I've been avoiding writing this missive, mostly because I wasn't sure anyone involved wanted any more attention paid.

But here it is:

As many of you know, the last con I attended (I was the Author Guest of Honor) was TechniCon. Others may or may not have made the connection that it was the official SF con of the Virginia Institute of Technology where the recent mass killing occurred.

I'd do a con report but at this point it would be in bad taste.

Frankly, I was awaiting response on the part of my contacts at the Con because I didn't want them to think I was capitalizing on their tragedy by doing a 'me too' posting. 'Wow! I was just there! I could have been a victim too!'

Gag me. Anybody who says something like that needs to be added to the list of victims. But I figured I should say something.

Unfortunately, all my attempts to contact them are returning as 'user unknown.' Hopefully that is a bit of messed up technology and not what it appears.

Given all those conditions, I'm going to say very little about the mass killing. Except this:

Would everyone please quit trying to win political points over it? I don't care if you are pro-gun or anti. I don't care if you think that people with CCW would have reduced the death toll or 'it's just another sign of too many guns in America .' I don't care if you use it as a sign that all Koreans need to be tossed out of the US or the 'ethnicity' of the shooter shouldn't be an issue.

Would people please have the simple dignity and respect to pay attention to those who have to deal with these events and forego, for just fucking  once , the finger pointing? 32 college students are dead. Young people, smart young people going to a tough school and with years of productivity in front of them ripped out of the world for no reason whatsoever. No great strategic purpose, no tactical rationale, nothing but the actions of a disturbed kid who had no better way to express himself than rage and anger.

Let's give some distance, okay? Let's give it a couple of months, at least a couple of weeks, before we go trying to score political points. There's time later to pick over the details and argue (pointlessly in my opinion) about 'what went wrong.'

For the time being could we just care about the people who are hurting? Huh? Maybe? And I direct this to every fucking blogger, journalist and politician on the face of the earth. Just  shut the fuck up  with the political points. Just SHUT THE FUCK UP. Don't try to score ANY MORE FUCKING POINTS. A. You're not. You're just making yourselves look like assholes. B. You  are assholes. Every. Fucking. One. And I direct this at my political friends as well as my enemies. Shut. The. Fuck. Up.

Later, maybe, will be a time for debate. A time for ritual scab picking. Let's get to the fucking scab point before we do that. Okay?

People have asked me what to think, what to say, what to do. 'You've dealt with death and mayhem alot. What do we do?'

Don't have alot for them. You can pat a shoulder, you can tell them it's okay to cry. (And it is, even for the guys. Not a time to go macho. The release gets alot of chemicals converted you don't want building up. Cry in the shower if you're embarassed by it.) You can point out what a person is probably going to go through in the aftermath, the PTSD apects, the grief cycle, the nightmares. But in the end, each person must walk his or her own personal path of hell and redemption. Some walk it strongly, others limpingly but in the end nobody can walk it for them. They're just going to have to put one foot in front of the other and walk.

I don't even have good words. I steal those of others. And few have ever said it better than:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: 
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. 
At the going down of the sun and in the morning 
We will remember them.