Since Monday morning’s senseless killing of so many young and promising students on the campus of Virginia Tech, the television has reported non-stop and I have listened and watched one seemingly unbelievable fact after another. It is not possible to say anything that has not been said hundreds of times, but I do want to say how grieved I am for the parents and friends of the victims. And also for the parents and family of the shooter, who were also helpless in the face of this mentally deranged person.
The television asks many questions that seem to have no answers. Television people even question their own coverage – and well they should. I question the fact that I have left it on and have watched it, also wanting to know “answers” when there are no sensible or reasonable answers. I don’t know any answers. I don’t know whether they should be showing these pictures of the shooter or not. But I do know that it is not easy to “get help” for people like this. It is easy to say “get help” but it is not easy to get it, especially for someone who does not think they need it, and not all “help” is really helpful for them.
One voice of clarity I heard last night was Pete Early – on one of the news channels. He was being interviewed because of a book he’d written. But his message was of how frustrating it is to try to get help, and of the difficulty he had even with all his connections and all his resources and money. How he was told to come back when his son had killed or threatened to kill someone. That there was nothing they could do unless something that drastic had happened. When he did finally get him into a hospital, the insurance company rejected him after a few days and put pressure on the hospital to release him.
Our laws – on mental health and on guns – seem to allow no exceptions – not even for common sense.
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