Saturday

Todays the day I was planning to spend time at the area Democratic club, listening to a presentation for prospective candidates and workers. I actually got to the clubhouse, and even went in, but I didn't hang around. I have reasons (it's a pretty day, why spend it inside; I have mowing to do; I wanted to bake something as a welcome gift for new neighbors; I didn't like that there was no free parking; apparently they really did mean to RSVP, because they had name tags; I wasn't sure how they'd like the answer if they asked if I was a registered Democrat), but the key truth is, I wimped out.

I've been reading people's columns and articles about the Virginia Tech calamity. Even ignoring the blogs with hyperbole as their major ingredient, there's a lot. Two interesting ones -- Science Blogs is pretty literate, and Cynical-C has a running summary of Whom to Blame. For me, I know that I have come to the conclusion that there is no single answer, or even multiple answers. I don't see my society changing its attitude toward the acceptibility of violence soon, and probably not at all; I think that attitude is part of it. I do believe that any answer has gun control as part of it, but I find myself thinking that perhaps the people who advocate being personally armed have something there. I suspect that certain elements can be present in two places and lead to violence in one but not the other, and that a solution that works in one won't work in another. I think we can't defend against catastrophes, or crazy people. We can just prepare, and hope we have all the bases covered.

Its so damn hard to think about it. And its so damn easy to trivialize our response.

I baked the muffins, and now we're going to drop them off. And, to my amazement, I got up this morning and DTB'd.