A Serious Message from AB Fab

Today AB Fab and her committee mourn for the victims, family members, friends and everyone affected by the senseless acts of violence carried out in the early morning hours of Monday April 16, 2007 at Virginia Tech. Together, with hundreds of thousands of others, we ask ourselves, “Why?” Why do these things always happen in schools, places that should be sanctuaries from the violence and hate of the World. Schools are the one place a child, or anyone for that matter should feel safe. But instead, we practice lock down drills and have metal detectors and we’re taught to fear the odd ones out. Why can’t we make schools places of love, acceptance and peace? Why do over half of ALL children in the United States say they’ve been bullied or teased at school? Where is America going so wrong?
I was shocked, appalled and dismayed when I clicked on a link MSN news had set up for people to express their condolences. The first offering was no more than an attempt to lay blame on shoulders that are innocent but yet are the first we here in America like to blame. Ah, yes, violence. Well, must have been one of those fast growing in population South Korean Muslims. Yes. Must have been one of them. Because all Muslims hate Americans, right? NO. That’s NOT true. But that’s the sad thing about people, we believe that one bad egg makes the whole dozen nothing but trash. It’s not all Muslims, or all Koreans, or all of one people who are hateful and violent. We’re so quick to hate and discriminate and that’s what really causes violence in today’s world. Hate. Such a small, yet vicious world.
Reports coming out of Virginia Tech paint a grim picture of the instigator. He was a loner, whose violent writings worried teachers. He was such a loner that the school claims it is having difficulty getting information about him. This is a serious concern to me. It appears to me that maybe he was more than just angry at the world. Maybe he was sad and felt alone in the world. Maybe he thought no one cared and no one paid attention to him. Maybe he was apathetic and felt he had made too many mistakes in his life and that a few more wouldn’t make a difference. Maybe we can’t just blame Cho. Maybe we need to look and examine ourselves and ask ourselves how many times we have insulted someone and not talked to them in order to keep ourselves out of a socially compromising situation. Maybe we should all walk away from this tragedy with one lesson—that human beings as a whole need to learn to be more accepting to each other and not shun others because they’re different. Everyone’s different. Everyone’s unique in some way. Why can we learn to love and accept uniqueness instead of pushing people away because they have a stigma attached to them.
Today, tomorrow and always, I mourn for the innocence lost in this attack. The innocence of Virginia Tech’s students, faculty and parents. The innocence of students, faculty and parents everywhere. The innocence of everyone. Because from today on, like always happens after tragedy, we’re changed. In a look at numbers there are at least twenty-four thousand, nine hundred and seventy students who are, at least temporarily, afraid to be in their school. Scars like this do not easily fade.
In closing, I hope that we can all walk away from this devastating day without hating Cho but asking ourselves how we can prevent more Cho’s in the future, how we can prevent more senseless violence and death, how we can learn to love or atleast accept one another. As Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "Returning violence for violence only multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars...hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."