This afternoon, I cursed my car stereo.
I heard our President’s remarks at the Virginia Tech convocation, and cursed in disbelief.
In a democracy, the offering of condolence is an accepted part of a statesman’s job. Just as there are ribbon cuttings, ground breakings, and state dinners, there will be times of shared hurt with your constituency. When one is elected, it is for thick and thin, good and bad. Now, for the higher offices, like that of a Senator or a President, a show of support in times of sadness is a relatively simple matter. The mere act of taking time out of a known-to-be busy schedule to appear at a family’s side or to be present at a memorial ceremony, that can mean the world to all involved.
It takes very little.
Only a day after the shootings at Virginia Tech, President Bush was there. The logistics of moving a U.S. President aside, as I’m sure the local authorities already had their hands full with the investigation, I’m sure the people of Blacksburg overlooked any inconvenience and were comforted that he and wife Laura made such an effort to attend this afternoon’s memorial convocation at Cassell Colliseum.
And yet … that was not enough.
Opportunity presented itself, so our President spoke. Before the assembled crowd, he offered remarks. Typically, these are the times when statesmen shine, possibly because they can feel the sense of longing from those in attendance. With so many wanting some modicum of reassurance, how can anyone help but try to sustain them, even a little?
Now, I know that our President is no Bill Clinton. He’s no Reagan or Kennedy. But still …
He started off as expected, thanking his hosts and all in attendance. He explained why he and his wife had come to Blacksburg, that they came bearing sympathy and an assurance that America shares their grief. Then he delved into a brief recounting of the events of yesterday, saying how events took a “dark turn” that likely established that day as “the worst day of your lives.”
And then he said this:
It’s impossible to make sense of such violence and suffering. Those whose lives were taken did nothing to deserve their fate. They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now they’re gone — and they leave behind grieving families, and grieving classmates, and a grieving nation.
This is when I cursed.
How dare he? How dare he? Read it again.
They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Wrong place? Wrong time? No, sir, I beg to differ. For all of the unanswered questions we may forever have about just what went on at Virginia Tech on April 16th, I can assure anyone concerned that those who fell were most certainly in the right place at the right time. They were in class as their college schedule dictated. They were taking exams according to someone’s syllabus. They were exactly where they were meant to be at the very time they were to be there.
They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s what you say when some unfortunate tourist loses their Fodor’s and walks into a back-alley meth lab full of drug-addled thugs at 2am. But Virginia Tech is an American college campus, one that was relatively sedate up until the odd bomb scares of last week, and even that threat was merely potential, not actual.
They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Did someone write this for you, sir? If so, fire them. Immediately. After looking over the remainder of the remarks — which I read and did not hear — I’m guessing that someone else did compile the rest of his observations. The later references to “dorm rooms and dining halls and on blogs” kind of gives the game away.
It has been said before, but rarely has the proof of it been made more clear than with this absolutely uninspired assessment. Our President is intellectually lazy. This sounds like an accusation that only an English Major could level, but this kind of laziness is incredibly detrimental and arguably dangerous. Obviously, the President meant nothing malicious with this remark, but he really didn’t give the statement much thought either. Words like these, particularly in times of suffering (even at a micro level, right in the Blacksburg community), deserve thought and consideration.
I’ve never made it a secret that I wish our President were someone other than he is. To this day, I still have moments of yearning that can best be described with the initials W.W.J.B.D. — What Would Jed Bartlett Do? And while the race for 2008 is giving me hope, far more than I had ever in 2004, I fear for the lasting damage that will be left behind by our current President’s sheer lack of empathy, of humility and of common sense.
And any hopes for impeachment not withstanding, the best any of us can do until January 20, 2009 is to keep cursing the car stereo.
[tags]Virginia Tech, Bush’s Last Day, Wrong Place, intellectually lazy[/tags]
