A Pretty Good Day In Iraq

Somebody had to say it:

Breaking news! At least 22 Virginia Tech students gunned down. Cable news channels are wild with activity as they pump up the coverage a focus on the latest "crisis". The media is commenting that this shooting is overwhelming the local medical facilities. Crisis is in the air. Well, at least it ain't Iraq.

Okay. Big deep breath. This is horrible and this is tragic and this gives us an idea of what it is like to live just one day in Iraq [...]

Let's total the score: at least 65 Iraqis dead in four attacks (today) vs. 22 Americans shot at Virginia Tech. Whoops, forgot the 20 kidnapped policemen. Can you imagine?

The next time you hear Dick Cheney or George Bush blame the public attitude regarding Iraq on the media's failure to report "good news", examine carefully our reaction to the shooting at Viginia Tech. Look at our collective shock. Our horrified reaction. The public sorrow. Yet, in truth, this is an exceptional, unusual day in America. It is not our common experience. But we cannot say the same about Iraq.

During the Jewish high holidays of 2001, just days after the attacks of 9-11, I sat in a service and heard the rabbi discuss how Israel had been dealing with this kind of terrorism on a consistent basis for years, if not decades. It was not in any way an attempt to minimize the tragedy of the attacks on the World Trade Center, it was a means to give perspective. That's what viewing today's tragedy through a similar prism does. 32 dead in the streets is a pretty good day in Iraq. That undeniable reality does not minimize the senseless tragedy we saw on our own streets today, best expressed on the front page of John Edwards' website today:

We are simply heartbroken by the deaths and injuries suffered at Virginia Tech. We know what an unspeakable, life-changing moment this is for these families and how, in this moment, it is hard to feel anything but overwhelming grief, much less the love and support around you. But the love and support is there. We pray that these families, these students, and the entire Virginia Tech community know that they are being embraced by a nation. There is a Methodist hymn that gave us solace in such a moment as this, and we repeat its final verse here, in hopes it will help these families, as it helped us:

In our end is our beginning; in our time, infinity;
In our doubt there is believing, in our life, eternity,
In our death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

Our dearest wish is that this day could start again, with the promise of these young people alive. Knowing that cannot be, our prayer is for God’s grace and whatever measure of peace can be reached on this terrible day.

They've buried a child and they understand this like nobody else.

Let me look at this perspective on the flip side. This is the worst massacre in American history, worse than Columbine, worse than Charles Whitman at the University of Texas. It's a significantly rare act. And let me amend my earlier remarks, written in anger, and say that exceedingly rare events like this should not automatically trigger major changes in laws. Let's not flip out and react to this the way we reacted to 9-11 and used it as a means to take away all manner of civil liberties with the Patriot Act. I do think this should open a national converssation about gun control and the best means to prevent things like this from happening. But let's study instead of rushing to a bad conclusion (like trying to search everyone on campus 24 hours a day or something).

UPDATE: Two days ago, the death toll in Iraq was 289. Perspective.