BLACKSBURGH´S BLACK MONDAY
By Rudy A. Arizala
18 April 2007
The Virginia Tech Tragedy last Monday morning, 16 April 2007, when a 23-year old South Korean immigrant student Cho Seung Hui went on a shooting rampage inside the university killing 32 students and some professors and then reportedly shooting himself is indeed, tragic. We pray for all the victims of such violent act. And we mourn for so many promising young lives, still in the flower of their youth, being snuffed out of existing by gunfire.
What happened in that university campus in Viginia, led one to wonder if in our modern globalized world there are less mutual warm inter-personal sincere relations or less humane, physical contacts. That due to development of modern technologies such as computers, cellphones and other electronic gadgets, we are having a society practically dominated by "robots" or people having less and less physical or direct contacts with their fellow-beings.
The 23 year old South Korean student prior to the tragic event has been described as showing "hints of anger and isolation" and complained of "moral decay" among students of his school or university.
And according to The New York Times, the only clue left by the perpetrator of such shooting rampage were "snippets of a lonely life, prescription medicine, ominous words and two newly-bought handguns."
As a consequence of such shooting rampage, Congress, politicians and concerned citizens in the United States would again go into debates whether to amend or not their "gun laws", specifically the "Second Amendment" to the U.S. Constitution-- the "right to keep and bear arms."
The problerm, it seems, especially of foreigners coming to the United States and trying to settle down in their newly-adopted country or place of residence is the feeling of not belonging to the the society of their host country and sense of "moral decay", especially those from countries where conservative societies, traits, habits and customs still exist or still exercise influence in their lives.
This is for sociologists and psychologists to analyse and work on to avoid that feeling or sensation that we live in an uncaring society. The feeling of being alone among the crowd.
We deeply mourn the dead and condole with their bereaved families. We pray that we shall overcome such tragic event in Blacksburgh where so many young men and women died.