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Blogcritics Author: Kathy Gill
A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously.
- Announcement: Short-content feeds
Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. - Reflections on Seattle and Blacksburg: Humanity and Technology, Violence and Guns
On Monday morning, 2 April, shots rang out on the campus of the University of Washington, Seattle, where I teach. Two deaths: a murder/suicide of a UW staff member and her estranged boyfriend.On Monday morning, 16 April, shots rang out on the campus of Virginia Tech, Blacksburg - my alma mater. To date, 33 deaths: mass murder/suicide of students and faculty (and perhaps staff, we just don't know yet).I learned of the first murder by e-mail while working from home. I learned of the second when logging on to Google News at Chicago's O'Hare airport en route to Seattle from a quick trip home to Georgia. The one more distant, geographically (2,780 miles away, according to Google maps), has had the greatest emotional impact. Together, they have caused me to rethink my beliefs about humanity and technology, and violence and guns.Humanity and Technology What is it about the human animal that causes us to rubberneck at roadside collisions? Whatever it is, that base voyeuristic impulse seems magnified by the always-on technologies of the Internet, specifically instant messaging and blogs.In my Blogging, Media and Politics class today, we talked about student (blog) journals and Flickr photos as forms of citizen journalism. Some, but not all, provide insight and information about a story that would not survive the filters of editors and news producers - at least not before the 24/7 Internet news cycle.The ability to put a human face on the tragedy is one of the greatest benefits of these new media technologies. The ease with which people can spew, gossip, wring hands, pontificate, or metaphorically drive back-and-forth rubbernecking is a major drawback.The 24/7 always-on Internet news cycle has another, insidious, side effect: an apparent belief that any threat should be immediately broadcast, verified or not. I speak here of the insistence by some students and media pundits that Virginia Tech officials did not react quickly enough to contain the shooter. Many people are trotting out an event that occurred in August 2006 as an example of how the University could have communicated quickly if it was so inclined - but they're wrong.According to the Roanoke Times (Roanoke is the largest metro area near Blacksburg), on Sunday, 20 August 2006 at 2.30 am, a convict escaped in Blacksburg, shooting a security guard and deputy. On Monday, 21 August 2006 at 7.15 am the escaped convict killed a deputy downtown, adjacent to campus. "[The University] sent out a warning Sunday (by e-mail, one assumes) about Morva's escape, but after Monday's shooting most students were still going about their business, going to classes and getting coffee at Squires Student Center until about 10 a.m. Amid reports that someone fitting Morva's description was inside Squires, the building was evacuated. ...students were told to go home and stay inside residence halls if they lived on campus. Classes were canceled and employees sent home."The time between the first shooting and canceling classes was seven plus hours. From the time of the first death to canceling classes was about three hours.Compare that to Monday's tragedy: A 7:15 am 911 call and the death of a man and a woman in a dorm. By 7:30, the dorm is secured and police believe this is a double homicide, "an isolated incident." (Crime statistics bear out this belief.) At 8.25 am, University officials meet to "assess the situation," and at 9 am the campus police chief briefs them. At 9.26 am, the Administration sends out its first e-mail. (That's amazingly fast, speaking as someone who has been a corporate communications official). This is slightly more than 2 hours after the 911 call.The second 911 call comes in at 9:45 am from Norris Hall. At 9:50 am, "Virginia Tech officials send a second e-mail, warning students that a gunman is loose on campus." That's five minutes. Three hours after the first 911 call (10:16), classes are canceled.Now you tell me: How exactly would you have sped up the communication process? How would you have been able to determine that the first shooting was not to be an isolated incident, but was instead the first step in the largest mass murder in the history of this country?Violence America glorifies violence and antagonism. Just watch TV (network or cable), anything out of Hollywood, computer games like Grand Theft Auto, or listen to gangsta rap.I know I'm not saying anything particularly new. Bobby Kennedy said (yes, I know Obama quoted Kennedy, too), "Yet we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. We calmly accept newspaper reports of civilian slaughter in far off lands. We glorify killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire weapons and ammunition they desire."Young people (males are the high risk group) aged 18-24 are the highest risk age group for homicides and are in the age group committing the most murders (rate per 100,000 population). Much of that risk is drug-culture related, so not applicable here.Most violence against women is domestic violence. That is, the woman knows the perpetrator intimately.A friend wonders if the police had not assumed the first two deaths in Blacksburg were domestic violence related. If it had been two males murdered, for example, would their resulting actions have been any different? It's a good question for the police department to undertake as it reflects on this week's tragedy.As for the rest of us, I think we need to reflect on Bobby's words. We have to decide which "popular culture" icons fit into our value system and which don't, and then share that with our children and honor that belief with our pocketbooks. Remember, it was the pocketbook that brought down Imus - nothing more, nothing less.Guns I'm a southern girl. I was raised with guns: shotguns, rifles, and pistols. When I was 10 or 11-years-old, my wish list for Santa included a 4-10 shotgun. I was disappointed that my stocking graced a lowly BB gun. I may have been a tomboy, but my cousin and I learned that our mothers trumped fathers when December 25 rolled around. (No, this is not going to be a diatribe about gun control.)First, the shooting at Virginia Tech was an extreme event, at least in America. (Juan Cole has a different perspective.) In the US, less than 1% of all homicides have more than two victims. In 2004 (latest data available), there were only 11 murders (.07%) in the US with five or more victims.It is extremely bad public policy to try to write laws to attempt to control outliers, but (you knew there had to be a but, right?) arming every citizen isn't the answer, either. As Amy Kovac wrote last August, a 2001 Harvard School of Public Health study revealed, "Americans feel less safe rather than more safe as more people in their community begin to carry guns. By margins of at least nine to one, Americans do not believe that 'regular' citizens should be allowed to bring their guns into restaurants, college campuses, sports stadiums, bars, hospitals, or government buildings."It's not an easy thing to point a gun at another human, even when threatened, my friends who are gun-owners tell me. I don't know. I've not been in that situation, but a New England Journal of Medicine study suggests a gun in the home is "more likely to kill a family member or a friend than it is to be used against an intruder."I don't think it's a good idea for the US to revert to a Wild West mentality and have every citizen licensed with a concealed weapon permit. Given the state of road rage in America, I believe this is a particularly bad idea. What then, do we do?First, we acknowledge that if someone wants to kill another person and is willing to die in the attempt, there is little if anything we can do to stop the murder. Second, we acknowledge that our universities are institutions with a history and culture of openness. Students are, for the most part, legally adults. (They can marry without parental consent. They can vote. If we had a draft, they are older than draft age. Most can't legally drink, yet, however.)This is one area where comparing universities with high schools (metal detectors and chain link fences) falls down on a logical plane. It also falls