words fail

There's not much to add to Dr. Faber's post below about the massacre at Virginia Tech. In these situations the words mostly distort and cheapen and inflate and trivialize. That's why I remember such a visceral distaste for the media circus after the comparatively minor massacre at Simon's Rock. And that's why it seems grating to me today, like in the only "news" clip I saw on the internets today. Why is the first question to a wounded student, "how do you feel?" How do you think he feels, idiot?

I'm all for reporting the news and finding facts, but do you need any extra emotion for this story? Why are we so fascinated by other people's misery? Do we not get enough on our own, or does it make us feel better by comparison? And yet, after sucking down the last morsel of impertinent information, and learning about the perp's best friend's favorite bands, we promptly forget and do absolutely nothing until the next massacre.

We all suck.