I just wrote a post yesterday, so if you have just checked my blog today go ahead and read the post below as well, if you feel like it of course.
I just have two little things I want to write about today, one a mite inconsequential and the other with too much consequence to really appreciate for most of us.
Lets start with inconsequential. I went for a run after school yesterday and while running I noticed a white dove in the road in front of me. Curious I thought, I don't think I have ever seen a white dove before, it was directly in my path and didn't seem in the slightest concerned about the panting simian bearing down upon it. So much so was it wholly unconcerned with any possible consequences of our collision that it elected not to move even one of its pretty white feathers. I in fact had to make a emergency detour around said bird while it stood immobile and quizzically observed me. Striking me as rather odd I was so affected as to stop running and turn to look back at the bird, it had not moved. Out of curiosity I walked back towards it, it was only when I got so close that I could have easily picked it up did it hop away a few feet and up onto the pavement. There is cocked its head at me and gave me an indignant look, I, remembering my manners, apologised for inconveniencing it, bid it good day and was on my way. I soon forgot about it as I had a wonderful stitch developing in my midriff. As I crested a hill I noticed a snow white cat by the road, as I ran past (only a foot or two away) it did not run but fiercely stared at me with piercing blue eyes. About ten metres later I was stuck by the coincidence of a white dove then a white cat, both of which did not run away. I stopped and turned, the cat was still there, unmoving as the bird had been. I approached cautiously. As I encroached to perhaps a yard from the cat and was about to introduce myself, remembering my manners as always, it suddenly upped and bolted! I was a little relieved and a little disappointed. And I must admit for the rest of the run I kept half an eye open for a possible third white animal.

My second 'thing' is something I saw on the news this morning. You probably all know about it, the fatal shooting of 33 people at a Virginia university campus. It is shocking! Horribly shocking. What drives somebody to commit such an act? What is it about a culture that has driven people to commit such acts not once but again and again not to mention the numerous columbine copy-cat massacres which were foiled? I am sure certain people in America have been asking hard questions about why the vast majority of school massacres have occurred in America, but surely a change can only come about when enough people ask the hard questions and look frankly at their culture and what has gone wrong. Something must be wrong! I don't mean to seem like I am on a high horse but I am just trying to express my horror and incomprehension, I don't have an answer I just pray enough people do. I am fairly sure it won't take a team of experts to create a new law or a profile to predict potential shooters and thus solve the problem, it is, in my humble opinion, bigger than that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting
And a list of school massacres:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_School_Massacres
Grieve for the innocent victims but that isn't enough if it will happen again.
I am also distrubed by the reaction to the shooting by some, from CNN:
"Asked why the campus, which has more than 26,000 students, was not shut down after the first shooting, Flinchum responded that police determined "it was an isolated event to that building and the decision was made not to cancel classes at that time."
What does it take to shut down classes in America! A gunman on the loose is apparently not enough...
I also found the account of the massacre on the CNN website distasteful at best and at worst disturbingly complacent:
"The first crackle of gunfire shattered the Monday morning calm. It was 7:15 a.m. on the campus of Virginia Tech and an epic killing spree had just begun."
'Epic' can have the connotation of a glorious event which will be remembered through history, it certainly does not impress upon the tragedy of the event. And perhaps worse:
" fired about 30 shots in just 1½ minutes -- first blasting a professor in the head, then shooting the students."
'Blasting!' what is it this article about a movie, a computer game!? The media is a part of the problem without question.