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Of course it is a tragic situation and my prayers go out to the families of the victims and the students and faculty at Virginia Tech.
That said, to put this in some context, 33 people were killed and this was the worst civilian shooting in the history of the country.
However the day before in Iraq, 43 people were killed in a bombing in Baghdad. Over 60 people alltogether were killed in Iraq that day.
And that was a normal day in Iraq.
That wasn't even considered headline worthy.
The shock and horror we feel at the situation at Virginia Tech is a daily occurance in Iraq and yet we Americans seem to be completely desensitized to that.
Only when it happens in our own backyards, to our own Children, does this kind of violence actually, finally touch us.
We Americans give a lot of lip service to a culture of life but in reality we have developed a culture of death. Thanks to our movies, music and video games we glorify violence.
Anyone who knows me knows that I consider the Amish in Lancaster, PA, to be a great example of how real Christians should react in the face of a tradegy like this.
If we had reacted after 9-11 the way they did after their tragedy, we would not be stuck in this cycle of violence today.
I am reminded of something Bobby Kennedy said when he spoke in front of a crowd in Indianappolis, IN after Martin Luther King was shot. He quoted the poet Aeschylus:
"Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."
