Should games be suspended today in light of recent events?

[Ding Dong Johnson]

I think a moment of silence would be the most appropriate thing at this point.

 

Agreed.

[MSG T]

I know it's not to the same scale, but when the same thing happened at Iowa the day before a football game, they still played, but Hayden Fry had the team pull all of the gold stickers off of their helmets as a show of respect and thoughts for the students and admins killed.

 

I think a moment of silence would be appropriate at all of the games, and possibly the VT patch for the Nats. I don't think anything more would be neccesary.

[RynoRules]

They should ban all automatic and semi-automatic weapons in honor of the victims.

[Fro]

21 people have been killed, I certainly do not care about baseball today. That the least of our worries.

 

I don't mean to be insensitive or anything, and I know several people that go to VT, but there are about 89 firearm deaths on the average day. This is a horrible tragedy, but there are tragedies everyday. You can't cancel events for every tragedy especially when there's no connection between the tragedy and the event.

 

I agree with this post completely. If it was a Chicago Cubs v.s. Virginia Tech Hokies game today it'd be a different story.

[moorecg]

They should ban all automatic and semi-automatic weapons in honor of the victims.

 

I'm a gun owner...and I think this is a fine idea. At the very least all automatic, and semi-autos with clips more than 9 bullets.

[Pushfrog98]

21 people have been killed, I certainly do not care about baseball today. That the least of our worries.

 

I don't mean to be insensitive or anything, and I know several people that go to VT, but there are about 89 firearm deaths on the average day. This is a horrible tragedy, but there are tragedies everyday. You can't cancel events for every tragedy especially when there's no connection between the tragedy and the event.

 

I agree with this post completely. If it was a Chicago Cubs v.s. Virginia Tech Hokies game today it'd be a different story.

And the way the Cubs are playing lately, VT would be a tough game, so it'd be a good day off.

[Banedon]

Over 3300 Americans have died in the Iraq war since it began 4 years ago, and I don't recall stopping any games for them. As tragic as the Virginia Tech thing is...I don't see how that's more significant than those soldiers deaths.

[soccer10k]

I think a moment of silence would be the most appropriate thing at this point.

 

I agree. The only sporting events that should be postponed are those that Virginia Tech is playing in. But that's it. A moment of silence would be perfectly fine with me.

[jersey cubs fan]

I think a moment of silence would be the most appropriate thing at this point.

 

I agree. The only sporting events that should be postponed are those that Virginia Tech is playing in. But that's it. A moment of silence would be perfectly fine with me.

 

I could see UVA cancelling as well.

[muntjack]

Over 3300 Americans have died in the Iraq war since it began 4 years ago, and I don't recall stopping any games for them. As tragic as the Virginia Tech thing is...I don't see how that's more significant than those soldiers deaths.

 

Because these weren't willing participants in a war.

[Fred Hornkohl]

I flew to Virginia back in January to attend the wedding of a young couple, both of whom are VT alums. Sat next to a gentleman at the reception who is a professor there. What a shock, and what a tragedy !!

 

I don't believe that suspending pro sports would be appropriate in this circumstance. Just my opinion.

 

I had one disjointed thought during the day. If this is an average day in America, 109 will lose their lives on our nation's highways. My heart goes out to the victims and the families of all these tragedies, large and small.

[Roast]

canceling games would be pointless. The only time I remember games being canceled (notice...I'm only drawing on 10 or so years of coherent memory..) was after the September 11 attacks. And that wasn't so we could pay respects to those who have passed, it was because as a country we felt that it was unsafe for large groups of people to be assembled in one place due to a fear that there may still have been more attacks planned.

 

This is nothing like that. It was one crazed lowlife who went on a rampage.

 

Play Ball.

[VanceJergins]

Over 3300 Americans have died in the Iraq war since it began 4 years ago, and I don't recall stopping any games for them. As tragic as the Virginia Tech thing is...I don't see how that's more significant than those soldiers deaths.

 

Because these weren't willing participants in a war.

 

That doesn't make the soldiers' deaths any less tragic.

[Southpaw191679666239]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Columbine tie-in, where it concerns sports. I was at Wrigley on 4/20/99, and there was a moment of silence before the game.

 

Sadly for me, I hadn't heard anything about it, so I was kind of agitated because I didn't know what the moment of silence was about, because I couldn't hear the announcement. When I got home and heard the news, I felt bad about being agitated.

 

Needless to say, the game was played.

