Tragedy at Virgina Tech 4-16-2007

"No society that feeds its children on tales of succesful violence can expect them not to believe that violence in the end is rewarded" - Margaret Mead.

Cho Seung-hui, a 23-year-old South Korean and resident alien, pointlessly ended the lives of 32 innocent people at Virginia Tech. The death toll makes it the deadliest shooting in U.S. history. I recently watched the hideous footage of the Columbine High School massacre which occured on another April afternoon eight years ago. A coupleof teenage students carried out a similar shooting rampage ending the lives of 13 people. In both the incidents, the shooters committed suicide. The main motivation of the killers is very unclear. They are very disturbed people who developed hatred towards other students due to various personal reasons.

Of all the settings where a gunman might walk into a building and attack innocent people, you naively assume that a college campus would rank near the bottom of the list. It's just shocking that one insane person can causeso many senseless deaths and have an impact like this which lasts forever. As President Bush said, "Schools should be places of safety and sanctuary and learning. When that sanctuary is violated, the impact is felt in every Americanclassroom and every American community ". Whenever I used think of to Virginia Tech, their excellent Engineering program and the Football team comes to mind. Now, sadly, after this tragedy, Virgina Tech is remembered forever for these shootings.

As colleges and universities learned on Monday, it often takes a tragedy to expose just how many weaknesses there are in the system. A society that feels the need to arm itself with lethal weapons for protection from society, is no society at all. It's all about fear. The obvious comment is sadly true - that a country that refuses politically to accept gun control is bound to experience more of such awful and frightening events. The right to bear arms in America is seen as an important civil liberty, and the debate concerns how far to impose restrictions on that right. I feel that US should have tighter gun control laws.

The debate can wait for a while. I really liked the professor/poet Nikki Giovanni's stirring Convocation address at VirginiaTech yesterday. Here is an excerpt:

"We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and through
all our sadness ... We are the Hokies ... "

My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone who was affected by this tragedy!!