why is everyone pretending to care about those killed in the virginia tech shooting?

Question

that was 32 people. in the time its taking me to write this i bet 32 people will die, do you care about them? i'm aware this is coming off as extremely callous, but how can you genuinely care about someone you've never met?

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wow.
why do I care?!
because virginia tech is 90 minutes from my house & is a dear place to me. because i have at least 20 friends who go to school there. because 32 innocent people were murdered for NOTHING! because some kid thought that killing people would solve his problems & make him famous. because 20+ people were wounded and nearly killed.
and yes i CAN genuinely care about someone i've never met. my fiance and i visited VT campus Friday, and i broke down when we passed the 2 buildings where the shootings took place. i figured i would get emotional, but it was too much to handle...you should see the faces of the people there...they are so drained of emotion! THAT is what makes me care about those people...just think, 32 families are attending funerals for their family members who were killed for absolutely NO reason...
come to this area (SW Va) and TELL ME who's 'pretending' to care...the answer-NO ONE!"
you actually live nearby, totally different story.

Answer 1

wow.
why do I care?!
because virginia tech is 90 minutes from my house & is a dear place to me. because i have at least 20 friends who go to school there. because 32 innocent people were murdered for NOTHING! because some kid thought that killing people would solve his problems & make him famous. because 20+ people were wounded and nearly killed.
and yes i CAN genuinely care about someone i've never met. my fiance and i visited VT campus Friday, and i broke down when we passed the 2 buildings where the shootings took place. i figured i would get emotional, but it was too much to handle...you should see the faces of the people there...they are so drained of emotion! THAT is what makes me care about those people...just think, 32 families are attending funerals for their family members who were killed for absolutely NO reason...
come to this area (SW Va) and TELL ME who's 'pretending' to care...the answer-NO ONE!

Answer 2

I don't really think that I care on a personal level about each individual. You're right, I have never met these people.
More than 32 people have died by the time I have answered this, but I feel it was the way that these particular 32 people died. They were just sitting in a classroom. Look around you the next time you are out at a restaurant, and imagine someone coming in and laying down, like, 50 rounds of ammo for no reason. It would be the same if a suicide bomber ripped through a public market, except there was no civil war at hand.
Or maybe worse, imagine that happening to your kids or your parents...Still feeling callous?

Answer 3

Hey Deepsinker....u go with that answer....Stalin knew what he was talkin bout.
I don't believe that everyone is pretending to care. I believe that people do care or they would not be listening to it continuously. The t.v. does have an off/on switch...much like everyone's brain.
It is also about news ratings. My God, isn't it nice not to be hearing about G.W., Cheny with a gun,,,, or the Iraqi War...or Terrorists.
It is sad to know that a person was so helpless that no one even noticed that he was sick. It's even sadder that he had to be dead to get any attention and the most pityful part is that he had to kill and maim people. I mean we can learn alot from this situation because for years the shrinks, the media, etc has told us that it is better to mind ur own business....Now we are seeing that if anyone would havebefriended this guy or turned him in then maybe we could have saved a life or lives or injuries. It is OUR business what happens in the minds of other people because their actions may one day DIRECTLY affect our lives.
For example, my daughter knows someone at school who cuts her arm with a razor blade and shows people. She is an attention seeker as we have labelled her. For 8 months, her teacher has seen these cuts and done NOTHING. Yesterday the teacher reported this to the office and the counselor called this girl into the office. Now her parents will be called in.

I mean this should be the school's, kids, etc responsibility to do this because some parents are just too dumb, too busy or could give a crap to look around at their kids. Sometimes it takes an outside source. This source may someday SAVE lives whereas, something might have gone bad had everyone minded their own business.
Alot of good may come out of this. Also alot of good has already come out of it because it has been a QUIET time to reflect and be with friends and family. It has NOT been a drunken brawl or festival or some other stupid event......or some Christmas lunch where no one wanted to be. It has been healthy for alot of people and miserable for some like the parents. But things happen for a reason that we are not aware of. We just MUST have faith that we will find the reason.

Answer 4

Maybe this is a good question. If we asked ourselves on a daily basis if we cared about X amount of people that died that day...well of course we would. It would be some "bad" people that were committing crimes and we might not feel so bad for them. Old people (maybe it's just time). But also families in car accidents. Cancer victims. House fire victims. Famine accross the world, etc., etc. etc. Its just too much to process so we can't dwell on it all.

We as humans need a safe place to go. And we are told that if we study and work hard we will be rewarded. I think getting shot up in a school is about the biggest paradox most people can imagine. A church shooting is bad but not everyone is religious and can't identify with that. EVERYONE can identify with the sanctity (sp?) of school. There were some brilliant professors lost that day and students that had so much potential. I don't think anyone is pretending to care about that..

Answer 5

maybe because we have children
and when you have a child about 1 min later you know you will do every thing in your power to protect them Including lay down your life if necessary
then 18 years later, if you are lucky they are going off to a nice
college and a bright future ahead of them
and then some crazy s.o.b. comes out of nowhere and kills not one, but 32 of them.
if these were 32 drug addicts would I feel the same?
of course not, though I would pity the people who cared about them
when 2 teenagers died last year in Atlanta,two weeks before their high school graduation because they were stupid enough to threaten a Marine, did that move me to tears ?
not a chance
except commiserate with their parents heart break
But these kids were working their tails off to get a good education. Trust me college is not easy. They were doing the right things ,staying out of trouble.
and a psychotic maniac goes on a rampage.
It's like" Friday the 13th" jumped off the movie screen

If you still feel no compassion then I pity you

your parents did not do the job God intended them to do.

Answer 6

I get your point, believe you me. I think it's human nature, though, to feel sorry for someone when you actually see their faces or hear their names. For example, people are all sad and upset when celebrities die and I could care less because they didn't do anything for me. You could die and I wouldn't even know it, so I wouldn't have the chance to care. I think that's the big difference. When there is media coverage of such things, it tugs at our heart strings even though we don't know those people and their families. Publicity is the only factor that makes a difference, to be totally honest.

Answer 7

Most of us have either been to college, sent a son or daughter to college, or a sister, or brother. Very easy to put yourself in the place of the parent getting the phone call that some sick freak loser has killed your son! I guess the easiest way to put this is, when you grow up some more and have a child-you will then understand! It could have been anyone of us getting that phone call! I guess that's part of the joy of being young and foolish--you are still too naive to get it! Enjoy it while you can!!!

Answer 8

Because its more than that. It was the largest mass shooting in American History. Yes, you're right many people die in car crashes, die of cancer, or in double homicides. It was a 32-homacide and a suicide. An anomaly nothing like these other cases. Your reasoning explains why we can move on from this tragedy and continue to live.

The media cares because it's worth money to them.

Answer 9

It was Stalin who once said, "The death of one is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic." May it be known that he killed at least 15 million of his own people, with as many as 70 million possible kills.
Are the tears welling up yet?
Life is precious. The reason why people care about the Virginia bombings is so that their deaths don't become just a statistic. Those people deserved to be remembered so that such an incident as this never happens again. Furthermore, the shootings happened at a college, which makes people think to themselves "It could happen to my kids or in my town."

Answer 10

You can't really care about a person you never met. I don't feel sorrow for the loss of anyone in the VA tech shooting, personally. I care about what happened and I care that there are others out there that I don't know that care because they lost brothers, sisters, daughters, sons and I wouldn't want to think about that happening to me... But do we care about them individually as people? no.