Sick or well, we're all members of the human family, and when one of the family is so cut off from the rest through mental illness, illogical rage, and a dead soul that he could assassinate 32 of his classmates and professors in so ruthless and efficient a manner, it shakes us all. How do we grow such people in our midst? How are they able to fall through the cracks of systems meant to protect them from themselves, and the rest of us from their fury. How are we living in the land of the free if students aren't even safe in their schools. I heard on NPR that universities in Boston are now going to have their campus police trained in SWAT tactics. How did we get here? How can we fix this?

Sent by Nancy K. Clark | 7:09 AM ET | 04-19-2007

i have been reading your blog for a year now. I am thrilled with your remission news and would like to hear how you are moving forward , indeed back to your journalistic pursuits! i seems during treatments you had more to say in this blog. Some of us want to hear how you are transitioning to a new life!

Sent by jane jellinek | 7:57 AM ET | 04-19-2007

I think the entire world is in shock and disbelief at the loss of innocent lives, the diabolical calculative motivation, and the feeling of not being 'safe' anywhere you are in the world anymore.

The world has changed... usually change is progressive and for the better... I think this time the world is changing for the worse... we're taking many leaps back.

Personally, I can't really comprehend it all... maybe i'm too much of a simpleton. It's so mindnumbing...

Even during the 'Talk of the Nation' broadcast this week, the VT shootings were reeling in my head.

I think with prayers, hope, courage, strength, and community--we, as a society--hopefully will get better, and move toward a change for the better.

Sent by Krupali Tejura MD | 8:03 AM ET | 04-19-2007

as a parent i too feel the sadness and the pain from one individual horrible actions. hopefully the sadness i feel will help ease someone's else's pain who is a victim of this tragedy.
i am glad you are taking this forum to address this . AMEN.
in a post note to monday's NPR show..i must admit i was disappointed in the fact the someone like elizabeth edwards , who i do not believe has ever even posted on here was given so much time to "chat" about the topic. i would have rather have heard more of you Leroy and the 'others"!

Sent by marianne dalton | 8:25 AM ET | 04-19-2007

Like everyone I have been focused on the VT tragedy but I can't help but wonder why this touches us so while we don't seem to grieve over the lives lost in Iraq. Everyday it seems like large numbers of citizens in Iraq are killed. How can the country continue to grieve and go forth?

Sent by Dona | 8:48 AM ET | 04-19-2007

Leroy - I thought the same thing Monday after reading and nearly responding to your "world has gone mad" comment. I was thinking how true your remarks were, and then I learned about the horrible events in Blacksburg - which kept getting worse and worse with each report. Insane, just insane. My work week had gotten off to a bad start and then the shootings happened, which made my work issues trivial by comparison.

I have a graduate degree from Virginia Tech, and have special memories of the place. This could have happened anywhere, but it happened in a place that was otherwise fairly peaceful and harmonious. It would have been equally tragic anywhere, but was especially poignant to those of us with a VA Tech connection.

It strikes me how so many people make the choice to try to make a positive difference, to make the world a better place. Yet at the same time there are at least some others, seriously disturbed, who would deliberately create chaos and horror. It is a terribly sad situation.

I would like to see the media focus less attention on Cho and more attention on the lives - young, middle aged, and old - that he snuffed out, the potential not met from this loss. While the victims do get some attention, most of the focus is on the one who is responsible. He is front page, big photos on TV and in the paper. They are back page, almost as footnotes on TV. It says something about human nature and society that we are more interested in the sordid details of the murderer than we are in learning about his victims and what they, their families, and we as a society have lost.

And also, it says a lot about society with all the focus on finding someone or something to blame. One person - Cho - is to blame. Finding scapegoats is not going to change that fact or help.

Sent by Art Ritter | 8:59 AM ET | 04-19-2007

It's ironic that you mention pictures today. I have just finished viewing the Pulitzer Prize winning series of photos about the passing of Derek Madsen, a young boy who fought and lost a tragic battle with cancer. Obviously it is very emotional.
http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2007/feature-photography/works/index.html

Be warned, you will most likely cry. I know I am.

Sent by Brit | 10:22 AM ET | 04-19-2007

Leroy,

The Virginia madman is someone who was "spotted" as "strange" several years back. What seems so terrible to me is that a sick individual was noticed and nothing was done. And because nobody intervened, we have this massacre.

