Questions
When you think of what answers NIU needs, what answers that the Huskie community absolutely yearns for, the obvious one is “why”, in its many different forms. Sam touched on the why question in her first hand account. Sadly, the most important why question may never be fully answered. And that, is difficult for those left behind to cope with.
In the struggle to cope we have all leaned on friends, loved ones and the community around us, something that will continue long after the peering eye of the media has packed up its encampment and the national spotlight is long gone.
Eventually, they will be back. Next year and maybe a few years after that. They will be back to tell the tale of what happened in Cole Hall February 14, 2008, one year later, or five years later. When they do come back they will see a community that has healed and is still healing. A university that continues in its mission to provide people with a chance to get a leg up in life, despite events that may try to refute that purpose. The point is, we will move forward, eventually. Even if some questions are unanswerable.
The major battle ahead for the Huskie community is to try to deal with information as it comes, as it attempts to provide some of the answers we so desperately seek. Something we will try to assist our readers in doing. In the attempt to know why, some of the questions that people will try to answer may just end up being the wrong questions. Too many guns? Not enough? Too easy to get guns? Too hard? Too many drugs? Not enough?
Unfortunately, all of these questions only address symptoms of the pervasive violence we see in our culture. Which leads me to believe, that while our culture cannot bear sole blame, it certainly is contributing in some way to a phenomenon that is bringing fear to classrooms, malls, and large gatherings across the country.
If anything good can come from this horrible tragedy, maybe it will be that we can begin to address the root causes of what is becoming a more common occurrence than anyone would like.
Tags: dekalb, niu, niushooting