And then, of course, there is religion. Some are desperate to insinuate Cho
as a deranged warrior for Christ. But Cho had "Ismail Ax" written in red ink
on his arm. Ismail is the Muslim spelling of Ishmael, which has caused
others to speculate that Cho was another Johnny Taliban. But then, he
spelled the name Ishmael - the common Western spelling - on the return
address of the package he sent to NBC.
That package also contained a multimedia suicide note in which Cho both
denounced Christianity and put himself in the role of Jesus Christ, even as
he struck a mimicking pose possibly lifted from a Korean action movie and
carried on like one of the professional wrestlers he so admired.
His execrable writings contain countless allusions to pedophilia and abuse
so offensive that even his presumably sophisticatedly desensitized
classmates refused to read them. His video testimony contains quasi-Marxist
denunciations of materialism.
In short, this deranged young man had a maelstrom of demons swirling about
him. But partisans want us to pick one all-explanatory demon.
With the light of hindsight, some say the warning signs should have been
spotted. But this assumes that strange and disgruntled people are a rarity
and that all of them are candidates to become mass murderers. The reality is
almost exactly the opposite. Strange minds and tortured souls are all around
us, particularly on college campuses.
Shall we now have the psychological equivalent of the zero-tolerance mania
that causes children with aspirin to be carted off by police? Shall we
unleash the white coats on every misanthrope and muttering grudge holder?
I confess, I've played the game of trying to find meaning in tragedy more
than once myself and I probably will again. But not this time. Not with Cho.
The only meaning I can find supported by the horrific, heartrending evidence
is that once again the mystery of evil has been corroborated, the permanence
of tragedy confirmed.