U.S. WILLING TO SPY ON INNOCENT AMERICANS, BUT NOT CAPTURE DATA THAT COULD HAVE SAVED 32 LIVES IN VIRGINIA

The Bush administration has pried into the lives of thousands of unaware US households using our personal data in the name of foreign terrorists, but can’t come up with a simple database that would have kept a mentally ill, domestic terrorist from slaughtering 32 more innocent Americans? The same is true for both parties of Congress and the state of Virginia, the latter of which seems to have some of the worst state gun laws in the nation. This post is not meant as a political statement against guns—although I am pro-gun control—but rather a bewilderment over how this country has proceeded so vigorously in one direction (catching the terrorists), and lags so significantly in another (protecting our kids from horrible occurrences like Columbine, the Amish school killings, and now Virginia Tech). Unless the University comes up with a valid answer re. why all the danger signals did not lead to measures that would have prevented Cho’s violent actions, the Virginia Tech administration is also at fault. It all comes down to the fact that we are too anxious to protect the rights of people like Cho, hesitating to breach the privacy of an individual on the one hand. On the other, we are not willing to guard the 4th Amendment rights of innocent American citizens to be secure in their homes and the search of their sensitive data. Or are we always so in fear of a lawsuit in cases like this that we acquiesce to a decision of non-action, just hoping for the best? Read more on Newsweek/MSNBC.