Life After Grad School

Yes, the death of 32 students and faculty at Virginia Tech on Monday is tragic and has touched us all, but does it really warrant the extensive, obsessive media coverage? Let’s face it, while it affects hundreds of people’s lives, the university shooting does not have any relevance on the national or international level. It seemed preventable, but only with 20/20 hindsight, and may point towards some ills in our society, but it was a freak incident executed by one disturbed person. While we’re obsessing over the details of this event, every day more soldiers and civilians die in the Iraq war. These aren’t people who died because of a random shooting. These are people who die because they were ordered to fight a senseless war. Where is the national day of mourning for the fallen soldiers and innocent bystanders? Oh, that’s right, we’d have to declare every day a day of mourning …

To put things into perspective:

• Deaths from Virginia Tech shooting: 32
• Americans died in Iraq war (as of 4/19/07): 3,315
• Iraqi deaths (estimated): 62,000 - 68,000

Enough said.

“The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don’t say ‘I read a science fiction novel that says it’s not a problem.’ You take action.”

- Al Gore, March 21, 2007

Ok, so maybe this isn’t your chance to change the world, but it’s your chance to tell the Massachusetts governer elect what you would do to improve this State. Believe it or not, he wants to know, so sit down and share your ideas at: http://www.patrickmurraytransition.org/index.cfm.

Speak up! Opportunities like this don’t come along very often!

- We saw a terrorist organization win presumably democratic Palestinian elections. Clearly that means that democracy alone does not automatically lead to better government and more peaceful societies (as the leader of the free world wants to make us believe). As long as people feel oppressed and as long as a legal and law enforcement structure that effectively upholds their basic rights is lacking, democracy is not going to necessarily result in good government. I’m sure smarter people than me have thought about this, so here’s the question: what are the prerequisites for a successful democratic form of government?

- What’s with all the coins lying around on the street? So, I realize that a penny buys nothing nowadays and that most establishments won’t willingly accept more than 10 pennies as payment. I pick up pennies for good luck and pass them on, but most end up in penny jars, which means the government has to keep minting more all the time because they don’t move back into circulation. Maybe we should do away with the penny (as suggested to Sam Seaborn in a West Wing episode), since it costs more to mint one than it’s worth. But recently I’ve also been finding nickels and dimes on the street. What does it mean when even the panhandlers don’t bother to pick those up any more?

- Why do the media care so much about when and how the VP publicly announced the shooting accident? It was an accident and not a national security issue. Comedians were having a field day. Period. End of story. Can we get real news now, for a change? Please?

- And here’s a question I actually have the answer to: what’s the cure for hardware disease in cows? And no, this isn’t the same problem that ails your computer periodically. We’re talking nails and other small pieces of metal cows accidentally ingest, such as, let’s say bullet shrapnels. So, the cure? Feed the cow a magnet that will attract all the metal, keep it safe in one of the many stomachs and the cow will live happily ever after. It’s a strange world out there …

- One more unsolved mystery I previously forgot: why do they still make - and/or why do people still buy - hard and medium toothbrushes, even though any dentist will tell you that they’re damaging your teeth?? Inquiring minds want to know.

“Democratic gubernatorial candidate Thomas F. Reilly took responsibility yesterday for failing to closely examine state Representative Marie St. Fleur’s finances and said that ‘’politics are not my strong suit.” - Boston Globe

No kidding.