Virginia Tech, Imus, and Blame

My friend wrote me like a one-line email last week about Imus. Kind of a, "Wow, did you hear what he said?" (I had only heard of it at the time). And in true J. Cullinane form, I wrote him back an essay on my opinion of what I now see as our culture of overzealous blame. He didn't really respond after that.

Beau and I have been talking about this for awhile now, and it came up again with the whole Imus situation. My problem for awhile has been the whole concept of blame. My personal opinion on Imus is mixed. I thought he did a really mean, stupid thing, but was kind of shocked at the rabid response and his subsequent firings. At home, sick, I watched the two days of "Town Hall" meetings on Oprah which featured various black leaders, entertainers, authors, shrinks, and students discussing the whole issue. I thought it was pretty fascinating and I don't think I quite realized how deep some of this pain goes, and that Imus was just a symbol, or, a catalyst.

Back to my point though, there seems to be this, almost nation-wide, INSTANT witch hunt that goes on when anyone with any remote spec of celebrity says something stupid/mean/racist, etc. Not that saying any of these things is ever okay, but it's just that suddenly, whatever the person said is splashed on TV and print for DAYS, the s/he always has to give multiple public apologies, get suspended, meet with the ACLU, do volunteer work, be tarred and feathered...and of course, let's not forget...

GO TO REHAB!

I just think it has gotten way out of control. I know in the course of joking around we have all said something that could have easily offended lots of people, but can you imagine going through ALL this for it? I try to be sensitive to others, and Beau even thinks sometimes it goes too far where I'm careful not to offend ANYONE, but that doesn't mean I haven't ever said anything that would make me some kind of public target.

When I was an undergrad at a Jesuit university, I had to take a LOT of philosophy. This included an introduction to Existentialism, a school of thought, that for the most part, I really identified with (except for the whole "the body is disgusting" part). In particular, I liked how it believes in accepting blame for one's mistakes and not trying to make excuses or point the finger at another. We are all responsible for our own lives. I felt this was something really missing in American culture, where we are so quick to either blame someone else, or eager to diagnose and medicate problems. This doesn't mean I've been innocent of course. I've sought my own medical attention for things and felt a sense of relief when a problem was identified and sometimes then prescribed something (especially in regards to my stomach).

But I can't stand this whole notion that not only is everyone innocent because of things happening to oneself. It's not my fault! It's my parents/teachers/environment/physician/boss/broken heart, etc. To me, these things are all influences, sometimes very strong ones, but influences nonetheless. In the end, we all make choices in our own behavior. Responsibility and blame are not the same.

And now, with the whole sad shooting at Virginia Tech, every time I turn on the TV, all I hear is blame blame blame. Not so much for the shooter, who was obviously disturbed, but for the university, the president, the campus security, the Virginia police. Why didn't they do THIS soon enough? Why didn't they do THAT? If I am correct, that school has nine THOUSAND students living on its over 2600 acres! AND it has another 14,000 students driving in from the surrounding area. How do you "lock down" 2600 acres of anything that isn't a fenced in prison? It's ridiculous. I work at a university with about half as many total students, and about 1/10th the acreage and I cannot imagine a) notifying the entire campus immediately of something of this nature, or b) locking it down in any way. If they use this tragedy to try and develop better ways to communicate en masse with their student, staff, and faculty, great! I wish them luck on such an ambitious task.

And I certainly can't see blame in police believing this was a "domestic" act considering it was initially confined to one dorm and seemed to be an ex-girlfriend (that last fact I'm not sure of). Who would possibly imagine he would then walk to an academic building and open fire on dozens of people afterwards?

It saddens me to see so many people so quick to seek blame and fault at this time, just hours after it all happened. I don't know, maybe if it was my child who was shot, I may be reaching out for some sort of vengeance myself, but unless there was some sort of gross negligence on the part of officials, which I clearly do not see, why why why blame them? Why go after them as if they caused this event? Accountability is fine, I obviously believe in that. I believe in justice. But in needs to be directed to its proper place -- the shooter.

And I'm sure, as the days go on, we'll find out just how disturbed he was, and how it's someone else's fault for not throwing him in jail, committing him to an asylum, etc. How can anyone know the heart of another? Even if there were "warning signs" that something was wrong, would anyone ever take the leap to think a massacre would follow? And is that truly something we should be blamed for?