I've been thinking about this quite a bit of late, mostly in regard to the Jessica McBride hoopla.  A lot of people on the right are defending what she did, and suggesting that I, along with some on the left overreacted.  They are welcome to their opinion.  I also have a feeling that my reasons for being upset over her comments are probably different than other people's reasons for being upset.

What I've come to grips with over the 3+ years I've been blogging is that we tend to move much to fast.  It started with 24 hour news stations like CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, and infects blogging just as much.  I won't even try to claim that I haven't reacted to a story too quickly had to pull back and apologize.  Some might even suggest I did the same thing in this case.  They may have a point.  Speed often times comes at the cost of accuracy and perspective.

What I have seen is that in the last 10 or 20 years, the time it takes for a story to get blasted on the airwaves and all over the Internet, and covered with minute detail, and taken advantage of by every political group in existence, has shortened a great deal, and continues to shorten.  The time it takes a family to mourn the loss of a loved one has not shortened at all in that same time.

Where is the pause for respect?  What happened to the time when we simply said how awful something was, gave our condolences, and then let it be so the family could cope?  After the tragedy at Virginia Tech, it took almost no time for the Brady Campaign to have headlines all over it's website talking about how this proved the need for more hand gun legislation.  I'm sure they thought it was with the best of intentions.  I'm sure they were doing a larger good.  But in reality they were profiting off of tragedy.  NBC News had the killer's video manifesto blasted on the airwaves the very next day.  There were no good intentions there.  That was pure profit.

I'm really getting sick of both sides twisting every tragedy for their political advantage.  I'm sick of everyone swarming around every tragedy and using it as a tool to prove some larger point.  Tragedy isn't a tool.  Tragedy isn't an opportunity.  I hope that explains things a little further.