To the UNH Community:
As an American and especially as a college student, I was profoundly saddened to see the carnage that was unleashed this past Monday down in Virginia. Watching the news all day, one got a sense that the worst case scenario really did unfold at Virginia Tech and that there seemed to be nothing anyone could do to stop it from happening. The facts are astonishing to say the least. Thirty-three human beings wiped off the map by one college senior wielding two handguns. It literally is a nightmare scenario, and the level of violence has many asking the obvious question of "Why?" I see students on the news blaming Virginia Tech for not responding accordingly. Next I see tenacious reporters from CNN, MSBNC and many of the other media outlets in this country asking the police chief and the president of the university what went wrong. Sadly, many people are simply missing the point. In short, this country has made its bed, and sadly, we must now sleep in it. We live in a culture that is infested with violence. It sickens me to see commercials for popular video games such as "Grand Theft Auto," where a player is rewarded for carjackings, murders, kidnappings, and pistol whippings. Are we seriously pedaling these games to young people? Honestly, if you think that is bad, just take a look at our movie industry. It is pathetic that movies such as "Saw" and "Hostel" find their way anywhere near a movie screen. If our collective young minds are craving so much violence, why is our army lacking enrollment numbers? Even on TV the images of dead bodies and twisted serial killers find their way to the screen in an alarming fashion. This culture has become too accelerated for its own good and the problem is that we can't seem to stop doing many of the things that drive our culture to distraction, myself included, and that slippery slope we are headed down keeps getting more and more treacherous. It honestly does not surprise me one bit that a troubled, young college student would act out like this; what surprises me is that it hasn't happened more often. Most people can buy a gun in this country, and we all know the tragic power a weapon of that caliber can possess. I attended college in Virginia my freshman year before transferring to UNH, and I can vividly remember my roommate and many of my close friends packing up their guns and hunting gear every Saturday morning and going out looking for some quail. In many parts of Virginia, a gun is an accepted accessory for everyday life. Few should be surprised that this young man was able to attain a gun with few credentials present. With the obvious exception of the shooter, it seems to me that it is tough to blame anyone for this tragedy. What can be surmised is that the violence that seems to dominate our culture may be reaching a tragic crescendo. How much worse can we get than what happened this past Monday? The answer hopefully, will never come.
Alexander Plummer Senior
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