APRIL 18, 2007
"As you draw closer to your families in the coming days, I ask you to reach out to those who ache for sons and daughters who are never coming home." - George W. Bush
As I was reading articles on the Virginia Tech shootings, this comment from "President" Bush really struck me. He made the comment at a memorial service held for the university shooting victims, but what stuck me is that the comment just as easily applies to the war in Iraq and all the sons and daughters who are never coming home from that tragedy, either.
I understand that in a time of national tragedy, the president is expected to address the situation and offer leadership and support, but in light of all the violence and death that's occurred during Bush's term and his flippant, arrogant, and indifferent response to the violence and death his decisions have caused, Bush is the last person who should be trying to lead and comfort people through the latest bout of horrific violence in our country. If a mass murder like this happened at a school I was attending, I'd be angry and heartbroken enough without our war mongering president showing up to hypocritically flap his jaws about unity and support. People need someone who can truly unite and comfort right now, not the poster boy for violence. If I'd lost someone in that university shooting, I would considered it an insult to have Bush speak at the memorial.
I'm not trying to politicize this situation, but I nearly puked in disgust when, right after the shootings occurred, Bush piped up and said that this tragedy doesn't change his views on the constitutional right for people to bear arms. Couldn't he have at least waited until the victims' bodies had been tended to before he defended gun rights? The fact that the president publicly declared his support of gun ownership before many of the families had even been notified that their loved ones had been shot to death is simply reprehensible.
For god's sake, show some respect and empathy. Give the families and students time to grieve before jumping to defend the right to buy and own firearms. The gunman, after all, purchased the guns legally. According to our constitution, he had every right to do so, and to immediately turn around and defend that right in the face of so much tragedy and death is sickening. What's next? Honouring the murderer with a posthumous award for his extravagant use of the second amendment?
[Postscript: I wrote this yesterday but didn't get it posted and in the time since Bush has changed his response to the 2nd amendment issue. Yesterday he said the Virginia shootings didn't change his stance on gun rights but, when asked about the same issue today, he said that now is not the time to discuss gun control, that the country instead needs to focus on healing. Perhaps Bush's handlers informed him that adamantly supporting gun rights right after one of the worst shooting sprees in U.S. history wasn't such a good idea.]
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