"Can you believe it?" my wife asked me.

"Believe what?" I replied.

"People are calling for the president of Virginia Tech to resign. Doesn't the poor man have enough to deal with right now? What did they expect him to do?"

Her passionate outrage infected me. She was so right. Everyone at ground zero coping with the aftermath of a mass murder deserves condolences, not criticism. We ought to empathize with them, not indict them.

In the name of compassion, common decency, and good sense, can't we put a moratorium on blaming?

There is always time to find fault, to investigate, and to evaluate what was done and what could have been done better, but surely that time is not now.

This is a time to grieve, sympathize, and console. A time to support everyone who must overcome their sense of shock and sorrow and to devote every ounce of their emotional energy to help victims and their families. To do less is indecent and unfair.

Is it a flaw in our national character that makes us so quick to play the blame game?

Fueled by a compulsive need to hold someone responsible, journalists had no trouble finding finger-pointers and blame-throwers. Many were anxious to exploit the human calamity and push political and private agendas against violent video games, lax gun-control laws, or immigration policies allowing too many international students (never mind the fact that the killer became a permanent resident when he was eight). Some even blamed God.

But it is the posse of rush-to-judgment second guessers who faulted university administrators that disturbs me the most. It's not only their terrible timing I object to; it's the irrational assumption that behind every tragedy is malice or mismanagement or someone who should have done something differently. It's as if finding a human target for our feelings of helplessness or rage will diminish our anxiety about our vulnerability to circumstances we can't control.

Perhaps there is no one to blame but the killer himself.

Despite our greatest efforts and highest hopes, horrible things will happen at unpredictable times in unpredictable places. That includes the scary reality that mad people exist and will sometimes find their victims.

This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.