The recent horrific shooting spree at Virginia Tech has placed politicians and pundits in the unenviable position of explaining the unexplainable and ensuring that it will never happen again. Neither one is possible. What the talking heads will never say is that these kinds of events can never be ultimately explained or prevented. But secular hand-wring in public has become de rigeur in these situations. Explanations for Mr. Cho’s destructive shooting spree range from issues of isolation and mental illness to campus security to the blunt pronunciation by Lawrence O’Donnell on The McLaughlin Group that “guns did this.” Democrats were strangely silent last week, having been creamed by gun control in recent elections. Don’t look for any legislation to emerge from the Virginia Tech shooting spree.

 Certainly one good idea is to get rid of the stupid principle that mental health issues for people over 18 should be hidden from university administrators and parents because of privacy issues. The Wall Street Journal recently ran a story of a collegian who struggled with depression for months and ultimately committed suicide without the parents ever being notified that he was struggling. How about letting parents get copies of grades, while sending 40k a year to Harvard! College students are not real adults. They are transitional human beings who are very vulnerable. It’s time to re-adjust our thinking here.

 Underlying so much of media analysis these days is the idea that human nature is ultimately benign and that 18-22 year old students can easily handle the stress and freedom they are subjected to. The one great “lesson learned” in all of this is that human freedom is a daunting gift. The stewardship of freedom is fragile at best but can also be ennobling. Just as Mr. Cho made the decision to plan and execute his attack, so 76 year old Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust survivor, made the decision to barricade a door allowing his students to escape, giving his life in the process. Freedom was the great and sobering gift given in Genesis. God looked on all of it and called it good. Humankind wonders.

 The gift of human freedom looks both horrific and noble on the margins. For every Mother Teresa, there is a Charles Manson. For every Hitler or Stalin, there is a Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela. These extremes inspire us on the one hand and revolt us on the other. A lot of airtime will be taken and ink will be spilt looking for solutions to Mr. Cho’s brand of violence. This is all well and good. But to anyone who thinks there will never be a next time are gravely mistaken, just as those who think 9/11 was the final act of terrorism within our country are grossly deceived. Military spending is prudent for the world as it is.

 Human beings and especially Americans are fond of tackling issues head on, looking for solutions. This is all prudent and responsible. But the fact is that human nature has not yet been repealed. Those who say “war is not the answer” have never examined the reasons for war, the unchanging aggressiveness of human nature. The Book of James calls it “the desires that battle within you.” The one fact that has not changed since creation is the nature of man. Unfortunately, there are elements contained within us not subject to politicians and the laws they make. Much of what emerges from post Virginia Tech conversations will be similar to what happened in Genesis, sewing fig leaves to hide our nakedness. Human nature marches on through time. In this case, the nakedness is the absence of real solutions to the misuse of human freedom. Anyone who thinks there will never be a next time is gravely mistaken.

John Pendleton