European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 18, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday april 18 2007 stars and stripes Page 17 opinion Only an endless Loop of unanswerable questions by Marc Fisher the Washington Post students children really captured the sounds of gunfire on their cell phones and in minutes the blasts were on radio and television professors substitute parents of a sort listened to the gunshots some grabbing Stu dents off the sidewalks others trapped in Side their offices unable to help the firing continued for half an hour As their friends died College students some not Long removed from being tucked into bed each night leaped from windows and took off their sweat shirts to press them against bleeding wounds and carried the injured out into the open searching for safety but there was no safety to be found Mon Day morning on the Campus of Virginia tech in a society that floats on an Ocean of information the tools of technology kept spewing data but the bits added up to no meaning there was Only an endless Loop of unanswerable questions hours after so Many lives had been shattered there was no motive no name Noth ing but an Assurance that the bad Man was dead and that he had acted alone so we were left with random images and sounds from a morning of random terror kids living on their own for the first time received Only this guidance an official email hours too late a gunman is Loose on Cam pus stay in buildings until further notice Over and Over we saw the video shot by a student who had not yet been warned to stay inside and students parents and the rest of us demanded to know Why the first email from the College did not arrive until two hours after the first shootings Over and Over we heard the recording of the shots students reached in their dorm rooms told us they were spending the Day searching the web for Good information there was none to be had instead we re cycled the same expressions of horror and anger and sympathy immediately too Many people tried to tie thin strands of information together to use in support of their particular causes and beliefs gun control for Campus Security but although were Good at measuring horrors against one another were too hungry to ascribe meaning where there is Only some thing far More unnerving no meaning no message just random rage As a Soldier in Germany during world War n Kurt Vonnegut the great american writer who died last week witnessed horrors even worse than the Virginia tech kill Ings he reported what hed seen applied his intelligence and imagination to those in comprehensible human acts and came up with this so it goes if we could Only understand we could feel safer if s the random that terrifies the mad act of a solitary killer randomly slaughtering innocents in the most optimistic phase of their lives at a place that is entirely about creating possibilities creates vastly More victims than the murderer Man aged to shoot months years from now the pain and fear this Man caused will diminish the lives of a generation of Young people just As the Columbine shootings did adults who grew up free to become masters of their surround Ings plotting their own innocent childhood amid confusion caution our leaps of Faith endure Chicago Tribune editorial if s a momentous decision for a family settling on where a child goes to College the rampage monday at Vir Ginia tech unnerves not Only the fam Ilies of students there but All families that entrust students to campuses and of course student themselves but if s also a momentous decision every Day a Parent walks a Kinde Garmer to school and leaves the youngster behind in the care of teachers or every morning that a husband and wife part for work Tak ing their chances on expressways and trains or every time a High school student backs out of the driveway All these partings carry the same ques Tion will this be the last time i see him or her usually thais a question easily pushed to the Back of the mind not so in the next few Days Many news stories about this shooting will chronicle a grotesque time line exploring How each step led to the next and to the next until gunshots crackled on Cam pus these stories will delve into the mindset and motivations of a killer but what to do with that information the mind confronts vicious random Fate and demands explanations it wants to Dis Cern patterns where there May be none to seek hints about How to interrupt the next time line to save potential future victims some people May read the Anatomy of this Slaughter and decide not to Send their kids Back to Virginia tech or not to do what in the aftermath of such horror we Check the doors and windows of our per Sonal Security plans twice we examine All the assumptions we have made about the safety of our loved ones All the risks we accept in the Normal course of living our lives some people May refine those Behaviours impose new rules to Cut the risks but in the end we go ahead with our lives hop ing that today choices wont bring Sor Row this is the time of year that High school seniors choose the colleges  attend truth is All such decisions require a leap of Faith today we mourn the dead we hug the people we love a Little bit tighter we pre pare for our next leap of Faith the mind confronts vicious random Fate and demands explanations adventures will once again tighten the screws on their own offspring Security will be ratcheted up yet again schools and parents will assert evermore constant surveillance and control Over kids and the freedoms that Chil Dren enjoyed virtually throughout the history of civilization will seem Ever More like something out of a Distant work of fiction the Backwoods rambles in Mark trains Sto Ries the revelatory misadventures that cd Salinger Holden Caulfield grabbed for him self the Road to places unknown celebrated by Jack Kerouac the relative handful of losers who emerge from some noxious soup of dysfunction with unchecked rage will be with us always the question for the rest of us is whether to let their insane acts so diminish the lives of Young people that the Only frontiers left for them to explore Are the virtual ones they travel through by Click and scroll Marc Fisher is a Post columnist a grim display of our vulnerability to terror san Jose Calif Mercury news editorial for Young americans the Halls of Virginia tech were deadlier Mon Day than the streets of Baghdad by evening the toll at the University stood at 33 including the gunman mostly students the worst mass murder of its kind in this nation it was a horrific reminder that Al Aida has no franchise on terror our Homeland Security is As vulnerable from within As it is from global forces the Shock and grief of loved ones can Only prickly City by Scott Stantis be imagined the Young people who died had headed to College not Boot Camp the sacrifice of american lives in War is hard enough to accept but the senselessness of their murder is absolute As always americans look for explanations signs mat were missed places to As Cribe blame should the 26000student University have shut Down after the first two murders in a dorm it might have saved lives and those who failed to make the Call and later emailed students to stay indoors Proba Bly will second guess themselves forever but at the time the potential carnage want that Clear the first killings appeared to be a Domestic dispute and hours passed before the rampage began after Columbine we Shook our Heads at the warning signs that seemed to have sur rounded the Young gunmen but went unheeded a few years ago a student at Dean a College in Cupertino Calif was found with an Arsenal and a Campus attack plan in his room but no friends or family uncovered his intentions he was caught Only be cause a photo clerk noticed his pictures of weaponry we can be Ever More vigilant we must be better at sending out mass warnings when unidentified shooters Are on the Loose both on campuses and in communities but for now we can Only Send thoughts and prayers As the tale of this latest attack unravels and the name Virginia tech Dis places Columbine As the icon of senseless violence in America