FROM THE TOP
LELAND ACKER

I am deeply troubled by the direction in which our society is moving. We have grown colder, more bitter and self absorbed.

The 33 lives lost in the Virginia Tech massacre are nothing short of a tragedy. Yet, in my mind, the whole episode reveals the depreciating value of human life in this country.

First, the shooter, Seung- Hui Cho, flowed with hatred directed at his fellow students. His rage was made known through his writings which had caught the attention of an English professor, who removed him from class. He was consumed with death and suffering. His bullets were aimed, not at the "rich kids" he assailed, but at everyone. His victims included students and faculty of all walks of life. To make matters worse, continuing coverage of who he was has overshadowed the lives of whom he killed.

Second, there is the response of Virginia Tech. A double homicide at 7:15 a.m. should have caused more of an alarm. True, the university had no way of knowing a more deadly attack was on the way. However, the deaths of two students only prompted the university to rope off that particular building. Everything else was "business as usual." Evidently, the loss of human life is not enough to suspend classes for a day.Then, there's the gun control debate that was sparked. Never mind the 32 innocent victims of this rampage, there is an agenda to be pushed. Gun control advocates are quick to point out that such mass shootings would be impossible if all guns were taken off the streets. Meanwhile opponents of gun control argue that in a nation where guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns. Both sides of the debate have been very aggressive in the days following the massacre.

Finally, there's the endless barrage of stories on the motive and personality of the killer, with NBC being recognized as the killer's network of choice.

Meanwhile the world already begins to forget Liviu Librescu, the holocaust survivor who died protecting his students. Others who are being overshadowed by this callousness are: Reema Samaha (an aspiring dancer of Lebanese descent from Centreville, Va), Henry Lee (student who was born in Vietnam), Daniel Cueva (an international studies major from Peru) and Rachael Hill (freshman from Richmond, Va.)

The gun control debate will rage on and pundits will try to figure out where the system failed the shooter. The problem, though, is with our culture and the depreciating value of human life.

chreporter@mediactr.com