Chris Aable's Blog

I wanted to wait a few days before I offer any views on the terrible tragedy at Virginia Tech early this week. Firstly because I think we all need some time to mourn and grieve over the lost of innocent lives, and secondly to study the psychology and sociology of Cho Seung-Hui so that I can make a more informed comment. I must express that the continual news conference has brought me to tears each day, and I include my thoughts and best wishes with the victims, their families and to Cho's family, and who are probably suffering from their son's loss as much as the families of Cho's 32 victims.

As I am writing this, I am also mindful of the fact that probably many more than 32 innocent Iraqi civilians are being slaughtered every day, but we don't hear even one percent as much media attention regarding this. Estimates range as low as over 60,000 to as high as over 600,000 total murdered since Mr. Bush found it necessary for his team to take the place of Saddam's team. Yes, I don't call putting multiple bullets into people who are not armed "killing" just because someone calls it a "war". I call it murder. I think the philosopher Jesus would also call it murder if he were around today.

All that aside for the moment, I have read Cho's two plays that are posted at newsbloggers.aol.com

I taught at two colleges as a graduate student in 1997 and later as a paid professor. I know hind sight is 20/20, but if any of my students had written plays like Cho Seung-Hui, it would have sent up many red flags and I would have contacted my department head. If he didn't do anything about his enrollment, I would have then contacted the administrators.

If I'm not mistaken, one of Cho's professors did volunteer to teach him privately and get him away from the class. From reading the plays, I would have taken the position that no adult teachers or students be left alone with Cho, and that his family should have been contacted to consider a mental facility. This is all largely wishful thinking, however, because there is not much a University can do with a student such as this who is exercising their freedom of speech.

But one thing that can be learned from this, is that nobody should have semi-automatic weapons. Guns and emotions do not mix. People who lose their tempers temporarily are often as mad as people who let their anger fester for months or years, as Cho obviously did. FBI statistics clearly indicate that we are more likely to be shot and killed by friends, family or neighbors than by strangers. No amount of guns are going to protect us from snipers or from people hiding in ambush who are hell-bent on killing. The NRA and the lame gun laws in Virginia have made it easier for snipers and ambushers to literally get away with murder. The NRA wouldn't allow us to learn this lesson from the Columbine High School shootings, but hopefully we can evolve just a little more and learn some valuable lessons from this.

After the Columbine mass murder, Charles Hesston, the then-president of the NRA, traveled to the area and attempted to turn the tragic era into a period of pro-gun politics instead of a period of mourning and reflection. We will hear the fearful pro-gun people rise up in droves over Virginia Tech as well. We'll hear illogical and irrational slogans such as: "All law-abiding citizens should own semi-automatics (or even more lethal weapons." or, "If citizens aren't allowed to own guns, then the federal government will take power over all of us." It's scary that these people who own so many guns don't seem to think very deeply. Firstly, ALL snipers, ALL ambushers, ALL murderers were ALL "law-abiding citizens" before they committed their murders. Sure, they can murder with a knife or a hammer, but wouldn't you rather go up against someone with a hammer than a semi-automatic? Have you ever heard of snipers whose only weapons were knifes or hammers? Secondly, if the "federal government" really wanted to "take power over all of us", you could have your house filled to the roof with all the semi-automatics you want, heck, even AK-47s, and that still wouldn't stop the government from dropping a bomb on your home. But thanks to all that NRA-sponsored ammo you've stashed, that bomb will probably blow up all your gun-toting neighbors in town, not just your own stash.

Until we learn that some wars can in fact cause more deaths than they save, until we learn some guns cause more deaths than they save, then history will keep repeating itself with different characters, different plots and on different stages all over this great land. We've seen this sad, horrific play too many times already, and yet other playwrights wait in the wings, willing to copy the drama all over again - and the NRA, once again is all too willing to provide the props.

I trust that "some" of us have either acquired or viewed the video documentary "Out Foxed" , about the unfair, imbalanced and unashamed Fox News cable channel ? The video documents, in their own words, Fox "journalist" Brit Hume, Bill O'Reilly, Shawn Hannity, all the "Fox and Friends" hosts, etc. saying "Some people say" over and over and over again. They have used this odious "some people" technique to slander every Democrat from Bill Clinton, John Kerry and Al Gore, who coincidently, Fox News was the first declared was the loser of the Presidential race based on what "some pollsters" have reported. This was even before the final tallies were counted on election night, and way before the questionable recounts in Florida many days later. Fox News is the KING of the "some people" distortion, and if Katie Couric had been doing her homework by watching "Out Foxed" she probably would not have stooped to Fox News' same low level. Bill O'Reilly, typically and hypocritically condemned Couric for the "some people" hog wash, yet he's been doing it for years now. The evidence is in his own words and caught by his own Fox News cameras and now documented by the documentary "Out Foxed".

"Any well-trained psychologist or sociologist would remind us that no individual nor group is "fair and balanced", we all have our biases to some degree. For Fox News channel to proclaim themselves "fair" or "balanced" is, ironically, unfair, imbalanced.....and unashamed.

Chris Aable
www.self-evolution.org

Tonight, Steve Colbert of the Comedy Channel's "Colbert Report" made an off-handed remark to Jim Fallows, Author of "Blind in Baghdad". Colbert stated that no one is laughing about the current Iraq war. Jim Fallows replied by stating something to the effect that yes, no one thinks war is funny.
Colbert and Fallows both seem to have temporarily forgotten that there was someone who thought the war was funny. That someone was a grown adult, crawling around on the floor of one of our most sacred government properties while laughingly pretending to look for "weapons of mass destruction." That grown adult, making fun of the Iraq war and making light of the thousands who have been slaughtered on all sides, was the last person who should have been joking about the war. That grown adult was none other than President George Walker Bush, crawling around the Oval Office, repeating that he couldn't find weapons of mass destruction, and he allowed his spectacle to be captured on camera for the world to see. Well, Mr. George W. Bush, perhaps you knew that "weapons of mass destruction" was near real after all? Because if you knew they were real, surely you wouldn't make light of them, or would you?
Contrary to what many of your supporters continue to erroneously imagine, I and others who criticize this type of childish behavior don't "hate" you. I and others I've spoken with simply feel sorry for you and hate your embarrassing behavior and your deadly war. It's highly ironic that in order to reportedly make us more secure and to save lives, you are making us more hated and despised the world over by destroying more life. So if you really wanted to get serious about finding those "weapons of mass destruction", all you had to do, sadly, was look in the mirror. For the evidence, ask most Iraqis. The millions of Iraqis in Baghdad, at ground zero, who have been at the center of your mass destruction for over four years now.

Chris Aable
www.self-evolution.org