Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Day 54: Virgina Tech Massacre

It really hurts my heart, along with the grief I feel about so many futures abruptly ended, that the first fact to hit the press was that the murderer was from Korean descent. In my perception of the U.S. as a foreigner, I must say I consider this completely biased, partial and deceiving. The fact is that 32 college students and a teacher were shot. But the fact that he was a foreigner was brought into the spot light because it is going to be used in order to stricten the government policies against migrants. Mark my words.

There was a note on the Mexican news this morning about this Korean student already dropping out because she was never made feel that she belonged. Other articles have made reference to the U.S. policies regarding fire arms, including public statements issued by the National Rifle Association, therefore turning this tragedy into a social issue directly related to the American Constitution. In my opinion, both sides are missing the point miserably.

In my humble opinion, it is not a matter of where you come from, neither of the availability of fire arms. It is a matter of how a single person can get as psychologically damaged as to turn a gun towards strangers and pull the trigger. What circumnstances could drive any individual to perform such a destructive action and what are we going to do, as citizens of the same world, to prevent this from happening again?. The rest, is only an attempt to take advantage from those priceless lifes, so innecesarily wasted.

We send our sympathies and prayers to all the families in their grief.

5 comments:

Y sin embargo... said...

Es horroroso... no me explico cómo nadie es capaz de hacer algo así. Tantos inocentes... me pongo en su lugar y no soy capaz de imaginarlo... De todas maneras, y aunque estoy de acuerdo contigo en eso de que la culpa en su totalidad es del muchacho, pienso que la libre circulacion de armas en EEUU no es entendible. No es entendible al menos para los no estadounidenses que no comprendemos la historia de una sociedad, la americana, que se ha basado desde siempre en tres pilares fundamentales: la religión, el trabajo y el sentimiento nacionalista. Es en este tercer punto donde entran las armas y la idea de autodefensa tan arraigada que tienen. Sea como fuere, lo unico cierto es que el único fin de las armas es matar, y eso, no es humano.

Jingo said...

It's America's gun laws. How on Earth did a person who was mentally unstable (as diagnosed by doctors) get his hands on a gun? Guns should be banned (like in every other country I can think of).

I bet videogames get blamed. And foreigners. Never their sacred guns.

The Usual Stuff said...

y sin embargo: tu análisis es definitivamente correcto y estoy totalmente de acuerdo. En otros países se cometen menos asesinatos porque las armas son menos accesibles. Michael Moore ya lo demostró con números en "Bowling for Columbine". Y eso es sólo un ejemplo. ¿Verdad que esto no pasa en Europa?

jingo: your reply was as fun, ironic and witty as I expected from you. And yours is the key question. The guy had been diagnosed, for crying out loud!!
I guess Americans are trying to compensate for something with their long, wide, powerful, sacred guns, don't you think?

Rick said...

Usual Stuff, I agree that the media (as usual) miss the main point--what caused him to feel so bad that this was his solution?
By the way, thanks for the link to my blog, I'll add you to my list as well!
One small problem, though. There's a mistake in my blog's address (also "winter nights" and "sacred scrolls"; take away the "www2blogger.com" part at the beginning and they'll be OK.)

Sphinx said...

Jingo...you said "I bet videogames get blamed. And foreigners. Never their sacred guns." I agree completely.