Aug 25.

8/25/2025 8:18. Correspondence 10

Hi. Let me start by addressing yesterday. 

On the 24th of August, at around 6:45, an alert from USC's emergency alert system came over my phone stating there was an active shooter in the library. It instructed us to perform lockdown procedures and to barricade our doors if necessary. After mass panic around campus and hordes of misinformation, mainly through social media sites like Yik Yak and Snapchat, the police found no signs or evidence of an active shooter and deemed it a false report. That's the short version.

I'm frankly at a loss. It was so terrifying and terrible. There is nothing I can do, no word I can conjure that carries a strong enough connotation to convey the horror of the situation. And this was just a false alarm. This experience was so visceral and nauseating, and no shots were even fired. I can't begin to describe, much less even think about, the pure awful emotions that are experienced during actual mass shootings. I won't. I can't. I'm not a good enough writer. I don't think anyone is. 

I do want to describe my thoughts on the aftermath. Today has been strange. Surreal. Surreal is a word used too often. I'm calling myself out, too. It has lost some degree of meaning and effect. Today, though, was truly and genuinely surreal. I struggled feeling grounded today. I struggled relating to the day before. The thing that was so striking and unbelievable was the normality. Everyone shared simple pleasantries and nods. The buildings were full and bustling. The Tomas Cooper library was back with a stream of people filing in and out. Of course it was mentioned. Of course people talked about it. But it was addressed with a haunting lightness. It was "Can you believe what happened yesterday?" "No dude, ha, that was insane". It was "We were supposed to have the meeting yesterday, ha, you know". It was "what a crazy first week, ha, just glad no one got hurt".

What else are we supposed to do? I'm not mad at these people. I'm not offended. I'm horrified that there was an alert on every single student, staff member, and professor's phone that said, "An active shooter has been reported on the University of South Carolina’s Columbia campus," and that as a society, as a community, we are all seemingly okay and satisfied that it was a false alarm and no one was hurt. Enough to almost act like it never happened and to carry on with plesentries. It is so horrifically normalized. 

We shouldn't be okay with it being fake. We shouldn't be okay with the fact that there are so many mass shootings happening all over the country; we so easily believed one was happening here. 

I'm so glad there was no shooter. So unbelievably glad. But I shouldn't be. WE SHOULDN'T FUCKING HAVE TO BE GLAD THAT NOTHING HAPPENED. IT SHOULDN'T FUCKING HAPPEN AT ALL. To be thankful that it was just a false alarm normalizes every atrocity committed. It reinforces the fact that "this is just the way things are" and that "we are lucky it was fake". We are not "lucky". This country is not "lucky". Oh yeah, let's just all hope, pray, and get lucky that every mass shooting event is just a false alarm. What a wonderful America it would be. 

It shouldn't happen at all. 

Words easily written, I know. It is also not the hottest take, either. Then why isn't anything changing? Why are we all so complacent? Me included. Maybe it's a flaw in society or democracy or guns or people. Maybe it's all of those things. Maybe we feel powerless against it. Maybe we all are just scared, ignorant specks. So scared, we convince ourselves that weapons are necessary to defend against "them". So scared and overwhelmed and ignorant and scared and lonely, we commit atrocities. Atrocities we feel powerless against... 

Until tomorrow, think critically with your mind but always fully with your heart. 

Calvin Landreth