Killings raise questions

COMMENT

Not all senseless

deaths are the same

By David Baker

Posted Tuesday, April 17, 2007

The massacre at Virginia Tech is a tragedy beyond comprehension, and yet another reminder of the consequences of America's obsession with guns. But as this terrible story gets almost non-stop news coverage, let's not forget that in the same day that 33 people were killed on that college campus, an estimated 120 people died in the U.S. as a result of entirely preventable medical errors.

That carnage went almost unnoticed. And instead of crises teams to help the bereaved, the medical institutions and their immensely wealthy insurance companies have ready an army of lawyers to beat off anyone who asks the same questions the relatives of the victims of Monday's rampage are asking:

What happened? Why?

Meanwhile, despite all the talk about reducing harm, the number of deaths and injuries in hospitals stays about the same, while politicians and the media put thier own interests first and look the other way.

Which makes all of them just as callous and uncaring as the person who ended young lives Monday in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia.