Colonel's Blog - Virginia Tech

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Posted by: rjones	4/27/2007
'You must practice with the intensity of real life situations or it becomes a game and you can be beaten' - Miyamoto Musashi, 'Book Of Five Rings' Massacre at Virginia Tech As of today, the “blogosphere” is alive with commentary on the shootings at Virginia Tech. Pet theories as to why, the motives of the gunman, etc., and as in the normal course of American politics and media juries, who is ultimately to blame. As is typical, I have seen blogs blaming, yes, President Bush, and one media journal that puts the blame squarely on the shoulders of Charlton Heston, the president of the National Rifle Association. Schools across the country have faced numerous bomb threats in the aftermath, as sick-minded individuals try to increase the nation’s feelings of panic, or even sicker, try to capitalize on this tragedy just to skip school for a day. The media, in all of their liberal left-wing glory, is making sure that every shooting incident across the nation is getting front and second page attention. Incidents that normally would not even be a blip on the news radar. Lastly, (Or firstly, depending on your view of politics) the politicians are warbling to the left and right on the issue of gun control, with a generous sprinkling of politicians waffling in the middle, trying to determine which viewpoint is destined to win the most votes in upcoming elections. Probably one of the cheapest capitalizations I have seen yet, is the front page of the Washington Post Online, which shows a “random” photo of the thousands of people who showed up today at V-Tech for a memorial service. The “random” close-up prominently displays four Muslim women wearing the traditional Muslim hijab (headscarf). Nothing like a little friendly reminder while America is mourning that “Muslims” are non-violent, and the war in Iraq is a travesty. I feel reasonably certain that there may have been at least one or two among the dead that were Muslim, and I am sure the mourners pictured were genuine in their intent to honor the dead and in their expression of grief. What angers me is that I am also reasonably sure that among the mourners there was at least one group of Christians, with a John 3:16 sign, that did not get photographed because it would be “too controversial” and might offend some readers. I am also reasonably sure there were probably some Jewish expressions of faith presented, as well as a few other religions, whose representatives at the service will never see their grief shared with the nation, because ultimately, the job of the media today is to influence politics, not to report the news, so as a result, we have a subtle innuendo by the Post that ties a national tragedy to the policies of a current president. A cheap shot, and in my opinion, irresponsible and sensationalistic reporting. Also in the news, is the numerous panels that are being assembled to “deal” with the issue of school violence, the numerous “psycho-babblers” making the rounds of the airwaves to “discuss” school violence, and the especially numerous college and high school campuses scrambling to install “cell-phone warning systems” so that students and faculty can be more quickly appraised of situations requiring them to take shelter. I even saw one or two news articles favoring the arming of teachers with handguns. (Bad idea!) The real issue here, and the most important one, is why a lone gunman was able to murder 32 people, and wound others, before ultimately killing himself. Cho was not taken out by a police sniper, or by a campus police officer. He ended his spree of violence with more violence directed at himself. Why and how was he able to do it? The answer in my opinion, is because America today has a surrealistic view of violence. We are constantly exposed to it by the media, the entertainment industry, the music industry, the book-publishing industry, the video-game industry, etc., etc. For many Americans, violence is not real. As a result, when it is encountered truly, most Americans either retreat from it, or stand numbly in shock disbelieving they have become entrapped in its tendrils. Cho did not murder 32 people with automatic weapons, or possess “illegal” high capacity magazines loaded to the hilt with ammo. Witnesses say that he was observed several times manually reloading his ammo clips. These interludes would have been the perfect tactical opportunity for an unarmed person to try to take Cho down. Why did that not occur? My belief is because society has conditioned the typical American to believe that “guns are bad” and “He who has the gun is more powerful.” In short, the focus was on Cho’s weapons, not on Cho himself, which led to inaction by those possibly able to stop him. This focus makes most Americans sheep. When sheep are scared, they do not scatter, they huddle, or fall over paralyzed with fear. A gun is only a weapon when it is in the hands of someone with INTENT. Otherwise, it is just a paperweight. Violence itself is neither good nor evil. It is the INTENT behind the violence that shifts the scales right or left. Cho’s intent was to kill, and in his mind, to hurt back those he believed to have hurt him, rather real or imagined. Violence was the tool he chose to accomplish that task. This is the same modus operandi of most terrorist organizations in the world today. Kill innocents, and make a statement. Cho may have been mentally deranged, but it is a wrong focus to zero in on his mental capacity as an excuse for violence. The VT massacre was obviously pre-planned, thought-out, and executed to achieve a purpose, whether that purpose had any validity in reality or not. This indicates that Cho made a “decision” to use violence as a weapon, which makes Cho a “terrorist” in every sense of the word. As I have preached before, the only way to deal with violence, is with violence. The violence of the righteous has to be focused and targeted. If one person at VT had made a decision to assault Cho, the headlines would most likely not read “worst school massacre in U.S. history.” Lest I be thought of a “violence monger” let me unequivocally state that as a practice, I abhor violence. I would like nothing better than to live my life in peace, and never have to raise my hand against my fellow man. I would like nothing better than every time I have to make an arrest, that the offender offer me his hands and say, “Gee, officer. I sure am sorry. It was wrong of me to break the law.” I will give you three guesses as to how many times in my career “that” has happened. Mankind is violent. 10,000 years of recorded history, and man’s violent acts outnumber the acts of peace. For every Ghandi, there are ten Hitlers. Jesus Christ is the only answer to man’s pre-occupation with inflicting violence upon his brother, but until He comes again to rule and reign, the peaceful among us must survive. We can only do so by dealing with violent situations both aggressively, and violently. 32 innocent people were murdered on a school campus this past week, because no one wanted to accept the responsibility of responding in kind. The grim truth of America remains that “the police will not arrive to save you” and the “cavalry is not just over the hill.” Security, like freedom, has to occasionally be fought for to be preserved. Until individual Americans once again take up the responsibility that evil must be fought, and be fought decisively and aggressively, we will continue to see incidents such as VT and Columbine become all too common.
Copyright ©2007 Ray Jones

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