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The brighter side of Blacksburg
Apr. 18th, 2007 11:20 amSince I am a negative person and I see a lot of negativity in Blacksburg, I must necessarily try to find the positives. It does no good to say it could have been worse, but one professor making a heroic stand did make a difference. The positive energy being poured into Blacksburg is tremendous.
We fault our politicians for being inefficient and generally idiotic, but when it comes time to pay the proper respects they actually put their rhetorical skills to good use. Even a show like American Idol realizes the gravity of the situation by foregoing its usual silly banter at the beginning of the show.
Most of all, it serves as a painful reminder that life is worth living. Life is precious, so precious that we can't put an amount of money on it, even if we do. As long as you have your life, you can change your fate and that's what is most important.
We like to focus on the bad apples in the bushels, so much so that we can take the good apples for granted. It's not as if those good apples are randomly there. Nope, many good things have to go right for that to happen.
In counter-terrorism, the analogy is that of a goalkeeper. It doesn't matter how many you save, it's the one that get through. That's human nature.
But I believe we also should appreciate the effort it takes to prevent the other ninety-nine goals. It's just harder to do so because we often have know idea who or what or where they are.
We fault our politicians for being inefficient and generally idiotic, but when it comes time to pay the proper respects they actually put their rhetorical skills to good use. Even a show like American Idol realizes the gravity of the situation by foregoing its usual silly banter at the beginning of the show.
Most of all, it serves as a painful reminder that life is worth living. Life is precious, so precious that we can't put an amount of money on it, even if we do. As long as you have your life, you can change your fate and that's what is most important.
We like to focus on the bad apples in the bushels, so much so that we can take the good apples for granted. It's not as if those good apples are randomly there. Nope, many good things have to go right for that to happen.
In counter-terrorism, the analogy is that of a goalkeeper. It doesn't matter how many you save, it's the one that get through. That's human nature.
But I believe we also should appreciate the effort it takes to prevent the other ninety-nine goals. It's just harder to do so because we often have know idea who or what or where they are.
