Letters to the Editor
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I agree with your sentiments exactly.
Moreover, ABC, NBC, CBS’s coverage of the story centered on the themes of "courage," "compassion," and "coming together as a nation in grief." I'm struck by my own use of quote marks around these words, as if they are no longer real but pseudo-sentiments. There are many Americans (maybe a majority) who desperately want to believe that the VT massacre is some sort of Norman Rockwell moment that outlines the heroism of our youth and the coming together of our great nation. The fact that the perpetrator was Korean-American rather than American-American (whatever that is) in a perverse way seems to support this tendency. However, there are an increasing number of us that have been and are growing more cynical about our American "values." Cynical because of the gross disparity between what we say we stand for and what we actually stand for given our actions in the world. That is why this kind of coverage, although it appeals to a lot of Americans, is ridiculous, even laughable to me, especially since I know these networks are exploiting the public’s prurient interests under the guise of something more wholesome. I am angered by the number of people that have died needlessly at the hands of our politicians, not just in the Iraq war, but throughout our disingenuous history. Bush is only the apotheosis of this disparity writ large and personified.