Coffee is for closers

The title is a stupid movie line that I can't seem to get out of my head this morning. I am contemplating cup of coffee #3 and I rue the radio show that is to come, simply because I have no way of closing the topic du jour that is bound to drive the radio show this morning, that being the Virginia Tech shooting that was unfolding yesterday as we were leaving the airwaves.

Truth be told, we didn't address it yesterday on the show, simply because at that time it wasn't "big" enough. This is where timing comes into play when it comes into doing what I do, As of two thirds of the way through the show yesterday, we had known only that one person was killed and 8 injured, which is newsworthy, but more as a side note than anything else, it wouldn't be the numbers that would drive a radio show as a topic. AS we got closer to the end of the show, a new number of 20 dead and 22 injured was lofted about, these numbers would definitely be large enough to begin drive the show as a topic, but we couldn't confirm the numbers and they were only being reported by a local Blacksburg TV affiliate. The last thing you want to do is traffic in misinformation.

By the time I had gotten home the numbers of dead had become larger still, settling at 33 dead, the largest mass shooting in U S history. I opted to post on the blog a link to the live coverage of the incident from MSNBC, hardly the same as having a microphone in front of you, but it seemed the least I could do. It is not something I plan on making a habit of here on the blog page, serving up breaking news feeds, this just seemed to merit it. Hopefully one or two of you found use of it.

Today people will call us on it, that I have no doubt. Some will call hoping to try to figure it all out, as if we are some great sages full of wisdom. Truth is, we probably have as little a handle on everything as you do. Some will call us, using the very event to push their own political agenda, whether that be gun control, society today, heck we may even take a call or two somehow trying to tie this either to the President or the war in Iraq. I know, it sounds stupid, but I know my audience in that regard. Since the student who is the alleged shooter was non white, we may even get an immigration call or two. In any instance, these calls will have little concern for the victims at Virginia Tech, and all about using the tragedy to bridge to whatever it is they really want to talk about.

Last will be the people looking for some sort of closure or understanding of what happened. I am thankful in that regard that I am not the radio show host this morning, as I would have almost nothing to offer them. This becomes one of those stories that for me anyway, needs to play itself out and all of the facts need to be on the table, and facts are something that we are severely lacking. We have lots of guesswork out there, and all of the news channels are trotting out the resident criminal psychologist they have on payroll for just such an occasion, but they too are doing nothing more than guessing. Finally we will have people looking to understand what happened. This is probably most troubling for me as understanding such an event teeters way to close to the brink of excusing it for my tastes, I would rather just have the facts and none of the probing around in the killer's head.

"Coffee is for closers." Maybe this morning I should pour mine out.