The man behind the massacre

After the Oklahoma City Bombing, there was Timothy McVeigh, and after September 11th, there was Osama Bin Laden.

Now, in the wake of Monday's tragedy at Virginia Tech University, there's yet another name that will forever be remembered in connection with an act of unspeakable destruction.

A day after the bloodshed in Blacksburg, the killer's identity was released.

And there he is: Cho Seung-Huim. That's the guy who carried out the deadliest shooting spree in the history of the United States of America. There's his face, and there are his two eyes staring out at us. He was just 23-years-old. A college senior. An English major. And for whatever reason, Cho made the decision earlier this week to leave this earth in a chaotic hailstorm of gunfire.

In my Humanities class right now, we're in the process of reading Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. It's about the trial of Adolf Eichmann, an instrumental figure in the Nazi "Final Solution" during WWII, and it's an appropriate text to be delving into at this time. Our nation is desperately trying to come to grips with the sort of evil acts Arendt confronts - the sort of evil this young man pictured committed.

But was the young man himself evil? How could a human being commit such atrocities against fellow human beings? How do we confront and deal with something like this? Sometimes it seems like FaceBook is a window into the hearts and minds of our generation, so here are a few FaceBook groups that have recently been created on the subject...

"Cho Seung-Hui is pure evil"
"Cho Seung-Hui is a Fucking Dead Bitch Pussy!"
"Cho Seung-Hui if I see you in hell I'm beat your ass you crazy fuck."
"Christians should bless and not curse their enemies: Cho Seung-Hui"
"Rehumanizing Cho Seung-Hui"
"Cho Seung-hui: We Voice Our Selves Through Peace"
"Cho Seung Hui, if you had a myspace, Tom wouldnt be your friend."
"Cho Seung-Hui never got laid!"
"CHO SEUNG-HUI IS A MEAN DUMMYFACE"

...As you can see, people have responded with everything from hatred to vulgarity to forgiveness to humor. But I think the group that most accurately summed up my feelings was, simply, the following:

"Cho Seung-Hui What the hell where you thinking".