The massacre at Virginia Tech left me wondering how a person so disturbed could be basically dismissed and ignored by his fellow students. Many Virginia Tech students and faculty described Seung-Hui Cho as a “loner” who rarely spoke and had no friends described. An English professor at Virginia Tech contacted the police, and Cho was eventually referred to counseling because he seemed so depressed and angry. Even students were alarmed by his writings in his creative writing classes, which depicted gross violence and disturbing images. There were obvious warning signs here, but hindsight is always 20-20, and it is quite a stretch to say that anyone could have foreseen the horror he eventually carried out.

It appears that it would have been easy to ignore and dismiss Cho as an outcast. What people fail to realize is that, as students, we all share a common bond. There is a community here on campus, just as there is one at Virginia Tech, whether we embrace it or not.

Sure, many of us live very different lives, and some want to find their “niches” while on campus, whether through clubs or athletics. Without these “niches,” we fear falling into obscurity, going unnoticed to the world and losing that sense of belonging. Yet that world of “I am somebody” is usually a selfish attempt to be different from everyone else, not to bond with fellow students. Obviously, Cho didn’t have this sense of belonging. Indeed, he may have lost it years ago.

Today, campuses across the nation and American society at large, have forgotten their sense of community and humanity. We go to class and graduate in the hopes of getting a decent job, buying a house, filling it with a family and closing ourselves off from the rest of society. This is what the “American Dream” has become. What I hear people say is that they want a nice house with nice things.

It’s not surprising that our culture is one of raging consumerism, and we judge our success by how many flat-screen TVs and purses we have to put our Chihuahuas in and not by the depth of our relationships with other humans. We no longer depend on each other for happiness.

A college campus is one of the few places where so many diverse people are situated with so many shared experiences. Yet, this often goes unnoticed because we are too busy trying to live the “American Dream.” We need to realize that we have the ability to help each other reach the mutual goal of a decent and dignified human existence, which doesn’t have to be attached to anything material.

What we as students cannot do is distance ourselves from the problems that face all students and all of humankind. That terrible day was not simply a random, isolated and solitary act of violence. I think what happened at Virginia Tech is another horrific example of a lost and disturbed person being chewed up and spit out by society. Furthermore, it is evidence of how prone humans can be to deviant behavior when social ties and communal bonds are severed and replaced with an unwillingness to try to understand the problems that all humans can be subject to.

The following quote from an Iraqi student is one to ponder, “We want to show our solidarity with the students of Virginia Tech who are our brothers in humanity and in pursuing knowledge.”

Scott Allen can be reached at [email protected]