When someone registers a complaint with the police, they can't act until that person "does something."What an awful approach! The shooter was a mentally ill man whose illness was not treated and eventually led to his shooting a bunch of people. Makes me angry, Leroy.

Sent by Diana Kitch | 11:46 AM ET | 04-19-2007

I don't think there is anything to say that hasn't been said. It is simply incomprehensible. It reminds me that there are so many out there who feel so forsaken, untouched by others and unable to touch others, and the unbearable pain and despair that a few people seem to be able to only express in blind rage. I guess there is no way to make sense of the senseless. I haven't been able to put this out of my thoughts yet, it's just so unfathomable.

and as marrianne said, I remember that this senseless slaughter happens every day, day in and day out, in Iraq and elsewhere to people who are really no different in any sense than those in Virginia.

There is nothing that could ever excuse what this young man did on Monday. But I can't help thinking of all the others out there who have given up all hope, and the unbearable pain of that. It saddens me to think that something like this may happen again and again we will ask "why?" and "how could this happen again?" I don't know what else to say, it really is just incomprehensible.

Sent by mac | 11:55 AM ET | 04-19-2007

I am going out of a limb here to express some personal thoughts. I do not agree that the world has changed. We have always had diabolic individuals that have taken the lives of innocents. The only thing that has changed is the access to media. We are bombarded by the need to know. The sane among us, can handle the every day explosion of news stories, blogs, email, and text messages. We have a life outside the mainstream. We can sit and wonder why such a tragedy occurs and ponder what has gone wrong with society. But let's not forget that less than 30 years ago we still had people burning churches with little girls inside. We had race riots in Watts. We waited for the daily or weekly paper to come out to look at "doctored??? photos"....let's not offend the innocent....The world has not changed, it has become more accessible. And the more we try and figure out what has gone wrong the less likely we are to succeed. The next time you decide to buy your 6 year old a cell phone so he can text message his school mates, or buy the latest X rated video game for your 14 year old...we can look back at this tragedy and say.....maybe this is not a such a good idea.

Sent by Patti | 1:28 PM ET | 04-19-2007

Leroy, I have been thinking about tragedy in the news, and how I am starting to avoid listening to the news, even before you posted on Monday.

I don't want to hear the details of the people killed on Monday - I know that as human beings they had tremendous value, I know that their families and friends are grieving, but I do not want to feel personal connections to them - I don't want to grieve for them on a personal level.

I have gotten to where I don't want to listen to the news. I don't want to hear the latest story about how bad things are in Iraq. What can I do to change it? I deal with my husband's cancer (NED for now), and have dealt with Katrina's wrath. I want to enjoy life, but all the bad news sometimes makes it difficult.

Sent by Erica | 3:24 PM ET | 04-19-2007

My husband is a teacher at Columbine High School. He was there during the shooting on 4/20. He was stuck in a janitorial closet in the cafeteria for 1 1/2 hour before the swat team got them out. The closet was right under the library and he heard all the shootings and screaming from the library. He also saw many of the injured and dead bodies in the cafeteria during the shootings. The whole VT shootings (and previous shootings at Bailey and in the Armish community) brought me to tears. I was listening to NPR while driving home from work Tuesday and I cried all the way home. The anger is reignited with every shooting. As a society (and we do claim that we are the most developed country in the world), we should be able to do something to minimize this craziness. Forget about the debate over gun controls, we can't even coordinate the radio frequency that all the first responders use!

Our son was born in June of 2001 and was diagnosed with liver cancer in Dec. of 2002. We thought bringing a baby into this world would change our hopeless feeling about the world. And it did for about 1 1/2 year until my son got sick. For all the monies we spend on Irag, on debating gun controls, on debating the abortion issue, etc, why can't we spend them on finding a cure for cancer, helping our next generation from being so angry and violent and build a better future for our world. I feel numb and hopeless.......

Sent by grace | 3:29 PM ET | 04-19-2007

I'm shocked about what happened in VA. It's not to comprehend. But I'm even more shocked that so few people realize that this is just what is normalcy in Irak. But still we only count the casualties of this war as American soldiers.So I hope that this experience will lead the current administration to quit their arrogant policies and get every help they can get from talks to Syria and Irak to taking advice from experts to admitting their wrongs to stop the daily Virginia Techs in Irak.

