shallow, insensitive me

[jaeclectic]

While various people of my acquaintance are concerning themselves with the news and issues of the day (online civility, shooting sprees on college campuses, etc), my attention is mainly divided between stress at work, and being irritated that I had to buy a new scale which of course reads 2 pounds heavier than the old one.

I have to admit, my first reaction to the VA Tech story was to underreact: well, that's sad, but isn't it just another day in Bagdad? Of course, this was somewhat tempered by the realization that some of the people I know who hale from the DC area might actually have connections there. But still, in the context of everything else that I see on the news every day, it didn't really grab me in the gut.

Now, it has sunk in a little, but I have progressed to active avoidance. My main news source (sfgate) is featuring multiple stories about how *wonderful* the various victims were, as well of course as the obligatory post-mortem psychoanalysis of the perpetrator. And it is intriguing in a soap-opera-ish way, and part of me wants to read about it, and the other part says: No. I do not need to weep for these people. I do not need to open myself up and then dig, dig, dig at the wound.

And furthermore, it is another day in Bagdad, where undoubtedly some very wonderful people were killed today.

Comments

[bulieb.livejournal.com]

You can't cry for every miserable thing that happens half a world away -- whether in Virginia or Iraq or wherever. My response was kind of similar to yours. Sorry about the scale. That'd piss me off.