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How do you make sense of a senseless act?

There are 33 dead at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. Among the dead, an Asian boy, age 23. From the reports I've read, he allegedly shot two dead in the dorm, then 31 more in a classroom across campus, and then he shot himself. An article in Salon.com reports that one of his teachers described him as "troubled."

A college campus is supposed to be safe; a place to learn and grow and fall in love, not a place to die at the hands of a classmate.

How do you make sense of a senseless act?

In 1966, Charles Whitman picked off 17 people from the top of the tower at the University of Texas. In 1999, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 13 at Columbine High School. In 2003, John Allen Muhammed and Lee Boyd Malvo held my city hostage with random sniper shootings.

What were any of them thinking as they loaded their guns and began their grisly quests? How did they decide that the only solution was murder?

How do you make sense of a senseless act?

I can't make sense of it. All I can do is pray, in my own way, that the families of the dead find comfort, that the wounded get well, and that the students and teachers and families of Virginia Tech can find the strength to overcome the horror of this bloody day.