The Curse of Unpopular Wisdom

Conventional wisdom is not my forte. Abstract thought, now that's up my alley.

Am I the only one that's about to overdose on "Virginia Tech heartache"? People died. It was horrifying. It was tragic. It is a crying shame. There, now will you stop asking me to post a picture of the "VT" symbol and a black ribbon?
I guess this is just a representation of what it takes to get to the heartstrings of an American. We live in a society where things don't bother us if we don't see it. We are, in essence, ostriches. We bury our heads in the sand on a daily basis. For the most part, we don't give a damn about homeless people or orphans, as long as we don't have to see it. As long as there aren't people sifting through our trash cans, we aren't concerned. People get senselessly murdered everyday, and as long as the quantity of victims in each instance remains one or two, we don't really care about that either.

I feel like I'm the only person that isn't shocked that an immigrant, living in an upscale community, tormented by his classmates for years, struggling to find a place to fit in and feeling rejected by society snapped one day and started shooting people. I wasn't shocked at all when I heard what happened. It makes sense. But, people just don't understand that years of hearing nice things mixed in laughter like "go back to China" (when he was from South Korea) would push him over the edge. Everyone has their breaking point. Rambo had that Sherriff and this guy his. The shame is that people died that didn't laugh at him, but I suspect in there somewhere, someone, a victim, got what that poor, lost soul thought he/she had coming. That's what is tragic and his family dealing with it is also every bit as tragic as the families of the slain.

Something that has my attention a bit more than a picked-on and tormented kid going berserker is that some of our Nation's most brilliant minds are kooks. What is up with NASA? "It's not rocket science" is loosing some of its luster as a saying. An astronaut hacks into her man's email, finds out he has another lady on the side and then goes hundreds of miles to deal with "the competition". Just think about the series of conscious choices she made along the way and the number of times she could have came to her senses. The mental fragility of a NASA engineer that resulted in the killing of a co-worker he blamed for a substandard performance appraisal troubles me. His suicide adds to my wrinkled brow, but isn't alarming. It's the fact that these people did what they did in the first place that is disturbing to me.
Where are the Enterprise High School ribbons? No one there picked on Mother Nature to prompt that tornado to swing on by and say hello. But, I digress...

In the future, I simply ask that I be spared the mourning du jour for whatever the popular tragedy is for that day. I'll say a prayer, I'll ponder the events and I'll try to make sure I raise my kids so that they never contribute to another tormented soul slaughtering innocents. But, I also ask that you get focused on the real issues that we have in this country. I ask that you wonder why people pushed this kid to the edge - and seemingly over it. It doesn't alleviate responsibility on his part. But, I'd like to see Katie Couric do some "Eye on America" into "Asshole kids who torment classmates" next week.

It seems like we end up with prevention groups like Mothers Against Drunk Drivers for things like drunk drivers killing too many kids and I'm sure they have ribbons. Everyone wants to confront the cause of alcohol related accidents. After all, the reality of that is far less haunting than knowing that there may be victims in Blacksburg who also have blood on their hands, if only in a proverbial sense. Contributing factors, if you will. How about you send some reporters out there and find me a parent who says "Yeah, my kid was an asshole. He thought it was fun to pick on that kid for the way he talked." I doubt you'll find anyone willing to admit fault in their little "Johnny". If you don't believe me, ask a teacher how pleasant parents are in this day and age.

That's right, it's my new campaign to save lives: "Show your kids you care, whip their asses."

It's simple America. All we have to do is re-introduce personal responsibility and accountability to our children. All we have to do is give a teacher the benefit of the doubt when they say your little angel dropped a quarter stick of dynamite in the dumpster. Kids do dumb things, and your kid is no exception. Don't reward insane behavior in the check out line at WalMart by trying to buy off that spoiled-ass monster of yours, whip his/her ass and follow through your idle threats and that kid will stop. I promise you, it will work. And, for heavens sake, quit telling your kids how great they are. Let them feel disappointment once in a while. Let them see that life isn't always fair. And, make sure they understand one thing perfectly clear: they are not better than other people. (Caution: Building character may actually require parents to interact with their children.)

It’s simple, everyone sees 32 people slain in the worst single homicide in modern American history. However, I see a long series of events that made a kid go nuts; people only see what conventional wisdom shows them. America will never see the guy that teased that guy for years say what he's thinking when a reporter sticks a camera in his face. America hears this guy say all of the great news-worthy things like "what a senseless tragedy, he always seemed shy and withdrawn". Yet, what they should probably hear is "I wish I wouldn't have called him a stinky gook and told him to take the boat back to China". (And just so you don't think I'm being too liberal here, had Cho lived I'd be calling for him to ride the lightening.)

Sometimes unconventional wisdom is a curse. This is one of those times. My prayers go out to all of the affected people. But, my thoughts are wondering if America will collectively ask itself what we can do to prevent this from happening again - and why is NASA hiring so many mailmen?