Wednesday, April 18, 2007

The meaning of 32 dead

The events on the Virginia Tech campus on Monday morning have shocked an entire nation. And with good reason, 32 innocent people were cut down for no reason. Their families, their friends will never see them again. Among them there may have been future peacemakers, healers, inventors, etc. Among their future children there may have been presidents, humanitarians, CEOs. The fabric of time is forever changed when one person is killed in a seemingly random manner. We know all of this of course, but what makes it disturbing is the number. 32 all at once. There can scarcely be a person in our country that doesn't know about this horrible tragedy.

So how can it be that when a nation commits a similar act of unmerciful mass killing against its own citizens that almost knowbody knows about it? Where were the 24 hour news networks when the 13 de Marzo was sunk killing 37 (not 32, but 37) innocents, among them several children? Where was the outrage and the show of moral support for the victims?

The answer as we know is that there wasn't any wall-to-wall coverage of the even deadlier event in Cuba and there was no moral support for the victims or outrage toward the perpetrators because almost nobody knew, (and today almost nobody knows) about it. Why? Was the story too difficult to get details about? I don't think so.

As has been the theme of this blog since its inception 2 years ago, the mainstream media simply maintains a willful blindness to the Cuban tragedy. There is no action, no matter how bloody, that these powerful institutions are not willing to turn a blind eye on.

Are the victims of the 13 de Marzo any less of human being than those of the horrible acts in Blacksburg? I don't think so, but maybe in the eyes of some "progressive" journalists they are. In fact I will argue that the crime against those 37 Cuban victims was a of a greater magnitude because it wasn't the act of one troubled anti-social man. It was a premeditated act of state sanctioned violence, the perpetrators of which have never been brought to justice.

My heart mourns those lost on Monday as it does for those lost in a little-known, almost-forgotten incident 13 years ago.

3 comments:

Uncommon Sense said...

Henry - That was beautiful, and right on target. The Va Tech story is a big story, and is being covered as such. But there are so many others, like the 13 de Marzo, that the media misses, willfully or otherwise. I wish I knew the answer to that. - Marc

Mizzoubanazo said...

To me it's only puzzling for the first few years after the revolution.

Today, though, the answer is simple: Bureau today, gone tomorrow.

CUBAWATCHER said...

Well done Henry - lest people forget.

Una velita pa' esos que murieron en Virginia.

-Anatasio