Virginia tech

Since the murder spree at Virginia Tech, many colleagues of mine have been asking questions such as: “How would you feel if you were one of the students affected … like your roommate is gone forever or your friend from down the hall was in the shooting?” or “What about if the guy that committed the murder was your roommate?”

Well I want to look at this situation from a different point of view. How would you imagine you would feel or act if you had found out that the child you had raised had just killed a bunch of innocent people at college? Would you feel even worse if you were the one who pushed them into going into college? If you added any stress at all to the guy’s situation … would you feel the slightest bit responsible?

Now there are a bunch of stories about things people noticed that could have prevented the situation if it were addressed early on. Everyone feels guilty for the actions of one. Since the most common thing to do would be to try to cast blame upon someone… do we suggest that it is everyone’s fault… or no one at all?