Thread: My essay on school shootings + terrorism

So I was supposed to finish the rough draft of my essay and turn it into class today, and I did finish it but my class ended 20 minutes ago so instead of them peer reviewing it, HOW WOULD YOU GUYS LIKE TO???

You can also respond to my arguments please, I'd like to make them much stronger, but part of the review is revision so all revisionist notes are very welcomed.

The film, Elephant depicts an imaginary school shooting similar to Columbine. The United States as well as countries over the globe have continuously suffered from these kinds of attacks for decades. Whether terrorists are bombing a building, or fired employees come back for revenge, or alienated students go on killing sprees the purpose always seems to be an indiscriminant but tragic impact. An impact is the purpose of artwork, it is sending a message without words, typically because one feels like their voice can’t be heard. The artist speaks without words because he or she feels that words cannot express their message properly. Only through their specific medium can they properly convey the feelings inside them. Inspiration is really just emotional energy inside that has found a way to be heard. That voice that tells the artist to paint, however, is the same voice that tells the terrorist to murder. In a sense, it’s all like a big attempt to get attention so that their pain and suffering doesn’t just pass away unnoticed. They basically seek to transfer their pain and suffering to society.
In 2004 Osama Bin Laden released a tape in which he addressed the American people to explain reasons behind the attacks. Debating President Bush’s claim that we were attacked because the terrorists hate freedom, bin Laden stated, “We fought with you because we are free, and we don't put up with transgressions. We want to reclaim our nation. As you spoil our security, we will do so to you.” Bin Laden saw himself as the leader of an oppressed and suffering people. He even relates his lack of love for Islam’s national leaders, bringing up many similarities between Muslim regimes and our own. Bin Laden aside we knew that the Middle-east was run by corrupt Kings and Dictators. The decisions of those dictators often led to violent consequences which brought suffering to the Nations involved. The United States chose to be involved in this problem since the 80s, and since then, just as the people of Muslim nations must indiscriminately suffer for the actions of their leaders, so must the United State’s people, according to Bin Laden at least.
Bin Laden also mentioned that because the United States people still live in ignorance, “the motivations are still there for what happened to be repeated.” The ignorance was given to us by the media. Americans expect the News to set the entire picture for them, so they end up with much narrower perspective than they thought. Communication lines from the unvoiced minority are blocked, so the unvoiced minority finds a new way to deliver their message. Or perhaps it just that they find there is no way that much pain or suffering could be properly expressed with words alone, and in that way the terrorist becomes an artist.
There is a lot in society to be complained about. Police over-react to problems and use drugs or alternative cultural decisions as scape-goats; athletes bully people on the side then get praised like school heroes; anything outside of normal is typically shunned even when it’s a really good idea. To top it off, most people don’t know how, or have no way to properly communicate the pain inside at the distress of issues such as being judges or bullies or legally screwed up the behind. In school, life becomes more complicated every day as, left to their own devices, the student body forms it’s own complex social organization. It’s not that alienated students don’t have to ability to speak, it’s that social pressures around them that many aren’t even consciously aware of tell them to stay silent. It’s not manly that have your feelings hurt, or be offended, or to be insecure, so these all become things that the alienated student buries away. Kimveer Gill, the student who shot up Dawson School in Montreal, had this to say on his online journal, (completely sic) “Stop Bullying It’s not only the bully’s fault you know!! It’s the teachers and principals fault for turning a blind eye, just cuz it’s not their job. You fuckers are pathetic. It’s the police’s fault for not doing anything when people conplain (oops, my mistake, the cops are corrupt sons of whores, so it’s not like they can do anything about it.) FUCK THE POLICE It’s society’s fault for acting like it’s normal for people to be assholes to each other. Society disgusts me. It’s everyone’s fault for being so apathetic towards fucking everything that doesn’t affect them personally. FUCK YOU SOCIETY.” When the student in question generalizes their personal problems to the mishandling of a corrupt society, suddenly they are no longer trying to act simply in revenge, but send a message by making the biggest impact they can.
Perhaps the best example of barriers blocking healthy communication is Seung-Hui Cho, the perpetrator of the Virginia Tech Shooting. Though Cho was never diagnosed with Autism both his pastor and his mother had at one time suggested he had autism. His behavior fits the autistic profile as well. His lack of ability to socialize properly was the cause his entire life of torment. Imagine subtly displaying the characteristics of autism, but never being told your different because of some explanation, so the only answer is the one your peers constantly tell you, that you’re weird? Examples of the wide-range of humiliation Cho underwent include being offered money to say a word, or being referred to as Question Mark because of writing a question mark down on the board where everyone was instructed to write their names. His writing in college was so angry that the Head of the English department and his creative writing professor both made inquiries about his mental health and suggested counseling. But angry writing was not enough to express the emotional distress he had.
How could Virginia Tech be prevented? Do you blame his mother for not recognizing the warning signs of autism and seeking help? Do you blame the bullies for picking on him? As much as society wishes it could just scape-goat the issue and ignore the painful truth, just like Osama Bin Laden said, if we continue to believe in lies the motivation for these kinds of attacks will remain. With terrorism, it’s hard because there are a bunch of leaders recruiting ignorant eighteen year olds that have gone through extensive suffering. They are taught that the West is the cause of all their grief and suddenly they are ready to sacrifice themselves for an artform. It’s likely that even if the United States stopped its violent abuse of the Middle Eastern Muslim Nation the propaganda from these Terrorist leaders would continue. Likewise, even though the lines of communication for students suffering oppression may be opened, there are a lot of reasons not to take that opportunity. I, for one, always felt like I was being misjudged by an adult in a counseling session and the first human response to feeling misjudged is getting defensive, closing those lines of communication instantly. Only the peers can open up communication properly. By the time Cho was in college his mentality had already diminished to the point where reasonable friendliness was not enough. His fellow students would have had to try with great tenacity to make him feel less alone.
The relationship between school shootings and Middle Eastern terrorists is key. Though not all alienated youth choose to go on rampages, neither do all people in war-torn countries try to blow buildings up. A select few act like artists, conveying the emotional suffering of the masses over to society so that society must then feel their burden. Just like drama is a tool to reinstate or inform social conduct, so is this. The only way to stop it, obviously, is to change our conduct. The student body’s sub-society has to reform itself. Students must engage with each other with as much relentlessness as required to get these alienated students to feel less alone, even if these alienated students have already set up barriers due to all the suffering they have received. When students really feel like they have friends, that burden they carry around is lifted. Though that is the most important solution, other solutions include teachers promoting them to act out artistically so their built up aggression can be slightly relieved (not to mention that their artwork will most likely be an early indication). What I mean, in conclusion, is that if, as Martin Luther King once said, “Violence is the rhyme of the unheard,” it’s true, we just really have to try to make them heard without violence.