... but because it's not possible to sustain the intensity with which I've felt this whole matter, this is likely to be the last word from me. Today's New York Times has a definitive article on what happened at Virginia Tech last week. Cho's whole life seems to have been a silent cry for help, up to the point where he decided to fight back. Unfortunately, this being Ammurrica, the way he decided to fight back was by arming himself. However long he may have had violent thoughts, we now know…

Of course everybody wants to know why Cho, the 23 year-old Korean student, shot and killed so many people at Virginia Tech (the school where my older son got his MFA, so I have some personal warm feelings for Blacksburg). Those who aren't asking Why are asking How can we prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future? The short answers are, We'll never know, and We can't. And that's true, but there are things we can know and things we can…

I've just been thinking about this, as it happens. And though nobody is reading my blog here I thought I'd post my thoughts so that I don't lose them. I believe since cave man days we humans have been telling stories as a way of explaining our world to ourselves and each other. At the present time, worldwide, we seem to be trying to evolve out of living in a society where one tribe must continually be at war with another -- though some of us have gotten farther with that than others -- and…