Like just about everyone else in America, I'm saddened and disgusted by the massacre at Virginia Tech. I'm inspired by the people who did what they could to save lives, and amazed at the resilience of the people who have vowed to overcome this tragedy and keep their school's identity alive.
However, the thing that really kills me is the inevitable psychocrap that surrounds these things. Everyone wants to know what was going through that boy's mind when he shot everyone, and there's all this talk about him being "troubled."
Well, God bless CNN.com for printing the words of one with whom the shooter had contact, a professor who detected his weirdness early and took steps to both expose his violence and - more importantly - get the fuck away from him.
Nikki Giovanni, a poetry professor who worked with the shooter before demanding that he be removed from her class, had this to say about her former student:
"Giovanni said she's taught her share of oddballs in the past, but there was something malicious about Cho's behavior.
'I know we're talking about a troubled youngster and crap like that, but troubled youngsters get drunk and jump off buildings; troubled youngsters drink and drive,' she said. 'I've taught troubled youngsters. I've taught crazy people. It was the meanness that bothered me. It was a really mean streak.' "
Some people are just bad, wicked, or (dare I say it?) evil. The professor's comments will probably get buried by a million other perspectives on this tragedy, but I'm glad her observations made it online.
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