Friday, February 15, 2008

Northern Illinois University

I got home yesterday, after a long day wandering through and around temples and shrines in the imperial city, flipped on the computer to quickly check email and the news, and was stunned to see reports of another shooting, this one at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. Heartbreaking, once again.

Some of my friends went to NIU, and I'm wondering how they are, and feeling very far away.

The campus here is gated, and it seems they can totally close it off. On Sundays, I can only get on or off campus from the faculty apartment area through one exit. There are security cameras around; if I can spot them, then there are probably lots I'm not seeing, too. And I've heard that if the security folks notice something odd, they ride their bikes to the area to check it out.

Of course gun control is pretty tight here, so the security seems a bit much to my mind, being used to open campuses throughout my education. And short of metal detectors, no amount of security would stop a gunman in most situations, certainly not in the day to day life of most universities.

I just can't comprehend violence like this. And I don't want to be able to comprehend it, on some level.

1 comment:

  1. Yeah. I can't imagine what makes someone snap to the point that they go on a shooting spree. And while I think it might be valuable knowledge for humanity to have to figure out why these things happen, on some level, I think that part of the difference between us and them has to do with the fact that we don't understand why they do these things.

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