Tuesday, May 29, 2007
What if we had reached out to Cho?
Editorial commentary
Recent contributions
- What Obama didn't say
- How my education and religious training failed me
- Can we be a two-trolley town?
- Striving for civility
- Commentary archive
From the RoundTable blog
Read the latest entries
William L. Ayres
Ayres lives in Christiansburg.
Much has been written since the mass murder of 32 innocent victims on the Virginia Tech campus. Many ideas have been suggested as to how best to ensure a safe learning environment for the students on our college campuses. Some have already been or are in the process of being implemented.
Yet I have seen no follow-up on an event that was reported to have taken place in a class by one of Seung-Hui Cho's high school classmates. He told a reporter of a time when the members of the class were asked in turn to take part in a discussion of some sort. When Cho's turn came he would not speak up.
The teacher, we are told, told him that unless he did he would receive an "F" for non-participation. When Cho tried to comply in a strange low voice, the class erupted in derisive laughter and shouted, "Go back to China!"
Put yourself for a moment in the place to this young teenage boy. A young man in a strange new land with a whole new difficult language to be mastered. He had evidently already retreated into a protective shell perhaps already having been exposed to many other humiliating situations.
Small wonder then that such scorn and derision could cause him to retreat even further into that shell and to begin to harbor bitter feelings toward others.
Of course this is in no way to excuse his destructive final actions on such a scale as later occurred on the Tech campus that terrible day. But it is to raise the possibility that behind every such wanton and seemingly senseless destructive act may lie a number of unknown factors that led up to it.
If South Koreans have felt a deep sense of shame that one of their own could have taken part in such a horrid scene, can we as a nation wash our hands of any responsibility when such events occur? After all, Cho had lived in our country from the time he was 8 years old, far longer than he lived in his own native land.
Perhaps no one will ever be sure whether Cho's mental illness and delusional behavior was due to an incurable mental condition or if more people along the way had reached out to him at an earlier age and given him the love and respect and sense of acceptance he craved, he and society could have been spared this terrible tragedy.
In the light of this distinct possibility, should we not consider whether one of the best ways we can learn from this tragedy is by making a greater effort to get a bit out of our normal comfort zones, to help those who are different and having a tough time adjusting to a new environment and culture?
Should we not try, with the help of God, to make sure that we are a help rather than a hindrance to those whose lives touch ours, however briefly?
