The Virginia Tech Blunder

A few months ago right after the Virginia Tech massacre I was at work and noticed a co-worker (I work at a Best Buy) who seemed stressed out. I asked her if she was feeling alright, to which she responded "Man, it's just that school shooting thing. It's so crazy... It's really bothering me." For the rest of the day she went about herself obviously disturbed and saddened. I genuinely felt sorry for her.

Now don't get me wrong, events like these are terrible things. It's always sad when someone dies, no matter what. Hell, I don't even condone the death penalty. However, I guess since I realize that horrible events happen like that every single day all over the world and we just don't hear about it unless it happens in America, I wasn't all that worked up because of it. I just sort of went about my day.

At the end of my work day a friend and I were standing at customer service and the store was closing up. At that point I noticed some customers attempting to come in to the store after we had locked up, to which I commented to my friend, "Those crazy bastards are probably trying to break in here to shoot us all. Or return something. Either way I really don't feel like dealing with them." Now, believe it or not, I honestly wasn't making the "shooting us all" joke in reference to the Virginia Tech shootings that happened early that day. The joke just kind of came out. I didn't even make the connection until a few seconds later when I looked over and saw someone staring at me shocked and appalled at what I had just said. The worst part about it? It was the same co-worker who had spent the entire day depressed and bothered because of the shootings.

There was nothing I could say to convince her that I was not making fun of the Virginia Tech massacre.