Posted by
Mike on Saturday, April 21, 2007 2:31:07 AM
Preventive measures are often necessary for protection and
self-preservation. A society in transition will always be in
danger of internal upheavals beyond the control of government. It
is often left up to the citizens to fend for themselves. I
suppose that is why our Founding Fathers came up with the Second
Amendment.
My Dad helped lobby the state legislature in California to keep the
mental hospitals funded during the period of deinstitutionalization
several decades ago. He once spoke at a seminar at the
Sportsman's Lodge explaining the legal principle called from the Latin parens patriae meaning
that the state must substitute as parent for those who are unable to
care for themselves. The problem is that some people in society
have become greedy and overindulgent and selfish, thereby neglecting
this community obligation to take care of the weak among us.
Could this be what the mentally challenged Korean killer Cho was
getting at in his creative writing play "Richard McBeef" mimicking
Shakespeare, and in his diatribe against rich kids and the fast food
industry aired on NBC? Is this the perception that people of
other cultures have of Americans? If so, is there not a grain of
truth?
Peer pressure and cruelty in school can be a major cause of self-hatred
and emotional instability later in life. Mix that with a possible
genetic predisposition toward mental illness, prenatal conditions
including possible exposure to toxic chemical substances, stress
factors including growing up in an immigrant community,
difficulties in forming an emotional bond with someone of the
opposite sex, the pressure of looking forward toward graduation and an
uncertain employment outlook, and having to make decisions about what
next to do in life, etc., and what do you get?
Nothing justifies the evil of multiple murders. I believe that
VTU and the City of Blackbury did all the right things with regard to
Mr. Cho. Most importantly, they acted with compassion and not
with the vindictiveness displayed by certain sectors of the mass
media. In the final analysis, sadly to say there are no quick
fixes.