Very bad

I wrote an entry earlier today about the two young women who were murdered on college campuses this week, but it seems to have disappeared.

I'll try to recreate what I wrote earlier. I've been having a hard time with personalizing, projecting in these cases.

I have a friend who sent me an op-ed piece earlier this year that made the point that some of the more horrifying shootings on school campuses have links to violence against women. The piece called for stronger social reactions to the "milder" forms of violence such as stalking and threats in order to prevent mass shootings and the more "severe" forms of violence.

It is too early yet to comment on what the possible motives could have been in either killing this week. I suspect that in both cases, the perpetrator saw young, slim, "nice" women as easier targets than someone who might at first glance be seen as more threatening.

I can't help but feel tremendous sympathy for the parents and friends of these young women. The Auburn student was, according to a media report I read, in a sorority. Those friendships are intense and develop quickly. I believe the killer victimized all the young women who called her "sister." The young woman in North Carolina seems to have been a rising star, someone who would give more to our world than she would take. I can't help but think that her parents were so close to being able to see their precious graduate from college. Surely, as student body president, she would have had many events to attend, honors to receive, and would have been a speaker at the graduation. It seems that all of that campus has been victimized. I can't help but think ahead to the graduation and realize that there will be a pall on those ceremonies.

And, at the root of it all, is a culture that so glorifies violence that we create people who can commit this sort of crime in the first place.