A Different Kind of Grief Observed

As I read the news this morning regarding the VA Tech tragedy, I came across the fact that the shooter had been identified as a 23 year old man originally from South Korea. I didn't know exactly how this might affect the comments I was sure to hear from my South Korean co-workers, but I knew that it would have some impact. I was, however, surprised at the result.

At first, I assumed that knowing the attacker was South Korean born, it would somehow temper the comments I so often hear about the violence of U.S. society and the almost barbaric persona most Americans seem to portray to the rest of the civilized world (ironic that we, the world's foremost demcratic institution, should have such a stigma). I have heard these comments many times before and have rarely had adequate answers to excuse this perception. Really, you try to explain to a group of people that while fireworks, something you can readily and legally buy in almost any store in Korea, are ILLEGAL in most U.S. states because of their perceived "danger", it is nonetheless LEGAL to own, and in many states carry and conceal, a whole aresenal of weapons. I know that the first response of many Americans to yesterday's tragedy was to run out and apply for their own gun permits, but isn't this just a micro-cosmic rehashing of the same ideals that started the cold war? If you build nukes, then we will build more nukes. As a child of the 80's, I watched the movie War Games and I know about "mutally assured destruction". As George Santanyana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemened to repeat it." But I digress...

The first word uttered by anyone in my English class this morning was "shocking". Defintely le mots juste. But I did not correctly perceive the reason for the shock. It was not shocking that someone else had killed a large number of people in the U.S. Sadly, the international community is becoming far to accostumed to such stories. What was shocking was the fact that a South Korean had commited yesterday's crimes! Surely, such things would bring little shock north of the DMZ, but for South Koreans to learn that one of their own was capable of such a blood-letting, it is really quite shocking. But as we discussed it further (it was the only subject of our English class - except for my ill-conceived history lesson trying to explain in 100 words or less the ideas of the "Bill of Rights" and the "Right to Bear Arms"), I discovered what they really meant by shocking. Yesterday, the Korean news sources were stating that the gunman was Asian, probably Chinese, a fact that caused many Koreans to exhale (this was actually acted out by one of my students). When they discovered this morning it was a South Korean, they were "shocked". Embarassed. Ashamed. In fact, they told me that the shooters father had committed suicide yesterday, and his mother had tried but failed. I have not yet been able to confirm the truth of this fact, but I was shocked at this story. I was shocked because my students said they understood why his parents would do this and that they would probably do the same thing in their position. There is no glorification of the criminal life in Korea, which is probably why hip-hop culture has not ever fully caught on here.

But the fact remains, regardless of which side of the world you are living in, yesterday's tragedy is shocking. Let's hope that it always will be.