I know it's early in the tragedy and Americans aren't really willing to step out of their bubble and what not, and I'm definitely not trying to make light of this situation, but anyone with the smallest amount of perspective must realize that this is what Iraqis see on the news everyday.
Sometimes 2 or 3 times a day.
Their own fellow countrymen blowing the shit each other without any possible justification.
On some real shit, if a day passed in Iraq and the Virginia Tech shooting was the only thing that happened, that would be considered a good day in Iraq.
30 dead people don't even make the news in Iraq. I barely heard about the 34 people that died in Baghdad yesterday that beat out today's 33 at VT.
Sadly this event will become a funhouse mirror where every opportunist will try to advance whatever cause they believe in.
Not enough guns, too many guns, not enough Don Imus, too much Don Imus or whatever else they can associate with it.
It's already started. Peep this quote from the White House Press Conference (which is always a fucking joke,)
- "As far as policy, the President believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed. And certainly bringing a gun into a school dormitory and shooting -- I don't want to say numbers because I know that they're still trying to figure out many people were wounded and possibly killed, but obviously that would be against the law and something that someone should be held accountable for."
Well Hallelujah, George Bush thinks school shootings should be illegal!
Close call.
Soon-to-be extinct dinosaur John McCain had this to say,
- "I do believe in the constitutional right that everyone has, in the Second Amendment to the Constitution, to carry a weapon," he said. "Obviously we have to keep guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens."
Surely this moron realizes that most of the people who snap have no prior records? Why is he still around?
And as always with this type of situation, everyone wonders what they would have done. As a black person, seeing how we have fared in past school shootings, such as Columbine, please believe I would have been snitched from a SAFE distance.
Apparently Virginia Tech, who had a school shooting last year, fucked the fuck up in their handling of the whole situation. The first shooting was earlier in the day and absolutely nothing was done until it reached the point below.
Damn, America has some serious issues.
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I moderate a NBA message board and some of the white people commented that they wondered why nobody "rushed the shooter."
ReplyDeleteI dont need to go into how stupid that assertion is but I had to check them.
John McClain wasnt coming to save the day.
"Rushed the shooter?!" Ok, the people who said that need to repeat after me:
ReplyDelete1. You are not Jack Bauer.
2. You are not Vick Mackey.
3. You sure as f**k ain't Superman.
It's easy for them to have hero fantasies, but when you're staring down the barrel of a gun the world suddenly looks different.
Actually, no; you're wrong. See -- you were under the mistaken assumption that all human life is intrinsically equal. According to this morning's global human equivalency rates, direct from the Wall Street Journal:
ReplyDelete1 American = 22.3741 Iraqis
So, if we're in a discussion involving comparisons between the two, there were, in fact, 738.3453 people slain in yesterday's shootings, substantially more than the number of Iraqis killed in Baghdad on the same day. It's not even close, really. It's okay though; I forgive you.
For some context, compare with another rate given:
1 American > [(lim x→∞) (x)] Sudanese
Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't note that the singular value given to 1 American in the equivalencies tables is not to be applied to each individual American, but instead reflects a composite average. There are, of course, many divisions of value within.
Anonymous, with all of his sarcasm, is correct. Few people in America care about dead Iraqis. Americans only care about Iraq at all because Americans are dying there.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, this is newsworthy because it rarely happens. Ordinary things, such as the muder of hundreds of Iraqis per week, are NOT nearly as interesting and, thus, newsworthy.
News is a commodity. It is sold as such. Nobody would buy or financially endorse news were it full of daily reports of global norms which people view as having little relevance to their own lives. In fact, it would dull the import of more closely pressing events when they occur.
I understand this may be confusing to people who pretend that they place equal value on human lives ("I WOULD SHOOT MY INFANT BROTHER TODAY IF IT COULD SAVE FIVE CHILDREN IN DARFURRRR!"), but it makes pretty good sense to most.
From what I can tell, your point is moot (and a little obvious).
Do they have ratios for black vs. white and rich versus poor as well. I can recall witnessing and being near a lot of crazy things in my past. Of course even americans only matter if it appears they are tax payers.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous commenters are always cowards especially when dead people from wherever they were born become wormfood in a matter of hours.
ReplyDeleteSo many damn anonymous commenters.
ReplyDeleteEven fake initials would be better than nothing.
Talking greasy after watching "24" or "The Shield" is so ignorant.
Where are all these bum rushers in all these instances or murder?
Crying in the closet? Watching the Sopranos?
That shit is not the norm, which is why I give 'nuff respect to the people on United 93 who bumrushed the terrorists.
Anyway, I didn't take into consideration the value of sweet rich white American lives over poor Iraqis.
The Wall Street Journal has put me in my place.
On the other, anonymous 3 is dead wrong. The news is repackaged shit everyday.
Rape, fire, kidnapping, natural diaster, blah blah blah.
It's only when something truly shocking happens like this, does everyone have a permanent front page story.
It's pathetic that Americans are only into war when it's shown as a movie.
Suggested reading for the befuddled blogger:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/All-News-Thats-Fit-Sell/dp/0691116806
Why haven't I read about a school shooting in any other country than USA? Don't they happen or is there a worldwide media conspiracy to hide them?
ReplyDeleteAustralia had a school shooting,
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monash_University_shooting
And of course Germany had one,
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/04/26/germany.shooting/
Anon 3 - Thanks for explaining that news is a business...
I thought CBS, NBC and FOX were non-profits.
Chechnya had a school shooting too, and that was much worse than VATech.
ReplyDeleteBut on that same day, in Bagdad, I do believe over 100 people were killed, and that was just in that one city! I know when its our country we have a tendancy to care about it more, but come on people! Have some empathy for shit thats going on in other parts of the world!
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