April Tragedy

Another tragedy occurred in America on Monday, April 16, 2007. THIRTY-TWO people at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, were killed by South Korean national Cho Seung-hui. He first killed two students at a dormitory around 7:15AM. The university should have been put on alert, but it wasn’t. At least the instructors should have been notified, but they weren’t. Those in charge should have assumed that the killer was roaming the campus, but they didn’t… But then, we’re so used to killings these days... especially when we don’t really know the victims.

Around 9AM the killer reportedly chained the door to Norris Hall to prevent people from leaving. Where did he get the chain and the lock? How long could this have taken? He then killed THIRTY more people.

Could this have been prevented? WHAT IF people had done things differently than they did?

An instructor had had him removed from her class because of his violence-laden writings and complaints from other students of being afraid of him. Even his private instructor said that she was afraid of him, to the point that she had a code word to get help. Why weren’t his writings scrutinized more? Why wasn’t any more action taken? Why wasn’t he required to have a psychological examination? Oh, I know: that would violate his entitlement to express his views in any way that he wants. That’s true, as far as the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution goes. But – and this is the “But” that can get you – he didn’t have that right on everyone’s property. If this had been a private school, he might have been removed – unless the “entitlement police” intervened.

If his writings had just been taken more seriously… But then we might have to criticize the junk that’s been coming out of Hollywood (etc.) for decades. Look at the shows on TV and most movies. What do you see? Killing, killing, and more killing. When are people going to stop glorifying it?