First off the simple stuff. I’m sick. I’m so sick in fact that I haven’t even been able to look at the screen for too long because I get nauseated. It’s a simple stomach bug, but this simple stomach bug has caused me to spew from both ends of my digestive tract for two days now. It’s not a pretty picture. Really. I feel a little bit better today, but I have to make sure to keep eating otherwise my energy drops extremely low.
Virginia Tech
You know, part of me wonders what I can say about this tragedy that hasn’t already been said in the news countless times. I was on MSNBC AOL News yesterday where apparently someone had posted a blog with two plays that the shooter had written. Granted, the writing style is a bit pedantic and elementary, but that’s not the point. You should be reading it for its content and the basic idea. Needless to say, the guy had a lot of anger.
One play has him talking about how old people (read: authority) need to be killed because it’s their responsibility to die and make way for the younger people already. All old people do is make life a pain in the ass for those younger. His words, not mine.
The next play is a bit more graphic and is about a stepfather trying to make peace with his stepson, but the stepson accuses him of molesting him and killing the boy’s father to sleep with the boy’s mom. Rather crude, but ultimately what happens is actually some compassion for the stepfather because of miscommunication. Miscommunication (if I read it correctly) is the theme of the play, and how others can twist your words.
In both plays, there’s the vein of miscommunication leading to one person being accepted by society and the other being seen as the villain, when in fact that person is the victim. And that sounds very telling of his life. Apparently he had made some overtures at some young women while at VTech, and they alerted the authorities on him. Imagine- you’re painfully shy, you finally muster up the courage to talk to a girl, and the girl calls the authorities because you’re “weird”. I’m not blaming the girls at all– they may have done what they felt was right; but I can see how this sort of rejection would be humiliating. EDIT: This, in a news article on MSNBC as to how he was mocked as a kid:
Once, in an English class, the teacher had the students read aloud and, when it was Cho’s turn, he just looked down in silence, Davids recalled in an interview with The Associated Press. Finally, after the teacher threatened to give him a failing grade for participation, Cho started to read in a strange, deep voice that sounded “like he had something in his mouth,†Davids said.
“As soon as he started reading, the whole class started laughing and pointing and saying, ‘Go back to China,’†Davids said.
Note that Cho was from South Korea and was a green card holder. Kids are cruel.
Although there’s not any way in which I would espouse violence, a person with that much anger built up for years may have felt that was his only option. When I read the plays and some comments regarding it, many people had the view, “Yeah well he’s fucking crazy what do you expect,” and some had the gall to write, “Wow I could write so much better than that.” Sad.
I think this idea of ostracizing those who are not similar to yourself is what I want to talk about in the screenplay that I’m working on. (Oh right, I hadn’t mentioned that yet– yes, I’m working on writing a movie.) The movie will be about how people with mental illnesses are seen as freaks and weirdos and how no, they’re not freaks and weirdos, they just have illnesses that many others don’t. No one goes around saying, “You’re WEIRD because you have diabetes,” so why say that to a person with schizophrenia?
Another thing is that we, as a society, are so much more conditioned to accept people with self-inflicted addictions (alcohol, heroin, cocaine) and support these people, but when it comes to mental illness, we just go, “WEIRD.” Just look at Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, and their ilk. If we’re so accepting of them and say, “Good job! You went to rehab,” why not say, “You were depressed and went to a mental facility and got better. Good for you.”
And with that I’m out.
And yes I am aware of all of the above and on one level I also agree with you that no laws etc would have changed the situation. Yes, he could have made a bomb at home. Yes, he could have gotten a gun any which way, if he *really*wanted to. But here’s my point, to own a gun in this country, you just need to clear criteria such as age, have a clean criminal record and complete a firearm safety course. Now you tell me, do you really think passing these criteria is enough to own a weapon that can take away someone’s life? I don’t think so, my friend and incidents that have occurred in the past, make that CRYSTAL CLEAR. Now, this is what I’m talking about; I’m saying CHANGE the criteria. The Government needs to see what more it can do to make it tougher to own a gun in every State. Up until 1998, 31 States in the U.S. had a right-to-carry law and half the U.S. population lives in these States. Therefore, I strongly believe that these criteria have to change. Something has to be done. I guarantee you that in spite of doing this, there will still be shootings and crime, coz like you said people will do what they want to one way or another. But at least this would be a start to some sort of control over the crime in America. What do you think?