Shooting at Virginia Tech (and others like it) is not about guns. Instead it is about something much deeper. Let's begin the conversation...

I watched in stunned sadness as word came out that 33 young people were killed today by someone who was obviously desperate, out of control, feeling they were out of options. Given the person who committed this ugly, violent act committed suicide, we may never know all of the reasons why. In the immediate term, most people don't want to know why. In the long term though, most of us ask that question. Why? What makes someone just snap like this?

I've read some posts today about the shooting and there are some who are using this as a reason to advance their anti-gun agenda. If private gun ownership were outlawed, this wouldn't have happened, they argue. While I understand their passion, it's a flawed argument, one I would think we all would understand by now.

You know the saying. "Guns don't kill people. People kill people." Perhaps the more accurate way is saying "People kill people and sometimes their weapon of choice is a gun." We can insert a myriad of items in place of gun: knife, axe, hammer, bomb. Or hands. While a gun provides the option of harming or killing more people than a knife or other such weapon, taking away guns from all citizens is not going to stop this kind of senseless killing.

It is time to talk about our culture in a new way, in a way that's never been done before (at least not in any real public format). I'm not just talking about violence and how it is glorified on television and in the movies. That's been talked about enough. I'm talking about what we value in this society. How we treat one another. How we FEEL about ourselves, about one another. Our fears, our hopes, our dreams. Our pain, our anger, our prejudices. Sorry folks but until we truly get "touchy feely" with one another, we're going to continue to miss the train on this gun and violence issue. Today on Oprah the conversation has begun on Don Imus' thoughts and his following firing. I watched the show for the first 30 minutes (missed the last part--had to tend to doggie duty and get back to work) and did not see ONE person admit to any of his or her own racist, sexist, etc. thoughts. And that's too darn bad. Having an open honest candid conversation as Miss Winfrey advertised it as MUST include that finger being pointed in our own direction as well and not just about what we can do differently but what our own thoughts and actions are and how they contribute to this particular social problem.

I realize I am speaking about two different issues here: gun violence and racist thoughts. But they are related in their own way. Both are the results of unacknowledged pain and fear. We must begin talking about our American Way of Life. Rugged individualism. Capitalism, or shall I instead say greed (not personally against a for-profit system--just against that profit outweighing human dignity, value and worth). Competition. We must ask ourselves what we value and how we define worth.

People shooting others. People shouting racist thoughts. There are reasons why people do this. We must understand why and talk about it. There is a real opportunity for healing here. A REAL OPPORTUNITY. Life keeps tossing these things out at us. Wouldn't it be nice if we actually got it for once as a collective whole?