You’re probably living under a rock if you haven’t heard about the shootings at Virginia Tech earlier this week. Every station you’re on mentions it. The other day, the face of the shooter talked to me from my television all day, even when I drove in my car they played his audio.

It’s all a little bit crazy. I admit to being glued to my television the day it happened, and the day after when they had identified who the killer was. I’ve thought a lot about the debates on what happened, how it could have been prevented, who did what wrong. I’ve got my opinions on things, like how the campus police did as much as they could, that parents shouldn’t freak out about sending their kids away to school because this could happen anywhere, and that people are crazy if they think that this could have been prevented if students were allowed to bring guns on campus.

However, I’m tired of it. I want VT to go on and take time to heal amongst themselves. I was watching the Today Show the day after, and they had a VT student that was also a student at Columbine the day the shootings happened. She was shy and quiet and when Meredith Viera asked her about the media involvement, she said that having the media around made it very hard to come as a community to heal. Every time they would gather or have some sort of memorial, there would be cameras there.

I understand the media’s need to bring news to the general public, but I feel at times it becomes an exploitation of people’s pain for ratings.

Today I was watching the news and the anchor said that Cho Seung-Hui’s parents feared for their lives. The video feed then showed a house, and the ancor went on, “This is where his parents live, in in Virginia.” Come on now, his parents are already getting death threats, why are you going to show their house and tell everyone what suburb they live in?

Ack, times like this I’m glad for the brainless entertaininment that is American Idol.

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