Remember This: The State Wants to Lock You Down

Being a perpetually-recovering newsaholic myself, I very much appreciate Taran Jordan’s perspective in Who’s Subsidizing Government?. However, I’d wager that a lot of what passes for news these days is anything but; what it really is is thinly-disguised plumping for some state program, or fiddled press releases disguised as news columns. Most of that dross can be let alone with absolutely no problem. But, other times, paying attention can be highly informative, particularly to the free-thinking individual.

An excellent example of what I mean comes out of the Virginia shootings, in the lengthily-titled
Warning came too late to save lives: 33 killed in attacks 2 hours apart -- 'There was blood everywhere': THE QUESTION: Why did students go to class -- as if nothing happened?. Down into the story (apparently originally from the Washington Post), a crucial statement is presented [emphasis mine]:

"The question is, (where) do you keep them that is more safe?" [University President] Steger said. "We concluded that it was best, once they got in their classrooms ... to lock them down" there.

Officials characterized the response as a "lockdown" in classrooms, but with the first e-mail alert not going out until 9:26, most students were oblivious to any trouble.

Students were “oblivious” to trouble because officials concluded (read: “hoped like hell”) the dorm shootings two hours earlier were the end of the matter. Rather than passing announcements to radio stations to broadcast in hopes commuting students would hear one — and thus make an informed decision themselves — the officials said nothing, gathering their herd to lock them down ... making them easy targets since they’d already been disarmed.

Really, does it need to get any clearer than this for people to start paying attention?