VA Tech: What is the world coming to? Are people simply bad at heart?

Davyna · April 21, 2007

Gin is nothing without tonic.

JeninCO · April 21, 2007

...and lime. Splash of cran if you're feelin' craaaaaazy!

green · April 21, 2007

Put the i in gun and add a splash of lime.........:clap2: Make drinks, not war.

396power · April 21, 2007

You know what gets me about this rant and rave page. The same people that say a woman should have a right to chose aka pro choice. Are in fact the same people that want to take away my choice to bear arms.

Something is wrong with that!

green · April 22, 2007

You know what gets me about this rant and rave page. The same people that say a woman should have a right to chose aka pro choice. Are in fact the same people that want to take away my choice to bear arms.
Something is wrong with that!

Now, why do you want a gun?

396power · April 22, 2007

Well in an earlier post on this thread. I explained the reasons

mousecrazy · April 22, 2007

I've read almost all of the posts in this thread, looking for some mention of the GOOD and HEROIC actions that were taken on the day of the murders, and all the GOOD and KIND and CARING actions that have occured since that terrible day, but sadly, none have been mentioned.

The original question had to do with good and evil...the answer is in. There is much, much more good than evil. We just have to be prepared to deal with evil. That means we must accept that evil does, in fact, exist.

The evil exists with or without weapons, with or without gun control, with or without media hype.

If you concentrate your attention on the bad, that is what you see.

Concentrate your attention on the good that is happening in the midst of the pain.

This will give you light and hope. This will give you much greater insight into human nature than the actions of one aberrant man.

This is how I choose to view this tragedy. My sympathies to all 33 families and friends of those families.

I certainly don't want to use their suffering as a platform for a political agenda.

green · April 22, 2007

Mouse, I very much agree with you with you and, by the way, I would like to congratulate you on your weight loss. You have only got another 20 lbs to go. This is my situation, too, but those remaining lbs are, I fear, going to be a challenge.

And 396, it is nice to see that you and your wife will be walking the walk together. I know that you will both enjoy the lap band trip.

From the coverage which I have been reading of the Virginia Tech situation, the young man in question had been seriously mentally ill for many, many years before he perform this heinous act of destruction. It seems that he was an odd child when he still very young and was living in Korea. And it is said that he was a weirdo throughout his high school years. He certainly raised red flags at VT long before his final day on earth. So what could have been done?

The problem is that this issue of effectively dealing with this lunatic before he acted out really pivotted protecting on his individual civil rights as balanced against maintaining the health of the community with whom he came in contact. His civil rights won and though this was especially regrettable in this case I believe that this is the right way to protect us all as individuals from the community.

I still do believe that we as individuals must put the well-being of our community above our own selfish interests but not at the sacrifice of our civil rights.

I believe that one way of ensuring improved safety in schools and universities where so many of these crazed gun sprees take place would be to set up an effective warning system. A woman who wrote into one of the newspapers which I read suggested sirens which I thought was a good idea and an inexpensive one. She had lived in England throughout World War II and vividly remembered the sirens which warn the citizens that enemy bombers had been sighted. I remember my own mother - who lived in Bristol - talking about the sirens.

mousecrazy · April 22, 2007

Thank you, green, for the congrats on the weight loss...it is slow going the closer to goal you get. We'll get there!

Here's my thought on Cho and civil liberties vs. community safety. The way everything played out, in this case, no one was protected, including Cho. It was not in his best interest to remain on campus, alone and mentally ill. The mentally ill cannot be relied upon to act in their own best interest. By definition, then, their civil rights must be infringed (if you view it that way) in order to protect them from themselves.

Some common sense and balance must be met in order to reasonably address these very real issues.

green · April 22, 2007

Well, Cho's disturbing behaviour had been noted by a number of people who had come in contact with him and had been brought to the attention of senior personnel at VT; he had been detained in a psychiatric facility but was ultimately released. I am inclined to think that this was a result of a conflict between his civil liberties and commonsense.

I do find myself wanting to agree with you. For sure those who are mentally ill might - depending on the degree and nature of the illness - not be capable of safely functioning in an unprotected environment. It seems that Cho had been seen as crazy and had shown an obsession with violence for years. It really is a tragedy that he wasn't stopped before all of this happened.