In the wake of the school shootings in Virginia, a lot of people around here are a bit jumpy. The shootings are a hot topic all over the department and among the students. So when this emergency message popped up on my computer while I was typing a worksheet for one of my classes, I even began wondering if something was up.

I picked up my cup of tea and wandered down the hallway to inform other people in the department like the message stated. I figured that since there are so many graduate students whose computers are crap and probably could not receive the message, it would be best to let them know something may be up. It’s Tuesday, so there weren’t many students in–just one, to be exact–or just one with her door open. So I asked her if she’d received it. She said no but immediately started worrying anyway. I wasn’t worried myself; I’ve received prank messages via the Novell network in the past and could just as easily see this as a prank as real. We checked the ISU Portal for announcements and saw none, so I meandered back to my office to finish my tea and call OIT about it. I caught one of the professors on her way out and asked if she got it, and she seemed to agree with my idea that it was a prank or a mistake of some sort. However, the grad student refused to leave the building until after I had called Campus Police to ask about the message. I already had the phone book out to call OIT, so I figured I may as well call the police first. They informed me that it’s a message they composed in case an emergency like the shootings were to occur at ISU, but that they sent it to everyone by mistake. I told the student who then left for class, feeling a little more secure in the knowledge that she wasn’t likely to be gunned down once outside of the building.

It’s interesting how terror works. The grad student, before she left, was talking about how we need to take more precautions on campuses, going so far as to inspect all students’ luggage and furniture via x-ray or personal search to make sure students aren’t bringing firearms onto campus. She said we need more security like what they have in airports. She’s scared, and that’s what these killers want. If everyone’s in a panic, then everyone’s all hiding away letting the fear spread and take over–which lets the people behind the terror spread and take over. By taking away more and more of our personal liberties such as privacy and dignity, we become prisoners as a result of the attacks and the government’s reactions to them. While I understand Public Safety’s reaction to and subsequent precautions for events like those in Virginia, coming up with ways of preventing similar events at ISU, I don’t entirely understand the student’s point of view. Hiding solves nothing; it only cheapens life as we know it. If we ran scared from everything that could hurt us, we’d never leave the house. Heck, we might not even stay in the house since statistics show most accidents occur in the home. If we considered every possible outcome for every single day, we’d be stuck doing nothing but thinking about the future without ever really working to get there. It makes me want to go back and read Robert Lynn Asprin’s Phule series again. There’s a scene in one of the books where the captain of the spaceship is talking to one of the crew who has become terrified at all the possible accidents one could have in space–so much so that he can’t even get out of bed. The captain tells him that it’s not that you stop thinking about the bad things that happen, you accept that they might but don’t let it stop you from achieving your goals and living your life because they’re just as likely (if not more so) not to happen. Life’s too short to freak out at every little occurrence–bad or good. I do wish, however, that the bad occurrences were fewer and the good more numerous. But we’ll never get there if we let every bad occurrence set us back ten paces. So here’s to the future and here’s to the families of those killed in Virginia. I hope this event doesn’t make them afraid to live their lives to the fullest.