people are allowed to procreate and raise children. If every child was raised in a loving, well disciplined home environment with all the wants and needs met both physically and mentally, then there would be no serial killers...but that's just my two cents ( brought on by watching a kid fall asleep in class because his parents spent many hours last night screaming and throwing things at each other and he couldn't sleep...plus he cleaned up all the broken glass because he didn't want his younger siblings injured)Unfortunately all these tragedies will continue because we are human beings and we have the capacity for great goodness and great evil in our natures and some chose the high road and others choose to wallow in the muck. Kinda sucks...but on the bright side Jonny... we can make a difference. Not to them all, but to some of them...and that's good enough for me:)...by the way I let the kid sleep 2 class periods and fixed him lunch. Then we discussed places he could go and take siblings when parents argue and called his aunt who agreed to come get them if he calls.

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