Tragedy at Virginia Tech
CNN Website:- http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/04/16/transcript.tue/index.html
In a country whose history has already been scarred by violence many times, this act of carnage at Virginia Tech tops the list of school shootings. Still reeling from the Columbine Shootings, Sept 11th and an Iraqi war that looks far from won, Americans woke up to news of another school shooting that claimed the lives of 5 teachers and 27 students.
The perpetrator, Cho Seung-hui, was described by his family and peers as a mentally-disturbed, possibly autistic person who was subjected to abuse from school-mates because of the way he spoke.
In a package sent to the media, Cho expressed deep resentment for the "rich-kids" in school and said that the massacre happened because of them.
Upon reading this article, I struggled on whether to sympathise with Cho or to condemn him for the heinous crime he committed. It is understood that Cho was often the victim of abuse from schoolmates. He was targetted because of the way he spoke and I suspect his race was also another reason why he was often bullied. One does not have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the logic that an oppressed person might lash out one day and maybe in the case of Cho, this was what happened. While the media choose to focus on the barbarism, evil and anger in Cho, I would like to draw your attention to the cause and root of his act. I am not saying that I agree
his actions and neither am I being permissive or condescending about bully victims shooting their schoolmates. But I feel that this world, this angry angry world has to do something about educating each other about living in harmony and the severity of ostracizing and bullying people. I do not offer any excuse for Cho's actions but at the end of the day, when things are put into perspective, it's hard not to think that the real killers, the ones who put Cho in that position, possible "equipped" him with all that hate, anger and misery are the ones who taunted him for the way he spoke, left him out of things because he was not "cool" enough, spoke behind his back about his funny "asian" accent. Some of those people appeared on tv this week, speaking about what a weird little kid Cho was. Obviously, society has not learned a lesson, even after 32 innocent lives were taken away. Even Cho's grandfather condemned Cho, saying that his grandson deserved to die. Can't anyone see that all Cho wanted was to belong? To be accepted?
In the wake of this most recent school shooting, many acclaimed medical "experts" will no doubt take to the television screens and comment on Cho's mental state just like his doctor did in the past. He will be diagnosed with mental illness. But I believe that what he had was not so much chemical inbalance in his brain but a broken, wounded heart that was not given a chance to heal in an unforgiving world.
The perpetrator, Cho Seung-hui, was described by his family and peers as a mentally-disturbed, possibly autistic person who was subjected to abuse from school-mates because of the way he spoke.
In a package sent to the media, Cho expressed deep resentment for the "rich-kids" in school and said that the massacre happened because of them.
Upon reading this article, I struggled on whether to sympathise with Cho or to condemn him for the heinous crime he committed. It is understood that Cho was often the victim of abuse from schoolmates. He was targetted because of the way he spoke and I suspect his race was also another reason why he was often bullied. One does not have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the logic that an oppressed person might lash out one day and maybe in the case of Cho, this was what happened. While the media choose to focus on the barbarism, evil and anger in Cho, I would like to draw your attention to the cause and root of his act. I am not saying that I agree
his actions and neither am I being permissive or condescending about bully victims shooting their schoolmates. But I feel that this world, this angry angry world has to do something about educating each other about living in harmony and the severity of ostracizing and bullying people. I do not offer any excuse for Cho's actions but at the end of the day, when things are put into perspective, it's hard not to think that the real killers, the ones who put Cho in that position, possible "equipped" him with all that hate, anger and misery are the ones who taunted him for the way he spoke, left him out of things because he was not "cool" enough, spoke behind his back about his funny "asian" accent. Some of those people appeared on tv this week, speaking about what a weird little kid Cho was. Obviously, society has not learned a lesson, even after 32 innocent lives were taken away. Even Cho's grandfather condemned Cho, saying that his grandson deserved to die. Can't anyone see that all Cho wanted was to belong? To be accepted?
In the wake of this most recent school shooting, many acclaimed medical "experts" will no doubt take to the television screens and comment on Cho's mental state just like his doctor did in the past. He will be diagnosed with mental illness. But I believe that what he had was not so much chemical inbalance in his brain but a broken, wounded heart that was not given a chance to heal in an unforgiving world.
posted by Clarence Tan @ 3:45 AM
1 Comments:
At 8:55 AM,
Matt said…
Hello!
I am contacting you because I am working with the authors of a book about blogs, and I'd like to request permission to use the photograph you have posted in this book. Please contact me at matt@wefeelfine.org, and I'd be happy to give you more information about the project. Please paste a link to your blog in the subject field. Your assistance is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Matt
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