April 20, 2007

VA Tech Shootings: Adding up the numbers

Almost EIGHT years ago to the date, a community in Columbine remember their tragic events that unfolded much like the recent Tech shootings. April 20th is the remembrance date for both school massacres.

Both sets of young men were social outcasts. Both mentioned feeling powerless, bullied. Here's a thought: STOP the bullying. It is an effort we can make to get a handle on these horrible, horrible situations that may in the end be inevitable regardless. But at least we can sleep at night with a clear conscious. Parents need to address and stress to their children that if they possibly can't be nice to others (surely we can do much better than that!), then at least TEACH them not to be mean or cruel. A professor at Tech described Cho Seung Hui as "mean" and I have to wonder how many people he felt were mean to him. This in no way justifies or excuses his actions but this was a deeply troubled juvenile who could not get out of his cycle of alienation which continued to feed it and others around him. Seung was caught up in a Catch 22 where his reclusive-ness led to a lack of connection despite efforts by some and derision by others.

He came to the States at EIGHT years old already quiet, already not a talker in his own native tongue as expressed by his media talkative relatives in Korea. He was "shy" and unable to connect socially, couple that with a language barrier and adjusting to a whole new culture. Most kids do fine. He obviously did not. The acquisition of another language and culture is a rough, transitional time for immigrant children with little support. Was there any guidance? Could there have been? He seemed grounded to nothing and no one.

In his multimedia manifesto, the shooter rants in a Napoleon Dynamite-esque voice and affect about 15 years of powerlessness that he'd finally taken into his own hands and mentions the Columbine "martyrs". Fifteen years is also the number of years the Old Boy character is imprisoned by his kidnapper in the critically acclaimed movie. The self portrait photo of the shooter wielding his hammer is said to be disarmingly similar to a scene in Old Boy.

8 + 15 = 23

8 years old & 8 years since Columbine + 15 years of mental imprisonment = 23, the age of the shooter

Kindness and compassion can't always be measured and can't always compensate and heal those who are truly mentally ill and suffer from some sort of psychosis. But when has it ever hurt?