What we can do to stop lots of gun related violence...

Get the hell out of Iraq.

My brother in law is an engineering student at VT and my best friend is a faculty member. I was physically sick with worry as the events unfolded until I was able to speak with each of them and learn they were OK. I don't want to think about how terrible it must be to be one of the many people who made phone calls like mine and did not get good news. The whole event and the political/media aftermath has caused a monumental change in me.

In the wake of the horrific events at Virginia Tech, amid this period of mourning for the dead and empathy for the loved ones they left behind, the inevitable questions about how it could have been prevented are being asked by and of almost everyone. Some good ideas will be posed and some bad and most of them will be hotly debated. It's possible that some new gun legislation will be passed, security measures will be increased and some personal freedoms will be eroded. At the end of the day none of it will bring back those who lost their lives and in reality it probably won't make us much safer. The fact is if a lone individual, for whatever reason, is troubled enough to decide to kill people at random, that person will find a way to do it. We can never be 100% safe unless we all walked around naked under constant surveillance and oppressive security.

I'm not saying we shouldn't try to change gun laws or overhaul security on college campuses. We can certainly do some things to try to minimize the number and scale of tragedies such as this shooting rampage. But we can also do so much more on such a bigger scale.

Millions of us are mourning and honoring the dead at VT. We are millions of people abhorred by and opposed to violence yet our government is committing, condoning, sponsoring funding and enabling massive amounts of the most horrific violence every day in Iraq. More than 3300 young Americans and countless thousands of Iraq's have died so far in Bush's War. There is no end in site, the gunman walks freely and he keeps reloading. But our Congress can stop him. We can stop him. We can take away his bullets.

As America slowly works its way through the stages of grief in the coming days and weeks, we will eventually want to do something to start the healing process. We can't bring back any of the dead but we can stop many more people from dying by doing everything we can to stop the madness in Iraq, the people who started it and those perpetuating it.

I haven't been what most would call an activist since my college days in the early 90's. Sure I write and call my representatives from time to time on some issues, but primarily I've just been reading and educating myself for the last year or so and getting frustrated by what I learn. Perhaps seeing the coverage of the gatherings and communal grieving at VT have got me thinking about my college days again and the angry motivated young punk I used to be. Whatever the reason, I've reached a tipping point and decided I must do more at this time. We have a new impeachment initiative starting in my area and I plan on being at their next meeting. My representatives in Congress are going to be receiving many more calls and letters from me and I picked out a great spot to hang a freeway sign for April 28th. I'll be carrying sidewalk chalk with me everywhere I go for when I feel an inspiring message coming on. Somehow this tragedy has changed me for the better. It woke me up from a long sleep and helped me shed my apathy.

I can't be alone. If you're out there and know you can be doing more to fight for peace, get involved in the most important struggle against violence of our time. Help stop Bush's War.