Virginia Tech

[john m roberts]

For four days I've heard talking heads call this "the worst school massacre in American history." It isn't. That record is still held by the town of Bath, Michigan, where in 1927 yet another nutjob with a grudge planted about 1000 lbs of dynamite beneath a local school and set it off, after first murdering his wife and tying up all his animals inside his barn, which he set on fire. Then, as a crowd gathered to rescue those inside the school he detonated another bomb inside his shrapnel-filled truck, killing himself and several more victims. The ultimate death toll was 45, most of them children 12 and under. Searching the rubble, police found another 500 lbs of dynamite unexploded. Had it gone off, the body count would have been much higher. The incident made headlines worldwide, but there was no media frenzy, not because the press of the day was more restrained, but because they were already engaged in another frenzy - the Lindbergh flight.

I have yet to hear the incident mentioned in all the reporting about VA Tech. I guess 80 years is too great a historical gap for American audiences to comprehend, no guns were used, tv and video games couldn't be blamed, and there was no race angle, so effectively there's nothing to be mined from it. The guy's problem? He was angry about a school tax, which he blamed for his farm's failure. He left behind a message: "Criminals are made, not born." Another failure who had to blame everyone else for his own problems and kill innocents in revenge.