Spectrum of Possibilities

PDD is not a four-letter word.

33 Stones

		Tuesday, 24 April 07 - 12:38 AM (GMT -05:00) By Andrea S. Stolz in In the News

At this point, everyone has heard about what happened at Virginia Tech last week: A 23-year old Korean-American student with a history of mental illness and social maladjustment killed 27 fellow students and five professors before turning his guns on himself.  "The worst mass killing in the history of the United States."  A video statement was played here on WNBC, Channel 4, the day after the shootings.  It is so angry--the statement, that young man brandishing his weapons-- screaming and spitting at the camera.

On Saturday, The New York Times ran a powerful piece on the young man: Before Deadly Rage, a Life Consumed by a Troubling Silence.  I cried when I read it.  I cried at how puzzled his family had been, still was, at not being able to reach their son, their brother, their nephew...they didn't know how to reach him.  And he couldn't tell them.  This young man was sick, alone, and in pain for 23 years.   To do what he did: the pain and sickness must have been more than I or almost anyone else can imagine.

The minister at my church talked briefly about this incident at Sunday's sermon.  He also talked about watching CNN as students placed 32 stones on a pyre of candles and flowers during a candle-lit vigil Friday evening at Virginia Tech.  And how someone came and placed a 33rd stone down next to the others.  For this young man.  To show that there was another victim.  The killer.

I mean no disrespect.  But I do believe that there were 33 tragic deaths last week.  One from severe, unchecked mental illness.  And 32 from the bullets of a gun.


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