Word is trickling in from the tragedy. News reports have identified the shooter as Cho Seung-Hui, a Korean immigrant living in Virginia since 1992.
Now, don't tell me the Koreans are soaking up everything reactionary from America, from its Dominionist Christianity to homophobia to tax evasion/greed to, now, gun culture. It's bad enough that they have already contributed so much to the reactionary politics themselves, in the form of Reverend Moon and the Unification Church. Given that the Korean culture has been demonstrated, here in Los Angeles and elsewhere, to be a deadly one, in the form of the numerous family murder-suicides, perhaps we shouldn't be so surprised at what happened at Virginia Tech yesterday, sad and shocking as it may be.
South Korea will send some diplomats to the US in order to investigate and apologize. They better have apologies for the actions of the Unification Church and its destruction of American democracy, as well.
South Korea's government has also asked people not to "stir up racial prejudice or confrontation" over this. However, it is in no position to make such requests, given that the Koreans have advocated extermination of entire classes of law-abiding American citizens, and South Korea is one of the most racist societies in the world.
And the most sickening thing? While Republicans in Congress displayed a picture of 9/11 lead hijacker Mohammed Atta to make a case for tightening immigration, they will probably never use a picture of Cho to do the same, given how much help they get from the Korean community. Talk about double standards! Already, W and McCain are busy coddling the Korean gun owners.
Back to Virginia Tech, the names of the dead have not been released, though two are now known to be professors, one Asian Indian and one Romanian. This makeup is testament to the diversity of the population makeup on US college campuses, one that demonstrates American schools' quality and attraction to scholars worldwide. But if the W cabal keeps its anti-academic policies up, this will be history too.
MSNBC
