Freedom Rider:
Seung-Hi Cho and John McCain
by BAR Editor and Senior Columnist Margaret Kimberley
"John McCain may be the only presidential candidate who thinks it is
funny to sing about killing Iranians."
"You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was
yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off." - Seung-Hi Cho
"Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" - Senator John McCain
We usually hear little about shooting deaths
unless enough people die in the same place at the same time. Every
day 32 Americans are killed
by gun violence. It is the act of terror most likely to be inflicted upon us
all. Ironically, 32 was the number of fatalities inflicted by a gunman at
Virginia Tech University.
Just as they did eight years ago
at Columbine High School, the media descended upon Blacksburg, Virginia. They
spoke to students about their dead classmates, about desperate efforts to save
lives, and the horror of the bloodshed they witnessed. They spoke lovingly of
their friends who died and painstakingly enumerated their special qualities.
The corporate media have never profiled Iraqis killed by American bombs,
gunfire and prisons. We never know how much they were loved and how they fought
to stay alive while violent people sought to take their lives. We never hear
the story of the destruction of Iraq's medical system, infrastructure and water
supply. Iraqis aren't Americans, they aren't white and they were killed by our
government. Those factors add up to a ho-hum attitude surrounding their deaths.
"McCain and many other respectable Americans are also worse than
Seung-Hi Cho."
As the week wore on the enormity of America's
addiction to violence against the rest of the world became painfully clear.
Senator John McCain is a presidential candidate, an allegedly sane man and an
influential politician. He and many other respectable Americans are also worse
than Seung-Hi Cho. McCain sang his horrific little ditty about killing Iranians
among a group of like minded folks, who think they have a right to bomb human
beings into oblivion and to laugh while they do it.
Cho came by his murderous rage somewhat honestly.
He was certifiably psychotic, a one time patient in a psychiatric hospital.
What is McCain's excuse for openly expressing his murderous fantasies in song?
The silence surrounding the McCain call to bloodlust was deafening. The big
campaign news that day was the cost of John Edwards' haircuts, not a psychotic
call to kill from another candidate.
The pundits and the politicians all agreed that
Cho was evil, demonic, diabolical. If so, he was no worse than George W. Bush.
What is the occupation of Iraq if not evil? Four years ago, Uncle Sam began a
violent spree that resulted in more than 600,000 dead. As the American people
make it clear that they want the U.S. out, politicians like McCain are more
determined than ever to stay and keep up the body count.
The desire to leave Bush's quagmire behind is not necessarily the result
of moral outrage. Instead there is frustration that Iraqis won't clean up
America's mess more quickly, or anger about the loss of American lives. McCain
has plenty of company among the American people.
"Chicken hawks think that shootings are like movies, where an unarmed
hero can take down a gunman."
The Virginia Tech killing spree revealed other
evils as well. Before Cho was even identified, one openly racist pundit
declared that the gunman was probably a Muslim, a "Paki." According to her
equally deranged counterparts, the dead students and professors were wimps who deserved to be killed. Chicken
hawks think that shootings are like movies, where an unarmed hero can take down
a gunman. Why didn't they just rush the guy? Why don't we just take out Saddam?
Why not bomb Iran? The sick mind set that has already killed many thousands was
on full display. Apparently the right wing won't be happy until all of us are
dead.
John McCain may be the only presidential
candidate who thinks it is funny to sing about killing Iranians. The others
might not sing about it, but they are all willing to do the same thing. Hillary
Clinton has already declared that she would keep American troops in Iraq.
That is the true horror revealed at Virginia
Tech. Seung-Hi Cho is not alone in his willingness to take many lives. The
other psychotic would-be killers have the power to kill many, many more than
Cho could ever dream about.
Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column
appears weekly in BAR. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached
via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.Com. Ms. Kimberley'
maintains an edifying and frequently updated blog at freedomrider.blogspot.com.
More of her work is also available at her Black Agenda Report archive
page.
Poverty i
Black Agenda Report will return with our next issue on Wednesday, September 10. Please watch our new video, "Inequality in Kenya: View From Kibera," produced in collaboration with the North-South…
Black Agenda Report's late Executive Editor, Glen Ford, gave this interview a decade after Hurricane Katrina to explore how the narrative of "starting over" is being used to whitewash the forced…
Twenty years ago, the world witnessed more than the suffering of hurricane Katrina's victims. The United States was exposed as a failed state controlled by the cruelties of racialized capitalism.
“It’s not like New Orleans was caught off guard. This could have been prevented.”
