Over 30 people were killed yesterday, and many of us don't know why. The most reliable source, the shooter, named Cho Seung-Hui, is lost. I'm reading a lot of bulletins that are cursing and trashing Cho, because of what he did.

Let me start by saying that I do NOT condone what he did. It was horrible, and there were many ways he could have sought help, and the road he chose was not a good one. Never, in our entire lives, do we absolutely HAVE to kill someone. However, I find it wrong to call him a "fucking Gook" or "human scum".

Fact of life: At some point in our lives, we ALL want to kill someone. Don't deny it, cuz' that'd be a lie, and if it honestly doesn't apply to you, then you just haven't found "the one" yet, the one person that makes you put together homicidal scenarios in your head. We often scare ourselves with what we find ourselves thinking. Our rage builds and builds, but we don't act on these emotions and thoughts. We find an outlet to release and vent our anger. Whether it be religion, a form of music, of dance, videogames, or even starting a fight club, these angers are released in a safe way, we find ourselves an escape route to becoming sane again.

Now take away that escape route, and you have Cho Seung-Hui.

Cho Seung-Hui wasn't looking for acceptance or anything like that, we might not ever know his motivation for doing what he did. But I can tell you right now that he did not do it for no reason whatsoever. Clues as to who he was are scarce, but he has been described so far as being "troubled", "lonely", and not an outgoing person. He enjoyed playing basketball by himself, but didn't respond when people would greet him. Does this sound like someone who might shoot up his school? Yes, you say. But doesn't it also sound like someone who just prefers to be by himself, for whatever reason? Maybe the kind of guy at your school who sees himself as being so above everyone else that he dares not talk to them; maybe the kind that had a bad experience, and doesn't let himself connect with people out of fear; maybe, maybe, maybe. I'm not saying that this is who Cho Seung-Hui was, I'm simply saying that the chances of the shooting being prevented are slim; you'd have to recognize the signs early. Trouble is, many of the signs can be confused with the "maybe" situations I mentioned, and/or with common depression, which we ALL experience at some point. You'd need to recognize signs such as overreacting to small disappointments, increase in drug and alcohol consumption, and losing connections with close friends. And even then, once someone has decided to commit a mass murder like this, you can't change their minds. The murderer will sever connections with anyone who might be able to talk them out of their plans, because they don't want to be stopped. Whether it's for their own twisted sense of justice, revenge or fame, there is never no reason for things like this. There's nothing anyone could have done to stop this.

Put yourself in his position: What kind of life would you have to have to drive yourself to do something like that? To be the end of a long chain of disappointments and unfortunate events, one after another, to make him miserable. When you hear about things like this happening, we typically picture the shooter as being a total psycho. But "a psychopath is someone with little conscience, little interpersonal bonding, someone who's smooth and manipulative," says Louis Schlesinger, a professor of forensic psychology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. With that in mind, to me, Cho Seung-Hui was no psycho- he was aggrieved, hurt, and above all, paranoid.

These days, when someone does something like this, some of the first questions they ask is "What kind of music did he listen to? Did he watch violent movies? What were his parents like?", desperately seeking something to pin the blame on. I can remember being little, and you didn't need a scapegoat; people were just crazy growing up.

I'm not saying to pity the guy and put the blame elsewhere; I'm saying that nothing is to blame in this yet, we still don't really know who this guy was. All we know is that he was a loner, and that's a very broad classification; how many loners are there at your school? Just because he was a loner, that means that ALL loners are going to shoot up schools? 

This guy was living such a life that he didn't see life as a gift at all, but rather, a curse. Every day having to wake up with no air to breathe, he felt dead already. So he bought himself two Glock handguns and shot over 32 people...why, exactly? Time will tell.

Try to remember, he was a victim of this too. He may have been troubled, he may have been wacked out, he may have been everything you say about him...but he's also dead. He has already paid the price for what he did...

So why do you still curse and spit at his name? He's fucking DEAD, what about his family?
What about the other victims?
Jamie Bishop, owner of a Master's degree; Kevin Granata, one of the top five biomechanics researchers in the country; Emily Hilscher, a freshman majoring in animal and poulty sciences.  

Caitlin Hammaren
Matthew La Porte
Mary Karen Read
Henry Lee
Juan Ortiz
Maxine Turner
Reema Samaha
Leslie Sherman
Have you thought about them at all?

Ten bucks says the only name you knew before reading this is Cho's.
Now pay up.