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As awful and senseless as the 32 Virginia Tech murders were, there were similar atrocities happening far away at the same time. On the day before, the day of and the day after those horrors, a total of more than 300 Iraqis were brutally killed in terrorist bombings and shootings in Baghdad and nearby cities.

Of course, the students and staff who died on those Virginia school grounds were our own citizens. We can imagine them as members of our own family, and we feel their losses deeply. However, in one of the Baghdad incidents that same day, police found dozens of young murder victims buried in schoolyards. Did we give that horror more than just a passing thought?

It may be difficult for Americans sitting in safety and freedom to relate to the never-ending atrocities in foreign lands. After all, they happen in a bloody region that has been rocked by violence and terrorism for centuries. That's what those primitive people are like. So, who cares?

Are we shocked only when a mass murder suddenly interrupts our own complacency and feelings of security here in America? We've had violent awakenings to this horror several times in our national history ... Pearl Harbor, the World Trade Center, Oklahoma City and Columbine. And now, Virginia Tech. Are they getting so frequent here that we are becoming used to them, too?

Centuries ago John Donne wrote: Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.

We bow our heads in sad memory for those Virginia Tech victims, and rightly so. But, shouldn't we also take a few moments to mourn those other innocent men, women and children throughout the world who also died on that day because of the same kind of senseless acts of murder?

Learn more about this author, Ted Sherman.
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