After the implosion of Don Imus' career, phone calls came into The Advertiser newsroom from folks who just didn't get it. They had never heard such words before and earnestly wanted to understand what all the furor was about.

Advertiser staffer Pat Glaser took many calls, mostly from older local men, who were trying their best to sort it all out. "I keep having to repeat: "Nappy, no, not snappy, nappy."

Blank silence on the other end. So? And?

Picture little gatherings of retirees drinking coffee at McDonald's across the state puzzling about it for hours.

"AND 'HO' MEANS 'WHORE.' "

This part registered. One guy said, "Geez, how can he call those nice girls that?!" Glaser reports.

Even after the words were explained, they still didn't understand why someone would say such a hurtful thing.

Trying to understand stupidity is one thing. Insanity and rage defy explanation. There are some things that will never make any sense.

The tragedy at Virginia Tech shook the core beliefs we rely on to move about this world with some sense of security: the belief that we can prevent and control. What could have been done to prevent this? No good answer surfaces.

As the saying goes, locks are made for honest people. Rules are made for rule-followers. Those determined to break the mores of society find their ways.

Kick him out of school? That wouldn't keep him from coming back on campus with guns.

Lock him up? The guy was functional enough to be in college. America is built on the belief that it is wrong to lock people up for what they say or how they think. Before this obscene act, Seung-Hui Cho hadn't done much that was actionable. He hadn't tipped his hand to what was in his heart.

As to the crazy, violent screenplays Cho wrote, there isn't a creative writing class anywhere that hasn't had at least one bloody, twisted script turned in. It's an unreliable indicator. Creeps write romantic comedies, too.

It is a horrible truth, but bad things happen for no good reason and we are helpless to stop them sometimes.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't try. That is our mission: to nurture order and goodness in a garden where noxious weeds can choke out the sun.

Like the old dudes trying to make sense of the Imus incident, we have to ask unanswerable questions, and accept unsettling answers that strip away our innocent belief that the world has some sort of reliable order and people can be trusted, or at least predictable.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.