I tend to agree with T-Rocks, this stuff shouldn't be hidden away or denied an audience.
I do disagree with the sensationalism of it all, it's been four days and it's still hogging the front page despite far worse things having happened since then. There's going to be months of hand wringing, memorialisation, expert asessments, books published, Oprah interviews, tribute songs, a few edgey punk songs but ultimately the complete demonisation of someone who was clearly mentally ill. And he was clearly mentally ill, detained for a psychiatric assessment in 2005, reported to the police twice for stalking women.
His English prefessor knew it -
"After becoming concerned with his behavior and the themes in his writings, the professor started meeting with Cho to work with him one-on-one. She said she was concerned for her safety when she met with him. After notifying the legal authorities about his behavior, the professor urged Cho to seek counseling, but he refused."
She tried and failed. His poetry professor knew something too -
"Professor Nikki Giovanni, who taught Cho in a poetry class and had him removed from her class because his behavior was so menacing, called the idea that Cho was troubled "crap," and described him as "mean." When informed of the massacre, she remarked, "I knew when it happened that that's probably who it was," and "I would have been shocked if it wasn't.""
I know which one I think deserves to look back on this incident without compunction.
The pro and anti gun lobby will cancel each other out as each uses this incident for the furtherment of their own agenda. The "quiet loner" types will be further ostracized by their peers and by colleges themselves as draconain kneejerk laws are enforced. Meanwhile, as in this case, people with mental health issues and the public at large will be failed by an ineffectual, profit driven healthcare system.
If you're still in any doubt that this guy was ill, watch the videos.
There's a makeshift memorial in Blacksburg, 32 stones "one for every innocent victim", if you ask me they're a stone short.
