I wrote this in the other thread, thought I'd share my thoughts:
I don't intend to be argumentative, but I feel as though animated ultra violence is far more harmful to developing kids than realistic violence. The animated violence in cartoons doesn't depict the consequences of violent actions, it makes them attractive and innocent seeming. If you watch the movie "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" (highly recommended) Kevin Smith says that the movies that show the consequences of violence (Like Saving Private Ryan) should have lower ratings than movies that don't.
And further, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if information surfaced that shed light on the childhood abuse of the killer. I'm sorry to say this, but I hate him as much as anyone else who watches the news does, but we should try not to hate him, because it was his hatred that caused this very incident. I'm sad because I fear this will only spawn animosity toward Asian immigrants. We should all do our best to grieve for the dead students, without feeding hatred for their murderer. This tragedy should teach us to reach out to each other, not become obsessed with hatred as the killer so obviously did.
rereading this, I realized that i sound sympathetic to the murderer, which I certainly do not. And I believe everyone is always responsible for their actions, regardless of their history. But the fact is that he killed himself, and while directing hatred at him might be an easy way to forget our depression, it is much more responsible to accept that no matter how much hatred we feel toward him, nothing will undo the murders he committed.
I don't mean to chide the maker of this thread. I've just been thinking a lot about the ethics behind responding to violence with hatred. There have been times when I've wished that I could kill someone, and just an hour ago I was saying how angry it makes me that the murderer killed himself, so that the state couldn't. But terrorists like him obviously don't fear death enough, so the greatest punishment we can inflict upon them is indifference. It is far more painful to be ignored than hated. So as news stations fuel our national hatred with their horror stories about the disturbed youth who murdered 32 people, we grant this boy exactly the infamy that would fulfill all of his desires. Lets instead forget the killer, and try instead to remember the legacy of each of the innocent individual students, who most of us never met, but could easily have been one of our friends or relatives.