[soccer10k]

canceling games would be pointless. The only time I remember games being canceled (notice...I'm only drawing on 10 or so years of coherent memory..) was after the September 11 attacks. And that wasn't so we could pay respects to those who have passed, it was because as a country we felt that it was unsafe for large groups of people to be assembled in one place due to a fear that there may still have been more attacks planned.

 

This is nothing like that. It was one crazed lowlife who went on a rampage.

 

Play Ball.

 

I could see a professional game being canceled if the event took place at a school in a town that also had a professional team playing there that night. But other than that, the pro games shouldn't be canceled.

[ConstableRabbit]

Over 3300 Americans have died in the Iraq war since it began 4 years ago, and I don't recall stopping any games for them. As tragic as the Virginia Tech thing is...I don't see how that's more significant than those soldiers deaths.

 

Because these weren't willing participants in a war.

 

That doesn't make the soldiers' deaths any less tragic.

 

They're both tragic, but I would say that a shooting rampage in a place of academia by a student is more surprising and shocking.

 

Not that we "expect" soldiers to die by any means, but the idea of death is much more relevant in their occupational description than that of a student.

[Banedon]

Why does the fact that soldiers volunteered to go defend the country and died in that service mean that they are any less important or less worth of a "day off" of baseball than those that died tragically today? Honestly, that seems completely irrelevant.

 

Yes, today's shooting is surprising and shocking, but really, where would the line be drawn for calling off sporting events?

[pitchcs]

I think it would be great if the Nationals put a VT patch on their jerseys for the rest of the year.

 

Sorry, but I really could not see this happening.

[rocket]

a moment of silence before the game is fine

[SaorsaDaonnan]

Over 3300 Americans have died in the Iraq war since it began 4 years ago, and I don't recall stopping any games for them. As tragic as the Virginia Tech thing is...I don't see how that's more significant than those soldiers deaths.

 

Because these weren't willing participants in a war.

 

That doesn't make the soldiers' deaths any less tragic.

 

They're both tragic, but I would say that a shooting rampage in a place of academia by a student is more surprising and shocking.

 

Not that we "expect" soldiers to die by any means, but the idea of death is much more relevant in their occupational description than that of a student.

 

 

I think this is a tough question. On the one hand, it's clearly wrong to suppose that a soldier's life is less valuable than a student's. On the other, it seems to me that it is, often though not always, less bad when a soldier is killed than when a student is killed. Unlike the solider, the student is defenseless and unsuspecting. Put it in 'military' terms: killing innocent civilians is worse than killing armed combatants, particularly when the armed combatants are trained, voluntary professionals serving in an official capacity as instruments of their nation's will. Emotionally, I want to add that it's worse if some of the victims are female. Whether that is a legitimate claim I don't know.

 

It seems to me that the identity and purposes of the killer also matter. Certainly we would be less upset if the same number of students had died as an unintended side-effect of an enemy attack on a legitimate target. This attack is worse for three reasons: 1) defenseless, noncombatant people were purposefully attacked, 2) the attack was not designed to serve a broader goal, so the attack can under no circumstances be seen as a tragic excess in a partly-justifiable struggle, as perhaps some civil killings could be, and finally 3) the identity of the killer himself. I'm not aware of any reports of his motives, but at this time it appears that he was a lone actor operating for purely personal goals, quite possibily connected to depression, lonliness, disgust, ect. Had he killed these people as part of some quixotic effort to save something or somebody of even questionable value, his action would be more understandable though certainly no less acceptable. But every appearance is that he killed these people for the purely selfish purpose of satisfying his obviously distraught emotions, whether the goal was to show people how wrong they were to ignore or insult him or to inact some sick fantasy.

 

So, I propose this: the tragedy seems worse to us not primarily because the result is worse -the death of one good, upstanding person is no worse than the death of another- but because the act was worse.

 

I do not think the games should be cancelled. I agree that there should be a moment of silence. A controversial question may be this: shall it be 32 seconds,or 33?

[Brian]

It wasn't mentioned at all at the game last night (that I heard)

[woodchip2153]

It wasn't mentioned at all at the game last night (that I heard)

 

I didn't hear anything at the Cardinals game last night either, but it appears they are having a moment of silence today.

[NCCubFan]

They had a moment of silence before the Cubs' game today. I'm assuming they're doing that at all the games today.

[NCCubFan]

The Nationals are wearing Virginia Tech baseball caps for tonight's game.