All of this killing is so sad - and I so understand where you are coming from -

That's a really good question, and I'll try to answer it seriously. I think that because VT happened in our own country, it just seems a lot more real. The VT shootings are viewed more as a tragedy, and the deaths of our soliders as a formality of war. People expect soldiers to die, but not college students. Plus, I honestly think that some people have forgotten about all of our soldiers in Iraq...The war hardly even makes frontpage news nowadays. Sad but true. Just remember the fallenf ro yourself...someone has to do it.

That's one way to see it... other way being there are 100's dying in africa everyday as a result of civil wars, many people are still dying as we speak in the border of India-Pakistan. Yet, it doesn't even make it to the news.. have you ever wondered why?! its the way it is.. life goes on.. sadly!

Uh, I kinda see what you're saying. Well, it has been my conviction that no American citizen should should be "shocked" by this Virginia Tech nonsense. This kind of stuff happens all the time. It's like a daily routine in this country. Death is America's number one export, and, as it would seem to be recently, it's the number one import too. I mean, it happened close to where I live. I actually know people who were there that day, and I'm still unaffected by it. People die, sometimes for stupid reasons. You'd think by now we would have realized that. I'll end it here; I don't want to get started on the word "tragedy" they've been using to describe this media fiasco.

The problem I see is that our soldiers have been getting killed so often that we are numb to it. It' so sad that so many have been killed. I think if they reported the total so far, we should be very angry about it. The situation in Iraq just doesn't seem to be improving at all. Our soldiers can't trust anyone there. The Virginia Tech killing was a shock because it was unarmed students and professors in a quiet city. We don't expect to hear about these type of massacres in the US.

I notice and I care and I also think our soldiers should be brought home before any more die. The people that we are having war with should not be in America taking over out soldiers jobs while our soldiers are dying 10,000 miles from home. I don't like to see anyone drink but it kind of gets me when an 18 year old boy can put on a soldiers uniform and be sent to war to die for this country but he is to young to drink a beer in this country. He left this country an 18 year old and came back a year later a 40 year old man in a 19 year old body.

The media, though often viewed as the representation collective thought, is really just a largely for-profit enterprise. The shock value of senseless college student casulties is a likely fodder for the media machine; it is a challenge to the common notion that college is a relatively safe place for young people. There is no lack of concern for our losses in this current war; however, it is rarely preyed upon or trivialized by the media- it is unfortunately accepted as a part of war. Those who die in Iraq, or in any war are considered heroes: brave men and women who lost their life for a greater good. The concern for such such tragedy is shown through anniversaries such as Memorial Day, and landmarks such as The Vietnam Memorial. Their sacrifice will be ceremonially commemorated, memorialized and perhaps even recorded in the pages of history long after the return of VA Tech to its status as "just" another university. Perhaps, the most unfortunate part of the current conflict is the lack of unanimous support from the American people, as was the case in Vietnam. This is a war with questionable pretense and unclear motivations. The media is scrambling to satisfy the concerns of the American population: to find or reject the validity of this war- so that our newest fallen soldiers can be considered heroes of patriotism; as opposed to the senseless casulties of a misguided and futile cause.