rekkidblogga

The cruelest week

What is it about this particular week in April that spurs such violence here in the U.S.?

Each year I feel a sense of trepidation when the third week of April -- any time from around April 15-21 -- rolls around. And here's why:

April 19, 1993 -- Waco, Texas: Members of Branch Davidians religious sect, led by David Koresh, commit suicide after 51-day siege.

April 19, 1995 -- Oklahoma City: Truck bomb at Murrah Federal Building kills 168. Convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh executed June 11, 2001, for crime.

April 20, 1999 -- Littleton, Colo: Columbine HS shooting massacre leaves two shooters, 12 students and one teacher dead; 24 injured.

And then there's today, now forever etched in our national conscience as the deadliest mass shooting in the nation's history:

April 16, 2007 -- Blacksburg, Va: At least 31 killed, including shooter, at Virginia Tech.

Back in college, one of my favorite English professors once offered our class an explanation of why we should never, ever assume that bizarrely random coincidences "just won't happen" to us. I remember leaning forward, really straining to hear his soft, gentle voice as he recounted for us the day when, as a young professor at the University of Texas, he ran into an old friend he hadn't seen in a while. The guy had experienced a difficult month, our professor said, and Dr. K asked him how he and his family had been holding up since the sad event. "Okay," his friend answered. "As well as you can under these sort of..."

The friend never finished his sentence, Dr. K told us, because that's when the shooting started. Dr. K and his friend were momentarily taken aback; then they started running for cover, just like everyone else in the quad that day.

Charles Whitman killed 15 people, including his mother and wife the night before he began shooting from the University of Texas tower, and wounded 31 others. Dr. K and his friend were lucky that day on August 1, 1966. They survived.

Dr. K wondered how it could be that right then, at that moment, he and his friend were experiencing the horror of a mass killing. And this, coming less than a month after the friend's sister, a nursing student in Chicago, had been killed by mass murderer Richard Speck on July 14.

posted by rekkidbraka @ 3:09 PM