Who Gets Blamed For Student Killings?

Like the rest of the world, I was truly, deeply saddened by the Virginia Tech Massacre and I found myself wondering why these things happen and why they seem to be occurring in such seemingly rapid succession?

I stayed put in my little island of Jamaica and watched the reports of the shootings and my heart went out to all the students, faculty members and families that had to go through such a terrible time but I couldn't also help being annoyed by those who made comments like 'he (Cho) was just a monster' and 'there shouldn't be any tapes of him shown'. And the reason why I'm annoyed by comments such as those is because the very persons who make them are the ones who pushed Cho to the edge in the first place!

First of all, let me just clarify and say that I agree with the Newsweek article on the subject which states that one has to have the willpower to pull the trigger no matter how many other factors there are, so by no means am I saying Cho is blameless and I'm not even saying being teased and made fun of is the reason he did it (I'm not going to even presume why exactly he did it) but I'm just thinking that before you go labelling people monsters and what-not, take the time to find out why. Piece his story together, find out exactly what went down and determine what exactly pushed his buttons. Yes, he killed over 30 people and yes, it was a montrous act, but that was Cho's final fatal cry for help...wasn't it?

There are those, Im sure, who are hurting so badly by this tragedy that they can't possibly see beyond Cho's actions and believe me, I have no idea what you're going through and my heart does go out to you, but think about this: someone stalks two female students, takes every opportunity to write about death and abuse and was diagnosed as clinically depressed, has absolutely no friends and no social life - how many more indications did the university authorities need to stop this obviously troubled person in his tracks before he killed?

I'm not pointing fingers but ask yourself: who should bear the blame for this and other like tragedies? In my opinion, there's no one person or one organization, but don't hold yourself blameless either. Even doing nothing is a choice. Seeing him around campus, you probably thought Cho was weird or maybe even creepy and maybe you and your friends made fun of him, snickered behind his back or just went out of your way to avoid him. What could you have done differently? And most important...what will you do differently now?

Reviews

[laceyjane23]

nicely put, i had the same kind of questions when i heard about the shooting, everyone wants to point blame, but in a way i think our society is to blame as well.'
thank you for posting this.
laceyjane