Okay, this post may sound a little mean.  I guarantee you, it is not intended as such.

I wish people would quit talking about the VA Tech incident.

Everywhere I’ve gone for the last two days, EVERYONE has been talking about the gunman who killed 32 people at VA Tech on Monday.  News reports constantly running, headlines detailing minutiae of the case, radio talk shows debating whether or not there will be a copycat incident within the next two months.

Guys . . . seriously.  Is this really necessary?

It was a travesty, yes.  Don’t think for a moment that I don’t grieve for those people.  It sickens me to see life snuffed out so needlessly.  Heroism was evident as well when the professor who survived the holocaust gave his life to protect those students.  I’m not saying I think it should have happened or that they got what they deserved or that I don’t care about these people.  I do care.

I don’t want to hear about every detail of the case.

My own mother (I love you, Mom!) was glued to the news report last night when I visited my parents.  Do I blame her?  No.  However when every single person I run into wants to talk about it, I get a little overwhelmed.   We don’t need a psychological breakdown of the killer, we don’t need gun control nuts yelling in the streets, we don’t need parents blaming the police, we don’t need 24 hour coverage.  We need something unprecedented:

A moment of silence the likes of which America has never seen.

We need for the community to open its arms to hold the victims, and we need the outside world to BACK OFF.  Reporters, newspapers, television cameras, even the average person on the street needs to drop it for just a day or two.  Give these people a chance to heal.  I refuse to believe that crying on camera for CNN is part of the healing process.

In about a week and a half, the news media will say something like this: “but now . . . life continues.”

They should be saying it now.  Life goes on.  Painfully – sometimes unbearably so – but life DOES go on.  Should Texas Tech students be spending every spare moment of their day discussing what happened at VA Tech?  No.  They should be studying for tests, playing games, sitting in the Student Union typing inane blog posts like this one.

I grieve for those victims, and out of respect, I allow them the space to heal.