[135] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: List Admin speaking
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Wally)
Fri Apr 20 18:38:08 2001
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 18:40:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: Wally <wally@sub-zero.mit.edu>
To: Victoria K Anderson <vkanders@MIT.EDU>
cc: mit-talk@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: <200104201744.NAA28774@e51-075-14.mit.edu>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.21.0104201831330.29188-100000@sub-zero.mit.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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> P.S. Another note that is not of particular importance to MIT
> specifically (so stop reading if you don't want to hear it): today
> marks two years since the tragedy at Columbine High School. Please
> just take a moment to think about this...I've been quite disturbed
> that this fact seems to have been all but completely ignored in
> today's news. I worry that such incidents are becoming far too
> frequent which is why I think this isn't getting enough concern.
Note that violence in schools was (again) the cover story in 'Time' a few
weeks ago, and regardless of its relative journalistic value, a hell of a
lot of people read 'Time'. I'd rather that they devote more covers to
groups of people killing each other who aren't well-off and white; the
Columbine killers represent a pretty uncommon kind of threat to American
youth. If you're worried about us becoming desensitized to such a threat,
worry even more that no one even talks seriously about alcoholism anymore
in the public forum; it's simply assumed that people get drunk and do dumb
shit like beating their kids, their wives, their husbands.
We ignore what's right in front of our faces so that we can fixate on the
fallout from aberrant behavior, from genuinely fucked-up people. Columbine
is definitely not the most frightening of the recent school killings,
though it was the bloodiest (and the best press as a result). The recent
shootings (in the last couple years) point to more disturbing trends that
someone should be looking to more seriously.
W.
