Virginia Tech

So how is it that I could so blithely write about toenail polish when the terrible tragedy was unfolding at VT? At that point, I don't think anyone really knew how serious it was. And now that a fuller picture of the tragic events has come to light, I'm obsessed with it. The potential of the lives lost is so sad. And what about the professor who survived the Holocaust only to be killed so senselessly like this? Too unfair to even ponder. In an eerie coincidence, I just started reading the book We Need To Talk About Kevin over the weekend. It's a fictional series of letters from a woman to her estranged husband--and they are the parents of a school shooter. So naturally, I start to think about the parents of Seung Cho. Even more so since he's Korean. What is it about being Korean that gives us such a sense of shame about this? If the shooter were black, would the entire African-American population feel ashamed? I'm going to completely over-generalize and stereotype and say that the national pride (and subsequent shame) is a Korean thing. Which also leads me to wonder more about his parents. Did they have any sense of how unhappy and unstable their son was? Did they encourage counseling or medication? It's not the "Korean" way to handle these types of problems, but look how this turned out. It also reminds me of a story I read in the NY Times a while back about a profoundly depressed Korean girl who self-immolated when she was at college. Korean parents--wake up and look at your own kids. The VT tragedy didn't have to happen. I am so deeply sorry for everyone who lost loved ones.