You, Yourself

I am, as I’m sure most of you are, saddened to hear that some whack-job decided to take out his frustrations on other people at Virginia Tech yesterday. The comment was made that we should not use the opportunity to try to score cheap political points, or more poetically, don’t dance in the blood of the dead. I figure that’s still good advice, although the people who push gun control as a solution haven’t really restrained themselves. Nor, I am sure, have some people on my side of the issue.

Me? I got no political points today that you can’t find elsewhere. Gun control failed, so the usual suspects will propose more gun control. Rational thinking is not going to be a part of the coming debate. Instead, we’ll continue with the infantilization of young adults by saying something needs to be done to protect the students. Given that I was in the Army at 17, I have this funny idea the students are adults and therefore have the obligation and ability to protect themselves.

Segueing neatly into my next point, if you depend on the police for protection you are a fool. The police cannot be everywhere all the time. They can only respond to a situation once it starts. Until they show up, you’re on your own. It seems to me that placing the campus on lockdown, while useful for maintaining order and making the cops’ job easier, did nothing to protect the greater population of Virginia Tech. Here’s where the “you are responsible” meme comes in. If it occurs to you that sitting passively and waiting for danger to come closer might be a bad plan, do something about it. Mount up and clear the AO by any means necessary. You are ultimately responsible for your own safety. Not me, not the cops, not a university, not the government. If your assessment of the situation means disregarding what some authority figure tells you, ignore them and do what you have to do.