Bush and Virginia Tech

Cho Seung-Hui. Now we have name to add to gruesome roster of Columbine and Charles Whitman who mounted the 27-story main building at the University of Texas at Austin in 1966 and proceeded to kill 15. Now that we have a name, it doesn't make any more sense, of course, knowing that the shooter was a student or a Korean immigrant or that he'd been in this country 14 years. But just as there's bound to be the Kabuki ritual of a gun control debate there'll be one about whether universities and other institutions can prepare for a moment like this.

I was writing for U.S. News & World Report the week in 1991, the week George Jo Hennard drove his truck into a Luby's cafeteria in Kileen, Texas and began firing, killing 22 and wrote about his act. The southern cafeteria restaurant, a great institution of class and race mixing, reminds me of Virginia Tech. Already we have heroes of the attack: An Israeli professor, an Arab student who filmed on his cell phone, kids of all kinds. Last night the frat guys and proto punkers who spoke to CNN were all united in their grief. Back in 1991, the last time I wrote about one of these events, there's was the same solemnity and astonishment from the witnesses, the same account of an affectless gunman who cooly felled his prey. Back then there were no answers because there are none No society can really prepare for a moment like this. Yes, if the a university president hears there's a killer on the loose on his campus early in the morning he might shut down the whole place. (I'll be surprised if Charles W. Stegner, the university president, lasts much longer than Imus.) About the only hope one can have at a moment like this is that some larger moment of national purpose is found. Bill Clinton helped reelect his presidency after the Oklahoma City bombings by giving a eulogy as good as any. I was with him that day. Can Bush find a similar moment at the Virginia Tech when he speaks at their memorial service this afternoon? He might. But one thing that he won't give are any answers because there are none.

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