17 April 2007

Draper's Meadow



I have not been to Blacksburg in a while. It was a lacrosse game that drew me, on the wide athletic field that was not a great deal different than the green pastures of that part of the lower Shenandoah Valley, on the edge of the Blue Ridge.

I had some work custom done on the truck a little ways north of there a couple months ago, though, and marveled again at the beauty of countryside. It is quiet down in the southwest part of the state, and the vistas of the mountains are soothing. The earth is dark and fertile. It would be a nice place to retire, I thought.

Both of my boys considered enrolling at Tech for college, not a primary choice, mind you, but on the short list and a real possibility. It has culture and some local history. The Duck Pond on campus is the site of the Draper's Meadow, where in 1755 a Shawnee war party attempted to dissuade American settlers from farming the rich soil. They called it a massacre at the time, though of course the scale of things has changed over the years.

My younger son is just now completing his senior year, and had he gone there, I would have been out of my mind with concern, and probably on my way down there.

As it was, the news was electrifying as it spread. First there was the mention of a killing, and then more shootings, dozens of them, and then by lunchtime the number of the dead began to climb.

There is not enough information to connect the dots this morning. The police and University officials are being exceptionally deliberate in their release of information. I understand their concern with the delicacy of the horror, and the need for respect in notifying next-of-kin.

Reporting has come from a remarkable number of sources, cell-phone cameras and Internet social networking pages being prominent. Despite the amount of information, officials will not positively link the early-morning murders at the dormitory with the mass slaughter two hours later at the Norris Engineering Building.

They are probably right to be cautious. There has been some strange stuff happening at Blacksburg. The school year started with killings related to the escape of a mental patient in a nearby facility. There have been a series of bomb scares in recent weeks, which may, or may not, be related to rehearsal of the carnage.

The FBI says that the gunman might have been a young Asian man, a new arrival to the United States. Eye-witnesses say that shooter on the second floor of the Norris building was dressed neatly, in something that looked like a Boy Scout uniform. He wore two vests, one tan and one black.

That strikes me as unusual, but I'm sure there will be some clarification through the course of the day. This is the worst single gun rampage in American history, so I am certain that everything will be out there presently. It has been eight years since the massacre at Columbine high school, almost to the day, and this has nearly three times the casualties.

It is too soon to draw any conclusions, but that has not stopped us. Based on the enormity of the crime, I had assumed that some military-style assault weapon must have been used. It is natural to try to contextualize this horror in the daily reports of similar massacres from Iraq. It appears that the killer, or killers, used only a couple handguns.

It is also tempting to link the academic setting with the violence, since setting aside the 1991 slaughter at the Luby's cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, most of the worst of these events have occurred at schools. I think it is a simpler connection.

First, these horrors are always perpetrated by young men, and they always look for their prey where targets are congregated.

That is what Charles Whitman did in August of 1966, looking down from the clock tower at the University of Texas. His crime was so heinous that it prompted the establishment of Special Weapons and Tactics- SWAT- detachments all across the county.

Their descendents were much in evidence in the video coverage of the Virginia Tech campus, clad in camouflage and armor vests and toting machine guns. When they arrived at Norris Hall, they found the doors chained shut.

That suggests preparation to me, but it is too soon to start connecting the dots. I know the cry to restrict guns will rise again, which is natural enough. The District banned them all years ago, not that it had any particular impact. It did serve to clearly identify that there were two classes of people in town, the predator and the prey.

Stopping the gun trade, prohibiting manufacture and possession, would be a daunting task, but it is an approach, and would certainly make us feel good. Considering the number of guns out there, and the relatively small number of homicidal young men, I would prefer another option.

I would like to be able to shoot back.

Copyright 2007 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com

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