clearing up some chatter...

Yes, I know I'm late on this topic, but I had to let it stew for a bit.
Partly a response to the chatter in the comments over on Along Came Politics

a. Seung-Hui Cho
Let me first emphasize some facts that seem to be ignored. He was in therapy. The chair of the English department took it upon herself to pull him aside and tutor and talk with him. Yes, his roommates tried to be nice to him, but I don't think he really wanted to be friends with them.

Point? People did try to help him out. Yes, I guess they could have done more, but you also have to accept that you can't totally predict who will snap and who won't and you just have to try your best.

The question isn't "oh no, what can we do to help him," this 'other'. Take a step back and question what is about our society that some people have to be winners and some have to be losers and whether or not you support a media monolith that creates a limited image of success, and of what society accepts. Don't fret over what more therapy we could have put him in to keep him away from us, but why there are "crazy" people, "crazy" being the social label applied, not to be confused with actual mental disorders.


b. Crossing 1 2

Had VT not happened the week before, no one would be thinking that a drug dealer arrested on a gun possession was on the brink of shooting up the school. Because he wasn't. Maybe I'm wrong and this was a sign of something to come in a year, but carrying a gun because you think it makes you a badass is not the same as systematically planning, complete with writings and video and pictures, to assemble tons of ammo and gun down as many people as possible.

Not. the. same.

I say that, because he lived across the street from me last semester and was over all the time. Yea we all thought he was a little off, but then again, so are half the people that live up here, to some degree. What are you 'supposed' to do about it? Be nice to him, talk to him sometimes, and hope he doesn't get arrested. Not that I think he shouldn't receive the consequences for breaking the law, but I'm concerned that being sent to jail is going to officially turn him into a
criminal, rather than helping him out. The odds are something like 9 to 1 against him, and everyone in jail, that they'll be going back, creating career criminals, rather than actually making a strong effort to rehabilitate. He already thinks he's a gangster, now he really will fall in with prison gangs, because the pressure is ridiculous, and then probably stay in all that when he gets out.

1. Figure out whats wrong with our society that can make people so upset (VT)
2. Reform the prisons so they can actually help society instead of creating hardened criminals (USC)