One Death is a Tragedy

Why is it that students all around me are wearing orange, red, and whatever colors? Why? They are respecting the dead of the Virginia Tech Massacre, so I m told.

Respecting the dead.
What about the 200 that died the day after? I see no respect for them.

I see no people even mentioning it, instead, we hear of the people that died at VT. The students that died at VT.
Where 200 men, women, and children died in Iraq, 32 men and women died in VT.

What makes those 32 worth more than those 200? Was it that they were younger? No, it can t be, there were children among the 200.

Was it that they weren t expected to die?
Maybe. Maybe that s why some people think that they are worth more mourning than the 200 dead in Iraq.

People die in Iraq all the time, it s no big deal . I guess there was truth in the quote, 1 death is a tragedy, a million deaths is just a statistic . And yet people died.

Expecting it or not, the loss of human life is a tragedy. An equal tragedy, no matter whose life was lost. Over 6 times as many people died in Iraq.

That s six times the tragedy. Six times the tragedy, yet but one hundredth of the media attention, one thousandth of the attention of the People.
Maybe, also, it was that those 32 lives were American.

American students, American deaths, surely this makes it an American tragedy?
No! Those 32 deaths were a tragedy for humanity, and we must all mourn their loss.

And yet those 200 deaths were a greater tragedy, and no one mourns them but the families of those forgotten victims. Each death is a loss, and yet there is no loss greater apparent to Americans than the loss of 32 VT students, when 200 more losses lie across the ocean. I feel no greater pull for an American victim than to a Canadian victim, to a French victim, to an Iraqi victim.

They are all deaths, and equally tragic. No amount of patriotism can account for only caring about American victims.
Out of these two possible reasons, none are soely responsible.

American centricism has a lare part to play, but so does the ignoring of the often, probably the biggest culprit. More people died in the month of September, 2001 due to car accidents, than due to the 9/11 disaster. But there will be no memorial for the regular, constant flow of death via automobile.

There will be no recognition for the incessant suicides and overdoses. There will be no attention paid to the constant fatalities from malnourishment.
Recently, I have tried to think why these are not worthy.

The answer, in its base, is psychology. People are more shocked by what happens all at once, and suddenly, than by what happens regularly and often little-by-little. This by itself is not enough, of course.

The media feed on this, and make it worse and worse. When a better story comes up than the day-to-day, constant stream of death in the middle east, they will jump on it. They feel that nobody cares about Sudan, so it never makes the front page.

If it suits the public more, then they would rather show the death of a celebrity than the death of 50 no-named arabs. Instead of serving the public good, they serve their own good. I was never one to complain about media-this and media-that.

God knows, the media has been beneficial in many cases. Without the media, there wouldn t be as much knowledge as we have about the world at large. The problem is that the media isn t always beneficial.

This horrific act, the death of 32 victims, is cheapened by it s raising to a legendary status. It s victims are insulted by the media shark-fest that produced the killer s reasoning. The 200 that died in Iraq, similarly, are left ignored, to rot in another country.

some friends of mine and myself said prayers for the two hundred people who were recently killed in Iraq. though it is not spoken of as widely, there are people who recognize these lives as a loss as well.

i think the difference is that people are more closely connected with vtech. someone may have a cousin who attends, a friend, maybe someone almost decided to go to school there. iraq is a far away place that most americans will never visit.

many will never make an attempt to get to know an Iraqi. So there is that gap of feeling in many. the empathy that for many is easier to feel for someone a few states away.

it doesn't mean that its okay to overlook other deaths...

but it is something to disect and think about.
thank you for posting this.

Sad but true, I know some people just think about the dead Iraqis as ("collateral" and just apart of war). People are def. impacted a lot more when its closer to home.

Many other nations are reaching out to us. But if that happened in France or something, we would have gave them the basic "I'm so sorry". It would have been front page for a day or so if they'r lucky, meanwhile we're the front news page on a lot of differnt news sites in other countires.

Some people say "Well you take care of your own first". Which is something I can understand to a certain point. But I suppose Americans think that its a tragedy when it happens to them because they never think it can happen in Smalltown, USA or whatever.

See my blog and I'll love you forever! Or at least temporarily:

People mourned 9/11 like it was the greatest tragedy of the last several years.

There are so many deeper/worse problems with the world and so many people dieing of other things. I use to get chain letters all the time with the twin tours and a big eagle..

and of course a big letter about God..9/11.

.the tragedy..

ect.
I agree too, the media does focus on what will 'entertain' people.
This was an act of violence that was not expected by the general public.

It is something that makes people fear the same could happen at their school. People aren't afraid that they themselves will die in Iraq..

or that they will starve...

People know the risk of driving and if they choose to drink, they also take that extra risk...

Just some thoughts.

I think, maybe, the deaths at Virginia Tech hit closer to home because it was something that happened here, on our soil/ Something that may or may not have been prevented had other decisions been made.

And it's something that, unfortunately, could happen again.
When something like this happens here, it reminds us of our immortality. When something happens overseas, especially in a crime-infested area or out of war, it's semi-expected.

Plus, there is less fear that the same could happen here.
"Dream as though you'll live forever, but live as though there's no tomorrow" --James Dean

I hate how the media mostly just reports what the general public wants to hear.

Unfortunately, "the general public" includes people who just care about what relates directly to them.
Al Gore touched on this in his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth", and I agree wholeheartedly, as I did when I saw the movie. Just because it's far away, just because it doesn't affect you as an individual, doesn't mean you shouldn't care.

Have you ever had a background check?: except where otherwise noted. ProgressiveU.

org is a nonpartisan social welfare organization that encourages an open discussion of current events, progressive values, and public policy priorities.