Another Roanoke Times article that appeared on Monday describes a series of meetings between members of the Virginia Tech administration and families of the shooting victims. These meetings were scheduled as part of the settlement agreement and were intended to give the family members an opportunity to review changes to the response plans for future campus emergencies. From the description in the Times, it sounds like the bulk of the meeting was spent pointing fingers and attempting to place the blame for the tragedy on someone other than the shooter.

I have stated before that I have nothing but sympathy for the victims and their families, but there is no amount of finger pointing that will bring them back or undo the events of April 16th. Blaming the school for failure to prepare for an unforeseeable event, or for failure to somehow instantly notify 40,000 people is simply foolish. Hindsight is always 20/20, but none of the critics of the administration response could have better anticipated or prepared for the tragic event.

Call me heartless if you will, but there is a time to grieve and there is a time to get on with your own life. None of us can put ourselves in the shoes of the victims or their families, but this does not mean that their experience makes them experts in emergency preparedness. The same can be said for the families of the 9/11 victims, many of whom seem to believe that they are somehow better qualified than the architects and the urban planners to guide the reconstruction at Ground Zero. Seven years after the 9/11 attacks, the former WTC site is still a massive hole in the ground. Will the families of the shooting victims still be hounding Charles Steger in 2014?

Read my original post on the $11 Million Settlement

Brewery owners Ray Jones and Brett Nichols have fought an ongoing battle to have their new facility licensed since early Spring, and even if the small number of people who oppose the license ultimately lose their fight, they can keep the application tied up in appeals for another 6 months. A delay of that magnitude, and the legal expenses incurred in the process would be enough to bankrupt almost any new small business before it ever opens to the public.

I had the chance to visit the brewery back in April, and to speak with the owners at length about their fledgling enterprise. This is a wonderful example of two people trying to create a unique business from scratch on a shoestring budget, and their concept ties in beautifully with other local businesses that draw vital tourist dollars to Floyd county. If a tiny handful of God-fearing county residents have their way, their neighborhood will be protected from the evils of alcohol, and a couple of hard working entrepreneurs will be bankrupt in the process. I’m sure Jesus would want it that way.

The purported reason for the settlement was to protect the state and the school from lawsuits by the victims and their families. The fact is that the state is already protected by sovereign immunity, and as an agency of the state, Virginia Tech should be afforded the same protection.

Advocates for the victims families are quick to criticize the school for failing to notify students of the dangerous situation, and for failing to lock down the campus after the first shooting occurred. This position is patently absurd. The campus is a small city unto itself, with a daytime population approaching 40,000 people. Fewer than 25 percent of these people actually reside on campus. Somehow the school administration was supposed to anticipate this event, and have in place a system to instantaneously contact 40,000 people spread across several counties. Hindsight is always 20/20, but not a single critic of the administration would have been any better able to anticipate the tragedy that occurred.

The world we live in is not always a safe place, and tragedies do occur on a regular basis. Unfortunately, we have become conditioned not to accept tragedies for what they are, but to place blame and seek compensation from parties with even the most tenuous connection to the events, based solely on their ability to pay. This is exactly what has happened in the case of Virginia Tech. There is only one person responsible for the shootings, and that is the student who pulled the trigger. Since he is dead, and his family lacks the means to “compensate” the victims, they and their attorneys must place the blame elsewhere.

The federal government set a dangerous precedent when it established the compensation fund for victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Again, the purported reason for the settlement was to protect the airlines from lawsuits. The airlines were no more responsible for the attacks than the administration at Virginia Tech was responsible for the shootings. This was simply another case of placing blame and seeking compensation from the party most able to pay. Will the government be as quick to compensate victims if the next attack claims 300,000 lives instead of 3,000?

Critics of earlier settlement proposals complained that $100,000.00 was not adequate compensation for a human life. These people are absolutely correct. There is no amount of money that can make up for the loss of a loved one, but that is not the point. What these people fail to take into consideration is where the money must come from. Virginia Tech is not some “greedy corporation” with unlimited resources. To borrow a phrase, We are Virginia Tech.

As a state supported institution, the school’s main sources of funding are tax dollars and tuition. If the college were required to pay compensation to the victims and their families, that money would come out of the pockets of taxpayers and students. As taxpayers, you and I are no more responsible for the tragedy than the college administration, yet we are the ones who would ultimately foot the bill. The only other alternative would be to place the burden directly on the students in the form of tuition increases or cutbacks in programs. Either way, innocent parties are left holding the bag.

UPDATE

Read the follow-up article Finger Pointing And Program Cuts At Virginia Tech