People suck.

People are so completely dense, it isn't even funny. Having read the plays by Cho Seung-Hui, I can say that I was not disturbed in the very least by them. I remember when Columbine happened however many years ago, Harris's aol website was still up, and it contained some maps for the PC game Doom. Upon loading them, it became clear they were of a school. This was disturbing, and the message it gave was clear. On the other hand, Cho's plays were not disturbing or any signs of what was to come.

When I popped the first play open, I was honestly expecting to feel that cold, dark feeling inside like when I saw that Doom map from Harris. Nada, nothing. It wasn't there. There was no cold feeling, instead what I was reading was obviously over-sensationalized stuff that people were going to exploit and try to use to come up with a reason for why 32 people had to die at Cho's hand the other day. I think that is the problem; that people are looking for answers so hard, so intently that they are doing it in the most maddening ways possible.

I sat through many a writing class in college, and honestly, the amount of violent, sexual and disturbing pieces that teachers see is mind-numbing. Do you know why? Death, sexuality and frustration are things that cross the mind of every person at some point in their life. You don't have to embody what you write; writing is expressing one's self, and using their creative mind to do so. I've written a lot of things that would apparently set off "red flags" to many people that I'm going to shoot the world up and am in need of some serious mental coaching.

The reality is, writing, especially fictional writing cannot be used to profile a person or their intentions. Some truly happy, kind people I've known have written some macabre things. You know why? It was interesting, fascinating and it was a way to express their creativity. You don't have to be frustrated with the world, ready to weild two pistols and shoot everybody in sight to write about it -- you can be a normal guy, living a healthy, happy life.

If anything, Cho's plays read like parodies of the world around him than they do insight into the mind of a killer. The commentary by those who are reading this seem to be the real insight into the mind of the killer. It just seems that society has such a hard time, as well as a fixation with assigning blame everywhere possible. First thing we heard was an outcry about gun laws, which is true in some cases, and in others not. The kid apparently did this all the law-abiding way to obtain these guns. While stricter laws could put a cap on violent incidents involving guns, if people really wanted them, they'd be able to obtain them (much like drugs), or they'd just find another way to hurt people. Now we are getting bombarded with the school and its responsibilities.

Teachers, counselors, other students and everybody else, including the lunch lady should have been on top of this situation. A teacher, teaching a writing class, who has seen tons of student work, some of which was probably rather disturbing or expressed frustration is supposed to say 'hey, this kid is going to go postal' and prevent all of this. It seems that this kid WAS seeing a counselor on the recommendation of a teacher, and it still didn't change a thing towards the positive. I'm sure the parents will be next, along with somebody else, as somebody has to be at fault for this, so some sort of meaningless action can take place so that the next time this happens, we can say 'Oh, well, it wasn't due to THAT. We had THAT covered.'

It is really endearing to read something from a classmate that thought Cho was going to be a school shooter, but when you paint the picture of reality, I have a hard time seeing a group of students in the classroom huddled around in fear of some meager asian boy who doesn't like to speak much. I mean, fuck.. When I read these plays, I laughed. I laughed and laughed and laughed, as they were just so ridiculously bad, that I'm hoping they were intended as parodies or comedy. But they probably weren't, and the true picture in the classroom probably involved more people laughing and joking about these plays than fearing for their lives over them. I'm not saying this is the exact scene, but it seems more than likely that was the case throughout this kid's life.

But what really gets me are the hordes of people talking about how sick and disgusting the stuff that kid wrote, and how it was a dead giveaway that he was a killer. You know, I wonder.. When you profile somebody, and set a norm for what a person should be, and it comes to be, is it your fault for making that profile?