Tuesday, August 1st, 2006
This day in history…
Forty years ago today, architectural engineering student Charles Joseph Whitman initiated a sniper rampage from the top of the U.T. tower (the building on the right in the above picture). Before Austin police could take him down, Whitman’s fury left 15 dead and 31 wounded.
All available accounts of the incident point to a troubled youth with an abusive father who finally decided to end all the pain by going out in a blaze of delusional glory. In many ways, the the shootings could be seen as a warning sign of the voilence at high schools and middle schools across America to come, most especially the tragedy at Columbine High School.
However, given the hightened level of eliminationist rhetoric directed at those in academia, it is only a matter of time before someone pulls a Charles Whitman in the name of ideological purity.
