This is not the first time a tragedy like this has occurred.  Remember the Columbine shootings?  And closer to home, the shootings here in Pearl, Ms., just a few yearas ago?  But even before these shootings, there were other times of senseless violence.  Once upon a sniper stationed himself in the bell tower on the campus of the University of Texas in Austin and terrorized the campus until he was dealt with.  Remember Kent State?  There were senseless shootings there during the civil rights years.  And at Jackson State here in Jackson, Ms., there were shootings, also.

So often it seems that people frustrated in life and who may even have kept to themselves and have kept quiet have been the ones who have "snapped" as we say and gone on a rampage.  You wonder what thoughts, feelings, frustrations, angers and furies they kept bottled up within them.  Then there was 9/11.  These were not people who "snapped," but they were fanatical, cold blooded killers who planned the death which they caused when they hijacked the jetliners and crashed them into the World Trade Towers, the Pentagon, and the countryside in Pennsylvania.

As far as I personally am concerned, there is no excuse for killings based on one's commitment to a cause, religion, or cult figure.  While many muslims have attempted to tell the world that theirs is a peaceable faith, I am afraid that the historical record shows otherwise.  Ever since the death of their founder, Muhammad, they have been bent on conquest.  Christianity has likewise been of the same mindset in the past.  But you don't ever really convert a person to your faith at the point of a sword or looking down the barrel of a gun.  Whatever "ism" you may espouse, if it directs you to kill on its behalf, then I believe that you are sincerely wrong in what you believe.  Muslims who are highly critical of the West for a "decadent life style" betray themselves as even more decadent every time they pull off a terrorist attack or kill some "heathens" somewhere in the world.  If you have to kill others to get your way, then there is something very wrong with your way.

I believe that we are all beset with violence in one form or another.  It may be nothing more than very negative, hateful feelings which we harbor within; this is emotional violence.  Can we do our best and most productive and creative work when we are angry or when we are obsessed by seeking revenge?  I don't think so.  Whenever we get angry or frustrated--and we all do from time to time--the best response is to back off, take some deep breaths, maybe take a walk, and think about something else.  We should calm down and then deal with whatever it is which is making us angry and upset.

We have heard rumors already about the young student who supposedly was the gunman.  Whatever the truth about him, we will pray for the campus and the leaders at Virginia Tech as they deal with the tragedy on their campus and seek to find out what happened.  Then they and we will all seek to do our best to insure that something like this never happens again in a place like that--or any place else.