Freak of the Decade - Seung

I'm just finishing watching the Virginia Tech Convocation memorial live via net. Closing remarks were given by African American poet and Virginia Tech Professor Nikki Giovanni. This tragedy was ended and marked by her continual emphasis "We are Virginia Tech, we are better than we think... we are ALIVE... through our blood and tears... we are the hokies. we will prevail. We are Virginia Tech."


A standard google image search of Cho Seung Hui pulls up Korean popstars. But we know today that a messed up English student who got mad at his girlfriend went and destroyed a whole school and marked the worst event in College Campus history. Seung Hui wasn't a popstar. He was a person on edge who needed psychological help and was able to buy a pistol at a local gunshop. Yesterday, Korean news reported a korean student shot and the first assumption being: Commenting on reports that the killer was Asian, Lee said it was unlikely to have been Korean since few Korean students have weapons due to the difficulty of obtaining a gun license. But Seung was American having lived here since 1992 and growing up in the U.S. in an environment and society that creates Columbine and school shootings all the same.


Seung purchased his first handgun for $571 with ammo legally under federal and state law last month. The second handgun was purchased this month Friday the 13th. A limitation of one month is needed between multiple gun purchasing. (per NBC 12:26pm)


33 people are dead. over 60 shot total. the remaining wounded... multiplied by families, friends, and a nation.

The English Students Plays
When I first heard about the multiple shootings at Virginia Tech yesterday, my first thought was about my friends, and my second thought was "I bet it was Seung Cho."

Fellow students in a playwriting class with Cho described his plays as dark and disturbing.“His writing, the plays, were really morbid and grotesque,” Stephanie Derry, a senior English major, told the campus newspaper, The Collegiate Times.

“I remember one of them very well. It was about a son who hated his stepfather. In the play, the boy threw a chainsaw around and hammers at him. But the play ended with the boy violently suffocating the father with a Rice Krispy treat,” Derry said.


Brief Family Profile and Death Note
A note believed to have been written by Cho was found in his dorm room that railed against "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" on campus.


Student Blogs - Madness on Campus (Livejournal)
Right as she picks up the phone she tells me "I got red on me" I laugh, and immediately try to find out if shes hurt or what to expect, and she lets me know that shes fine, stable, good, not hurt...only slightly.

I've been wired on this event. The eeriest accounting was that of a professor hiding out in the Engineering building of Virginia Tech.
"I heard 30-40 shots... I could see people crawling out of windows... there were shots being fired for a good half hour or so..."

Its an terrible reminder of what can happen when men get mad, when people go crazy, when people don't care about other people, when guns go off... The same could have happenned at UW two weeks ago.

Yet we must warn ourselves of a backlash. Warn ourselves to understand right and wrong. Remember what self-control is. And realize that devaluing women, disregarding other human life, and discriminating against race is going to continue.

Lots of questions again, for the incident, how it played out, and what it means for us today.

Virginia Tech Raw Video from shooting scene.

(all pictures and media from yesterday and today. 04/16-04/17.)