Rosie O’Donnell is leaving the View, ABC’s daytime gabfest on air for the last ten years. She joined the show last fall to replace Meredith Vieira, who left to anchor NBC’s Today Show when Katie Couric took over the CBS Evening News.

It’s not entirely surprising that Rosie’s leaving. Her tenure, although a ratings-booster, was laden with controversy for her outspoken remarks: a feud with Donald Trump (and his hairpiece); insulting Asian-Americans; and accusing fellow daytime talker Kelly Ripa of homophobia to name a few.

At the same time, her outspokenness has been a trademark for years. About a year before her successful talk show began, she appeared in an HBO comedy special, where she spoke her mind on the events of the time. If memory serves, she was particularly vocal about the O.J. Simpson trial. Even on her talk show, Rosie would speak out on issues that were important to her, such as gun control and adoption. Granted, her remarks were a bit more palatable then.

Really, if people are surprised at the things Rosie said, they haven’t been paying attention very long.

I’ll admit that I haven’t given much thought to the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech (VT) until now. It’s tough not to give it some attention, though, with the media blitz surrounding it including yesterday’s Express, pictured at right.

Some in the blogosphere are organizing a day of silence (link via Lorelle on WordPress) on April 30. Their hearts are in the right place, but this is rather misguided. At best, it’s ironic, given reports of the Cho Seung-Hui’s (the suspected killer) demeanor: a loner, silent and “mean.”

Instead of a day of silence, I decided to alter the color scheme here on Grapefeed to match VT’s school colors. I’ll leave it this way for the rest of the month, to show my support for the VT community. Hey, the Washington Nationals wore VT caps at last night’s game; I’m justified in my small action.

Not surprisingly, Monday’s massacre revived the gun control debate, arguably too soon, considering how fresh this story is. I expect that, like the Columbine High School shooting that happened nearly eight years ago, arguments for and against it will crop up for a while. Then they’ll quiet down, and we’ll return to the rest of our lives as if nothing happened.

There’s an inherent problem with this particular case, though: gun control would (theoretically) keep people who should never own a gun from doing so. Clearly, Cho’s behavior and writings alone might indicate he shouldn’t purchase a firearm. Without a criminal record, his gun purchases aroused no suspicion, despite police questioning him for a harassment incident in late 2005.

That’s about as far as I’m going to go into a debate. This isn’t about politicizing a tragedy; it’s about supporting and comforting those who need it right now. And those people bleed orange and maroon.