Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.

'April is the crulest month' - T.S. Eliot

As the Internet fills with information related to the killing rampage at Virginia Tech, one can also hear a quiet voice of reason in the background. But only if you listen closely.

In December of 2005 campus police attempted to have Cho Seung Hui involuntarily commited to a mental institution. Let's face it, if you're in college -- where students are given a substantial amount of leeway -- you have to be acting pretty damn strange to have authorities want to put you away. In separate incidents, two female students asked the police to take disciplinary action against Seung Hui. A campus psychologist determined that Mr. Cho was mentally ill, and ordered a regimen of outpatient treatment. But despite all of this, Cho Seung Hui was able to buy not one, but two guns in a period of about five weeks.

This is what you need to purchase a lethal weapon in Virginia: a diver's license, a checkbook with an address that matches your driver's license, and one more form of I.D. In Cho's case, he used his immigration card. The gun shops both performed an instant background check to be sure that he wasn't a felon, or a subject of a restraining order. He wasn't either of those, yet. So they took his money and handed him a Glock 19 and a Walther P22. Today, 32 people are dead as a result of those sales.

So now the voice of reason returns to the stage. It says "Why on earth do we make it so easy for anyone -- and obviously this incident demonstrates just what 'anyone' means -- to obtain a weapon capable of killing dozens of people?" Human beings are notoriously prone to unreasonable emotional acts. A gun can easily make the difference between an argument and a murder. Or in this case, a killing spree. Why do we continue to let people purchase guns as if they were a form of entertainment? How has the gun lobby become so powerful? Why do even reasonable politicians run from this issue as if it were plague?

And of course, the voices rise from the other side. Not the dead, mind you, they can't be heard now. By the other side, I mean the people who think that it's only natural to carry a gun around like a wallet or a purse. John McCain immediately rushed into the fray saying "I do believe in the constituional right that everyone has, in the Second Amendment to the Constitution, to carry a weapon." Mr. Cho was certainly exercising that right.

My favorite comments come from the people who believe that guns are sacred. As much a part of America as war and taxes. The Charlton Heston types. What they're saying now is if only some of the other students and faculty had been armed, Seung-Hui would have been cut down by 'return fire'. I'm not making this stuff up. I guess these folks think the only sure way to level the playing field is to ensure that EVERYONE is packing a piece. Even a bunch of students and faculty members on a big college campus. Kind of like cowboys and indians forever. Does this remind anyone other than me of Sterling Hayden's character in 'Dr. Strangelove'? Hey, this way if anyone steps out of line anywhere, a nearby law-abiding citizen can simply pop a few dozen caps into the hapless fool, then continue with the conversation on their cellphone.

While we're on the subject of guns and ammunition, and since we've all just paid our federal taxes, it might be appropriate to mention the plight of the V-22 Osprey. The V-22 is a hybrid aircraft that can fly straight up and down like a helicopter. Then in-flight the wings rotate, and it flies like a conventional airplane. At least that's what it does on a good day. On a bad day, it kills lots of people who are attempting to fly it. The Pentagon has spent $20 BILLION DOLLARS developing the V-22 to date. The total budget allocation is roughly $55 BILLION.

This intriguing aircraft has taken 30 lives so far -- in test flight crashes. How bad does a plane have to be that even Dick Cheney tries to kill it four times? (This is when he was defense secretary under King George the first.) But thus far congress has kept the V-22 program alive. Perhaps that's because work on this project is spread out across 40 states and 2,000 subcontractors. In other words, just like the firearm industry, there's a lot of money at stake. I found a figure for 'hunting related equipment' sales in 2004 -- it was $2.8 billion. A drop in the bucket compared to the V-22. Military sales are where the real money is I guess. But then again, tell that to the parents of the dead students at Virginia Tech.

Next Poem

I’ve thought about it a lot
and here’s what I’ve come up with
unless you embrace everyone
all various facets of existence
all poverty
all disease and despair
as well as your own exalted state
of privilege
then you are nothing
merely a repetition of so many countless
before you
glass raised to the heavens
a tad confused
pure joy
elusive
no matter how much therapy
or searching
or trips to the wine bar
you are merely another
child
of the moneyed
the journey filled with dreams unfulfilled
wrinkled sheets in the morning
and the wrong face in the mirror

among all those you’ve known
your strongest fear
is that you may be
the least
unique

you admit it to no one
least of all yourself
but you smile nevertheless
then get on the train
with so many others
who feel just like you

then you realize
you’re thinking of that drink
at the end of the day.