The shooter at Virginia Tech is being described as a "loner." My mind flashes back to Columbine, and I remember students there were described as such. These shootings are committed by individuals everyone seems to describe as "unhappy" or "a loner." If we can identify people as feeling this way, why does it take until people get shot for us to verbalize that knowledge? Have we all become so consumed in our own lives that we have time for no one else?

I understand it is a bit awkward to approach a stranger, but if you knew it might save a life or two down the line, would you still walk by? Perhaps that is a bit dramatic -- not everyone who is sad or lonely is going to murder others or commit suicide. But does it really take that drastic of an action for people to start paying attention?

We need to spend a bit more time talking to one another. There are a few billion people on the planet, 40,000 just at this school, so there is no reason for anyone to feel alone. Talk to each other more, care about one another more, ask to help if someone is upset. The lesson from Virginia Tech is not what their administration may or may not have done incorrectly or that gun legislation all of the sudden has to be revamped. The lesson is to care a bit more about one another and to express that caring more often, every day, for the rest of your lives. Maybe then those around us, in pain, will start talking instead of shooting.