New at Reason
Steve Chapman argues against the denialists who think Northern Illinois University can heal if it simply demolishes the site of its tragedy.
Comments to "New at Reason":
Timothy McVeigh | March 3, 2008, 8:51am | #
You mean I could have had a building destroyed just by shooting people instead of all the blowing-it-up work I had to do?Yeah, the dude killed people, so let's blow $40 million for his sake too. Great fucking idea. The shitheads who do these shootings are just getting more and more return on their fucked up investment, aren't they?
What Episiarh said. This country needs a lot less "touchy feely" sensitivity, and a lot more "Fuck You Asshole" attitude.
LarryA | March 3, 2008, 9:45am | #
Most important, it would allow NIU students to show what they are made of. As President John Kennedy said, some things are worth doing not because they are easy, but because they are hard.“God, how can you say that? These are children. They are so fragile. They need psychotherapy. We must erase these memories or they will be damaged forever. We know best. We are acting for their parents. (Who, by the way, didn’t do nearly as good a job raising them as we would have.)
“If we expose them to hard lessons, who knows where it will end? That’s where students get the insane idea they want to carry guns. They start to think they’re responsible for defending themselves. We need a gun-free campus where they are protected by our heavily armed SWAT teams. (Unless they’re being naughty, in which case the SWAT team can—Nevermind, I wasn’t supposed to mention that.)
“They might even get the idea they are capable of thinking for themselves. That would be counterproductive to our mission as an institution of higher education.”
Or, I could be wrong. Maybe these aren’t typical intellectuals. What do you want to bet the new building will be much more “security friendly?”
Warren | March 3, 2008, 9:50am | #
There's a couple ways I was contemplating going with this comment. I went with this one:HARTMAN
Do any of you people know who Charles
Whitman was?
No response.
HARTMAN
None of you
dumbasses knows?
COWBOY raises his hand.
HARTMAN
Private Cowboy?
COWBOY
Sir, he was that guy who shot
all those people
from that tower in Austin, Texas, sir!
HARTMAN
That's affirmative. Charles Whitman killed
twenty
people from a twenty-eight-storey
observation tower at the
University of Texas
from distances up to four hundred yards.
HARTMAN looks around.
HARTMAN
Anybody know who Lee
Harvey Oswald was?
Almost everybody raises his hand.
HARTMAN
Private Snowball?
SNOWBALL
Sir, he shot
Kennedy, sir!
HARTMAN
That's right, and do you know how
far away
he was?
SNOWBALL
Sir, it was pretty far!
From that book
suppository building, sir!
The recruits laugh at
"suppository. "
HARTMAN
All right, knock it off! Two
hundred and fifty
feet! He was two hundred and fifty feet away
and shooting at a moving target. Oswald got
off three rounds with an
old Italian bolt action
rifle in only six seconds and scored two
hits,
including a head shot! Do any of you people
know where
these individuals learned to
shoot?
JOKER raises his hand.
HARTMAN
Private Joker?
JOKER
Sir, in the Marines,
sir!
HARTMAN
In the Marines! Outstanding! Those
individuals showed what one motivated
marine and his rifle can do!
And before you
ladies leave my island, you will be able to
do
the same thing!
P Brooks | March 3, 2008, 9:59am | #
$40 million to erase a memoryErase? They might as well name the building "The Steven Kazmierczak Memorial Palace of Fear."
Nothing wipes out a bad memory like building a monument to it. What a bunch of retards.
I bet the shooter would have LOVED to know that he was making the college demolish the whole building.
Ska | March 3, 2008, 12:11pm | #
You can only hope that some wiser alumni bitch-smack some sense into the university president.I guess resolve isn't a personal attribute any more. But people shouldn't have to deal with anything that makes them uncomfortable - this is America!!
bill | March 3, 2008, 1:53pm | #
Am I mistaken or didn't VT lock up and stop using that building?About a decade ago, wasn't there pressure to close a fast food joint that'd been the site of a multi-shooting? And why aren't people calling this sentiment what it is: superstition?
juris imprudent | March 4, 2008, 2:34am | #
About a decade ago, wasn't there pressure to close a fast food joint that'd been the site of a multi-shooting?The McDonalds in San Ysidro, CA. It's been gone over 20 years. The 'new' one is two blocks from that one.
Superstition you say? Why only primitive people believe in that!
Ventifact | March 4, 2008, 12:14pm | #
I hate to be cynical (no I don't), but I wonder how much this decision turns on every administrator's desire to oversee the construction of shiny new facilities.I mean, come one, a reason thread without rabid fear of bureaucracy? (I'm glad I was able to help.)
Russ 2000 | March 5, 2008, 12:24pm | #
The school is now reconsidering the decision to raze the building.