One of the reasons I don’t like taking a tragedy or a national event and turning into a pedestal for my favorite political or cultural issues is that everyone draws “lessons” from these events. Many are contradictory and most are overblown.
Below is a list of the “lessons” that we as a society should learn from this act of violence:
We need less guns. If only gun laws were tougher and it was more difficult for people to obtain a gun this wouldn’t have happened.
We need more guns. If only everyone on the campus of Virginia Tech had been carrying like at Appalachian State this wouldn’t have happened.
We need to recognize and react to warning signs. If only someone had saw that this guy was crazy they could have had him locked away.
We need better care for mentally unstable individuals. If only he had received better mental care he could have been cured.
We need less violent movies. If only he didn’t watch violent movies over and over again he wouldn’t have gotten the idea.
We need more Christianity. If only he had been in church he would have known what he was about to do was wrong.
We need less Christianity. If only religion did not play such a strong role in America, this kid could have grown up without the undue pressure and he wouldn’t have snapped.
We need less atheism. If only he wasn’t an atheist ranting about being Jesus and the Columbine killers being martyrs this wouldn’t have happened.
We need better campus security. If only campus had been locked down and students informed this tragedy wouldn’t have happened.
We need to pay more attention. If only someone would have just listened to this boy and gave his some attention he wouldn’t have acted out like this.
We need to pay less attention. If only killers weren’t glorified by the media he wouldn’t have tried to kill people to seek his 15 minutes.
We need more profiling. If we profiled people more this killer could have been recognized and this wouldn’t have happened.
We need less profiling. If we didn’t treat minorities as automatic suspects in crimes, Cho wouldn’t have felt so alone.
We need less racism. If only the white majority at Virginia Tech and America would be more welcoming for minorities he wouldn’t have acted in such rage.
We need less bullying. If only the Cho had not been picked on and bullied for being different he wouldn’t have taken out his aggression like he did.
We need more morals. If only our country had not left its moral base then the student would not have acted this way.
We need less morals. If only our society did not place undue “moral standards” on individuals, the shooter wouldn’t have lashed out.
We need more courage and male brevado. If only the students especially the guys had jumped the shooter at once, he wouldn’t have kept killing.
We need less courage and male brevado. If only our culture did not teach our little boys that aggression was the way to solve answers this wouldn’t have happened.
And it goes on and on with whatever possible cause and lesson you can draw from this situation. My point is that numerous points can be derived from horrible situations – some of which may be right. Honestly none of us know exactly what could have prevented this senseless act. With that I will add my own lesson:
We need to know our own ignorance. If only we didn’t think we knew everything about situations that we honestly don’t know much about we wouldn’t get in as much trouble.