Sent by Sabine | 5:59 PM ET | 04-19-2007

Leroy - you said "cancer is just a disease." It is within recent memory that cancer was viewed as self-imposed. It was stigmatized, cancer suffers were treated as lepers. If only they had, or had not, done...whatever, they wouldn't have cancer. Fear, shame, a lack of a champion, and a shameful lack of compassionate public policy debate caused needless suffering for people who could not avoid the tragedy of their illness. But now, thanks to courageous pioneers such as yourself, and examples such as Dana Reeves who died of lung cancer without having smoked a cigarette - cancer is finally recognized as a disease and not a moral failing.

I pray for the day when mental illness will receive the same consideration. I have been hoping for such consideration from NPR in the coverage of these events and have been disappointed - it may be too soon - but perhaps at some point - the discussion can begin.

As others have posted, there is nothing to excuse what happened, and the grief of the families is beyond comprehension. And the grief of a family that tried to seek help for an extremely troubled son and was disappointed is also beyond comprehension.

Perhaps at some point, media will move off of the issue of gun control and address the fundamental issue of how the stigma about and ignorance of mental illness contributed to this tragedy.

The fact that you and everyone here are willing to talk about their experiences make a greater contribution than you all will ever know.

Sent by jmh | 12:53 AM ET | 04-20-2007

Grace,my heart goes out to you...

Sent by karen | 1:28 AM ET | 04-20-2007

We thought yesterday about life in the cancer world, and how it is so different from life in the "normal" world. Our nostalgia for the normal world, however, can be overwhelmed by events such as the VT shootings. Isn't it a bit strange, no tragic, that our normal world can be void of the love and compassion that many of us have experienced as an amazing "side effect" of our battles with cancer. Yet it's hard to love a man named Cho.

Sent by Andy Halpern | 6:23 AM ET | 04-20-2007

Thanks to your reader Britt who posted a link to the Pulitzer Prize winning photographs of young Derek who died from the vicious childhood cancer neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma is actually the third most common cancer in children (after leukemia and brain tumors) and it has one of the worst survival rates, if not the worst. We are still reeling from the loss of our 12 year old daughter last December from neuroblastoma.
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/laurastiles
Leroy, I feel that cancer in a child is truly a tragedy not just a disease. When a child at the beginning of their life that so much wants to live has their life snuffed out it truly is a tragedy.

Sent by Mara Stiles | 7:46 AM ET | 04-20-2007

I loved hearing your voice on Monday Leroy. I travel for my work so tune in to NPR whenever I get back in the car. I've been praying for you....be blessed.
I choose not to give thought time to the perpetrator of Monday's carnage. I'm trusting God to use it somehow to make the world better. Let's focus on praying for strength, comfort and peace for the families of the victims and the entire VT community. Keep blogging..we love you man!

Sent by Beth | 9:04 AM ET | 04-20-2007

Thank You Leroy,I was hoping you would mention this tragedy. It seems selfish to think of our own health or problems when 33 lives have been taken so violently. Let us not forget the parents of the young man who did the killing. They have to be suffering also.

Sent by Leah Wellman | 9:19 AM ET | 04-20-2007

I am an educator at a community college, and I teach Psychology. I could not find a way to even talk about the VT tragedy until a class late Thursday afternoon. I think it was emotional for me because I related to the faculty members and wondered - would I have laid down my life for students like they did? I fought so hard to survive cancer twice - and I read that one of the professors was a holocaust survivor - and then to die like that...I don't know what I would do.

On the other hand, one of my colleagues today challenged me about how much focus the media has given the story, compared to the stories of so many more of our young people dying in war. We cannot forget them, nor their family and friends who grieve them. The circumstances are different to be sure - we have a volunteer military who know the likelihood of going to war, whereas college students have an expectation to be safe from mass violence -- but the deaths are senseless nonetheless.

Sent by Kelley | 11:43 AM ET | 04-20-2007

The recent horrific event at Virginia Tech reminded me that there are much worse things out there than my having or dying from cancer. I can't imagine losing a child in any way, much less so suddenly, violently, and pointlessly. I am grateful for every day (no matter how frustrating sometimes) that I have with my two children. I know people who have lost children, some to cancer, and how they cope with that is beyond me.

Sent by Marcia Greer | 3:32 PM ET | 04-20-2007

33 deaths at V Tech

201 deaths in Baghdad

'There has to be a better way' or so says Ben Harper

Sent by dr bill | 6:09 AM ET | 04-21-2007