I would have preferred ‘Virginia Tech tragedy’ over ‘Virginia Tech Massacre’, which the media so astutely adopted after the horrid events last Monday. A massacre occurred, but this subtle distinction between descriptions shouldn’t be overlooked. The news stations opted for shock-value of a bad sort. The religiosity, media frenzy, uproar of age old debates on gun-control, privacy issues, and treatment of mentally ill persons followed accordingly. And in the aftermath, fanaticism rears its ugly head, as everyone attempts to reduce the events to two-dimensional explanations, illusions of grandeur brought to you by every expert expressing their conclusions while bias to their science, in a shrewd attempt to naively isolate the cause and offer their prescription.

Maybe G-Unit’s music does subliminally command one to perform horrible acts and maybe your level 32 Halo skills invoke you to lob real grenades in the actual world. I’d be just as naive if I said these factors are completely frivolous, but I highly doubt they are noteworthy. On top all the exploitations, we are asked to move on as though burying the event will offer solace. Life does move forward regardless, but we shouldn’t brush our social issues under the carpet along the way. Why does it remain so difficult for our culture to ask the tough questions? Could society be partly at fault? Are there certain values and beliefs we hold so dearly but are fundamentally flawed? The tremendous loss resulted from one individual’s frustrations, but that doesn’t mean societies hands are entirely clean. As long as we believe it disgraceful to evaluate society’s possible influences, this will happen again.

The courts deemed him a threat to himself and others around him. In this respect, the system did work. Nonetheless, the system failed in that knowledge of this court ruling was not disclosed to the store which sold him his guns. What’s so catastrophic of a thoroughly regulated, licensing and screening process for acquiring weapons? Not to infringe on our 2nd amendment, but what exactly are the purpose of armor piercing bullets again? Driving a car requires a vision test, in Texas you can now legally hunt if you are blind. Albeit I’m not one to shy away from a good slippery slope argument, but a social contract exists in society to maintain tranquility and order. Regulations could be the seed to suppression but only if we water them and let them grow wild.

The dramatic events saddened everyone—most of all the friends and family of the deceased—my thoughts go out to them. It continues to be very surreal for me and I can get very passionate, sometimes misguided, when expressing my views. But I do think we underestimate the complexity of the casual relationships which produced this tragedy. By removing the veil of denial, that society is completely innocent, can we hope to arrive at a remedy; and only through critical reflection and re-evaluation of ourselves. What’s seemingly counter-intuitive is that serious matters, such as our basic cultural values, those which for example fuel our obsession with appearance and material wealth, get the least attention. The more important the subject matter, the less we analyze them. The impetus of our convictions may very well be displaced, but as long as we avoid the discussion we can’t discover ways to mitigate their fallout.

Arguments for and against gun control both make valid points. Therefore, we must arrive at a compromise soberly and free from invested personal interests. It is very unlikely that had Cho not been unable to acquire a gun it would have stopped him from committing some other terrible act. Whether he would have made a home-made explosive and demolished a building or simply used a knife to harm one individual, we would still need to figure out what could have been done to circumvent it. Adjusting our approach to degrees of severity is dancing around the core problem.

Cho lacked an emotional maturity required to deal with his stresses, whether what caused him to pull the trigger involved a genetic disposition, environmental pressures, and/or personal anxiety. The values which elicit the courage to avoid emotional offense by middle-school bullies, find comfort in solitude, communicate one’s problems, and appreciate life above all else were never instilled or learned.

The media coverage’s quantity and quality of this tragedy disturbed me. The videos of Cho should have been disclosed only to experts and the authorities. The public should see the videos, but only after a certain time had elapsed. As tragic as this event was, it does not warrant the news stations to completely ignore all other news, much like during the Anna Nicole Smith fiasco. It’s as though nothing happened anywhere around the world for the week. Actually, since 4.16 more than 20 US soldier fatalities in Iraq have been reported.

I marveled at the response of the Virginia Tech community. The unity and solidarity which the students showed in expressing their sadness and grief was overwhelming and endearing. Nevertheless, and not to be cynical, the kindness which everyone exhibits now will in a few months, disappear entirely. How unfortunate in the immediate aftermath of such a tragic event, our potential for solidarity becomes so blindingly apparent, only to eventually dissolve as quickly as it had materialized.