“This didn’t have to happen”, Cho Seung-Hui said, after murdering thirty-two people at Virginia Tech University.

And this terrible tragedy of sons, daughters, mothers and fathers didn’t have to happen, if we’d only listened.

But we never listen.

We never listen to those that are different from us- the outcasts, the lonely, the homeless, the ones that are unspoken for. We don’t try to understand. We shun them and put them out of our minds because of our fear that we will become like them.

And these people become more and more lonely and alienated in their isolation.

Words like “creep”, “deranged misfit” and “psycho” devalue this killer’s humanity so we don’t have to face how similar he is to us. Cries of “how could he have been stopped” are uttered by media quick to sensationalize and gain market share, when the words “how could he have been listened to” are never considered.

Because we don’t want to listen.

We don’t want to hear about loneliness and alienation when we’re all so busy with our lives, making money and making friends. And the unpopular, the ones that don’t fit in, the lonely ones are ignored or made fun of because we don’t care to understand anything about them.

This man who clearly needed help, Cho Seung-Hui, devalued himself so much that he called himself “Question Mark”.

There are more “Question Marks” out there. There are millions of them. And if we don’t listen to them, they will follow the same path again and again, because people are not connecting. We are becoming more and more disconnected from each other, creating more and more “Question Marks” every day.

Most “Question Marks” don’t become murderers. Some just kill themselves. Most harm no one and live just as we do, needing antidepressants to appear what we call “normal”. They may be someone you know, someone you love.

This “Question Mark” was once a little boy, who cried, and smiled and loved, He wanted to fit in just like you and I. But that desire to fit in transformed itself into anger towards a society that shunned and ignored him.

How many more times will we shun and ignore the one that doesn’t fit in, the one in the corner, the one that’s different? When all we have to do is listen, before it’s too late.

But we won’t.

Thirty-two human beings who did not know Cho Seung-Hui were murdered.
They were sons, daughters, fathers and mothers, with dreams of futures that will never come and children that will never be born. The thirty-two leave behind people that love them. People that are now scarred for life by this horrible day of death.

To most of us that have not been directly involved, this tragedy will become a memory and fade like all the others that came before.

And the “Question Marks” will appear with more frequency, again and again, because we don’t listen.

We never do.

—————

http://www.x-thc.com

And those that argue its the people, and not the guns are the problem miss the point. Even if ppl go stupid (like this guy did), the fact that he could procure guns this easily led to a massacre.

As usual, ppl will forget about this in a while, and then next news we read is a 6 year old took a gun to his day care… (Which btw, happened very close to where i work a few months back).

S

For e.g. tripling the police presence in Central Park would make it a lot safer but then would you like to stroll in a park teeming with cops regardless of how safe it is?

His English Lit teacher had in fact isolated him from the class. People snap all the time but I guess, when you have easy access to guns, it makes it a lot different for the lot of us.

Texas had witnessed the two previous shootings; at UT-Austin and at Killen, TX. And probably (hopefully not) that might be the last of it.

Pranav, Orkut has indeed become a connecting factor amongst Indians and has emphasized the social networking aspect. I just hope the media focuses on such stories instead of harping on the hate groups and stalkings.

Bongo, the media jumped on this story just the way it treats any other tragedy. Stupid questions reign – how do you feel, etc. Students were like, my friends got killed…how do you think I felt. I just wish some students would snap back live on camera. Nancy Grace was once rebuked by Elizabeth Smart (the kidnapped kid).

@Piker: Agree with both your comments – his writings should really have no bearing on his mental makeup (but I read in WaPo that some profs felt he was mentally disturbed too – but then so are many people on campus). The coverage by media especially the visual media is deplorable to say the least. I was watching CNN yesterday and felt sick – they had this big banner – Massacre in Virginia (in Red and squiggly lettering no less) – as if this was some B-grade horror movie. And this reporter kept going on and on about how this was a tragedy where you always remember where you are like ‘the moon landing’ and ‘JFK assassination’ and then went on to describe in details what he was doing…..absolutely ridiculous !

I’m generally pretty good at keeping my emotions within check. But when I witnessed the tremendous support by the Indian community on Orkut — all of them who spared 2-3 seconds to write her a scrap – I was very moved. I hate to admit it – but it struck an unknown and a very powerful chord within me.

That aside, it also shows how Orkut has become a major force in our (read Indians) lives.

-p