on monday i joined a facebook group lending penn state's support and prayers to virginia tech. the summary of the group includes the number of victims -- originally at 33, but a member asked that that number be reduced to 32: thus discounting the killer.
i argued this. in a post that, i believe, has now been deleted, i argued that the killer is a victim too. isn't he?
this morning, i checked my personal messages to find an attack had been levied at me. and here it is.
boy i don't know: The killer does not deserve to be remembered. He was not a human being or a person worthy of anyone's respect. Please take that Bible toting bullshit elsewhere.
my response: excuse me, but i didn't attack any of your beliefs in saying that a person is a person. my "Bible toting bullshit" has nothing to do with my feelings about a killer being a person. commission of a crime does not strip a person of his humanity. what about that kid's poor parents? he's got 'em too. and i bet they're hurting just as much as anyone else's.
everyone deserves to be remembered -- even people who hurt others, even those who can't find it in their hearts to forgive.
in this time of tragedy and mourning, we should pull together - not fight about who's feeling the worser hurt. i understand your views, but i don't agree with them.
please don't message me again if you can't be respectful of my opinions.
it is so upsetting to find that so many people can't seem to understand that humanity is immutable -- nothing human is foreign, right? or is it that nothing foreign is human? we argued that in high school and it's still an enduring debate. i, for one, am not about to shun a member of the species for one act of pain and horror.
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- No longer a student... but still as poor. Happily engaged to TheBoy and living in Los Angeles (LaLaLand). Stop and stay awhile
3 comments:
::Hugs.::
'manda, i am interested to know your feelings on the death penalty. maybe this is my own "bible toting bullshit," but i personally believe that humans are imperfect, judgment belongs to god, and we are not to decide who "deserves" to live or die. my dad has told me he'd like to see "more public hangings" and both my parents have always told me some people "just should be killed." this, to me, is very far removed from true justice. i think it strips people of their humanity as well -- the executed is stripped of his life; the executioners are reduced, ironically, to hired murderers for the state; and what about the families of the victims, who are often invited to watch the death for a feeling of closure, justice, satisfaction?
this is quite the tangent, but i think it's related somehow and i'd like to hear your thoughts.
also, i joined one of those remembrance groups the other day, but promptly left because i felt it had become a center of hate and intolerance and argument, rather than unity and compassion. one poster insisted that all international students should undergo regular testing to make sure they were stable enough to continue to attend the university. i also find it sad that there was a mass exodus of korean students from virginia tech on monday because they were afraid of how they would be treated if they remained.
I wrote a similar entry in OD recently. What happens to one of us, any one of us, happens to all of us. Glad we're on the same page.
~WEAVER
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