THOUGHTS AFTER THE HORROR AT VIRGINIA TECH

Adrian, a fellow board member of The Mirae Foundation, has an op-ed in The Washington Post today. Spot on. I agree with his take and a bit embarrassed by the South Korean President, South Korean Ambassador to the U.S. and first-generation immigrants apologizing for Cho's actions. It's awkward and seems misguided to me as an American.

On the other side, I understand from their perspective since they are a people with strong nationalistic thinking and the initial emphasis by the U.S. media that Cho was South Korean. Anyway, here is Adrian's piece:

Koreans Aren't to Blame

By Adrian Hong
Friday, April 20, 2007

Monday's events at Virginia Tech were tragic. As our nation mourns, countries around the world continue to send condolences and words of encouragement to the American people.

Included in the aftermath of these shootings has been the response of Koreans in the United States. Many first-generation immigrants, part of a diverse and vibrant community, have taken it upon themselves to apologize for the actions of gunman Cho Seung Hui, citing a sense of collective guilt and shame simply by virtue of a shared ethnicity. (full article)

Also Dinesh D'Souza, one of my favorite policy wonks, has a good blog post, "Where Is Atheism When Bad Things Happen?"

Chuck Colson wrote a good article called, "Something Horribly Wrong"

VIRGINIA TECH MASS MURDER... SEUNG-HUI CHO NAMED GUNMAN

Horrible story that is all over the press yesterday and today. May God be with the families and friends of the 30 people that were murdered and others affect by this disturbing act of violence.

CNN has more, "Police: Virginia Tech shooter an English major, 23"

Chicago Tribune has more information here and some insight into this disturbed person.

I will say it's weird that the authorities and most of the press were emphasizing that he was South Korean. They were also using the Korean format of placing his last name first. It's weird because he immigrated here 15 years ago, so I assume he would have considered himself American. Are they trying to place some distance between this act and their school or township? I guess it's understandable given the terrible actions by Cho.

CNET has an article on the impact of the blogosphere, "Journalists look to bloggers for Virginia Tech story"

UPDATE: ABC News, "Killer's Note: 'You Caused Me to Do This'"

UPDATE II: The Smoking Gun, "Virginia Killer's Violent Writings"
AND BBC NEWS, "University 'warned about gunman'"

virginia tech, cho seung-hui, massacre