Cyborg

The other day I got a phone call from my man Zeke and he wanted to know why I sent the Korean cyborg over there to kill the college students . . . I simply told him: "At least he was a good shot."

For the last two weeks I have had to talk about this shooting in a variety of contexts. With the Americans, the subject never really comes up. I suppose that most of them, myself included, simply view gun violence as something that comes with living in America. I always looked at it as a choice that was made a long time ago . . . You can't show a woman's breast or a man's penis on TV but there is no problem watching someone "bust a cap in someone's ass" as means of conflict resolution. America choose violence over sex and the bodies are piled high . . . I am sure that many can argue that my logic is simple minded and the like but I can live with it. I haven't shot anyone, don't own a gun and don't really feel like I need to.

The Koreans are confused as to why Americans have so many guns. So are the Brits, the Irish and the others that I have talked to over the course of this event. Personally I am sick of talking about it. The questions come from everyone and it is almost like I am forced to explain why my family didn't own guns versus why other families do (We are timid pacifists, the others are raging hate-mongers) .

Before this happened I had students telling me how they would love to go to the US so they could buy a gun. I don't tell them that guns are right or wrong (guns don't kill people, people with guns kill people), I simply say that if one has a gun, there is a possibility that it may be used . . . The old if a gun is on a table in a play someone will be dead by the time the curtain falls notion.

My new point has simply been to ask the question as to why a 20 something college student would need a Glock to begin with . . . Further, why is that OK? America can be a cruel place and it would be pretty hard for some Asian kid to assimilate (all those powerful Asian role models that saturate the US media) in a such a place and I know damn well that kids can be really mean (I was one of the mean ones) so I am not really shocked by it . . . You piss someone off and they have an option such as following Ice Cube's adage of "get yourself a 9mm and your as will be fine" and the possibility for some really bad shit rises. Someone's gonna get straightened out . . .

So I tell the kids that American don't hate Koreans because of this; most Americans have no idea where Korea is to begin with, let alone what a Korean looks like. Americans are numb to this kind of shit and they are busy trying to pay their bills. In the end it is simply part of the news cycle and it will be buried with the rest of the bad shit that happens every day . . . When gas hits $4/gal. then rage will be the norm.

I read somewhere that 30,000 people are killed every year in America with handguns so this was a drop in the bucket. A big drop, yes, but a drop none the less.

The same day 184 were killed by a suicide bomber in Bagdad (or somewhere in Iraq). I didn't see their profiles on CNN. I didn't see prayer vigils for them. I guess the value of life differs from place to place although I am not quite sure why that is . . . Language? Skin color? Religious belief?

One of my students is going to the US to complete his MBA and his family is freaked out over this. Not because America is violent - they are worried about his visa. Will he be denied one? Will people hate him because he is Korean? I simply told him that no one will know you are Korean unless you tell them that Korea is where you are from . . . You are simply Asian in the eyes of most. He studied in Holland for a while and everyone there thought he was either Chinese or Japanese . . . No one know shit about this place. No one cares.

I asked him if he was going to buy a gun when he get there. He said that he was more interested in buying a car and trying to see a few things. Too bad gas is going to hit $4/gal. by the time he shows up . . .