Letters to the Editor
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One of our own...
I was an English major at Virginia Tech about 10 years ago, and a very troubled one at that. I had a few profs who tried to help me, and I hated them at the time-it was humiliating, but damn it, they tried and it was more than anyone else at that school tried to do.
Now I'm doing okay and I have faith in my alma mater's English department. They take to heart the lessons in being human from the literature they study and create regarding humanity that ranges from the angelic to the demonic. Heck, anyone trying to survive an English major education or career knows it's a hell of a time.
My friends and I are emailing nervous quips about the further disrespect of the English department will attain now that those who could perhaps see into the shooter's soul merely commented on it at drunken faculty get-togethers. But just like President Steger's distress that he could or couldn't have done more, he could have made different decisions...well, we all could have. But an asshole is an asshole. This kid was an asshole.
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Such compassion, such depth
I have faith in my alma mater's English department. They take to heart the lessons in being human from the literature they study...
Guess you missed that lesson.
"An asshole is an asshole" indeed.
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Confusion
I wish his confusion had extended to being able to hold and shoot a gun. If he were really confused, he might have shot himself first instead of wasting the lives of 31 others.
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re: Confused kid
I guess we're all feeling a little sheepish today about the way we excorciated Don Imus for his warnings regarding nappy-haired Cho's.
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Hope this doesn't stir up (more) anti-white hate
I'm an Asian-American, and I felt sick when I heard the shooter was an Asian-American (maybe not a full-fledged citizen, but if he's lived here since 1992 as a permanent resident, that's what it culturally means).
I fear it's going to stir up anti-white racist sentiment in the US, at a time when Arabs or anyone with brown skin & black hair is hated, and now Asian-Americans will be added to the list.
I think it's silly to call it a "school shooting," as if it has any relation to the Columbine killings. This is more akin to a workplace shooting or the San Diego McDonald's Massacre in 1984.
As I heard earlier today on NPR, there will always be "crazies" in society, and there isn't much we can do to protect ourselves from them when they go on a rampage. Guns, of course, make it that much easier to kill in great numbers.
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Ismail Ax
The "Ismail Ax" insignia appears to refer to a Koranic version of the Old Testament story of Abraham, commanded by God to sacrifice his only son Isaac, but then countermanded to sacrifice a ram instead.
The general interpretation in Christian circles would be that this story illustrates how Israelites in the Abrahamic period turned away from human sacrifice to sacrificing animals. (This story is important relative to the Christian doctrine of the Atonement.)
What this story meant to Cho Seung-hui is anyone's guess. Mine is that the young man had been suffering for some time from a paranoid mental illness. Many persons with mental illnesses of this type do become preoccupied with religious themes and imagery, which they incorporate into their delusional thinking. (I have personally observed this many, many times.)
It sounds like some people at his college had tried to help him with "counseling", but unfortunately the counseling system is probably inadequate to recognize when someone is suffering from a severe psychotic disease that would be very recognizable to a psychiatrist, clinical psychologis, or other professional in the field of psychiatry.
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Was he in ROTC?
His livejournal seems to indicate that he spent a lot of time not only on the rifle range, but in military arsenal type facilities. Was he in ROTC? He does seems to have had shooting friends. Where are they now?
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Dumb Broad!
In the midst of all the carnage and destruction, this Virginian-Pilot news columnist was calling Virginia Tech yesterday to flesh out her concerns about incoming freshman campus safety.
http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=123004&ran=200851
Outrageous. Sort of like calling the restaurant atop the World Trade Center before the towers collapsed and inquiring about lunch reservations.
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A Not-So Beautiful Mind
This young man needed help, not pity. We might pity the families that lost loved ones in this tragedy. What Cho needed was for someone to care enough to follow through - either with his medication, his counseling, his family - whatever factors had precipitated his disconnect. As a trained counselor, I can say that these events, and the signs that surround them, are never isolated incidents.
As one of the few Latina students at Barnard in the 1970's, I received no support. Others dropped out in their freshman year. It was tough. Having smarts isn't everything. Colleges need to be willing to spend the time and money needed to support students. If an intelligent (and only slightly neurotic) student at an Ivy League school can feel alone, how is an immigrant with a mental illnes going to fare?
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Shut up
"supersmart", "quiet guy", "loner", "Korean"...
It's just starting, but we all know how it ends--a surfeit of opinion from psychologists, politicians and old pals.
But no answers. Nobody will answer "why?" with anything worth remembering.
Haven't we learned that from the Polytechnique, Columbine, Dawson...?
Why are the first stories never about the victims?
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Asperger?
From the description, particularly the social rebuffing coupled with the "supersmart" descriptor, I'm wondering if Cho Seung-hui might have had Asperger Syndrome, or a similar social disorder.
I'm not a psychiatrist, though, and there's not enough (and likely never will be enough) data for me to know.
Robert
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Counseling doesn't seem to be a potential answer
Check out the Statistics
http://www.halfofus.com
Are we going to get appropriate treatment for half of all college students? College is over. Kids will just have to homeschool themselves on the University of Pheonix.
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Neighbors report not seeing him around
A neighbor reports not seeing the suspect around for the last couple of years. Perhaps he had a falling out with his family. Unfortunately, it's normal for the family members surrounding the mentally ill to ignore all the signs or even to disown them.