My U.S. Army years came sandwiched between my four years of undergraduate university life and graduate school. In all three experiences, I was thrown into a mix of strangers of diverse backgrounds, many of whom I would never choose for friendships or socializing. With each tenure came confronting my share of jerks, some of whom never posed any threat, a few who self-destructed or moved on to who-knows-where.Theres so much to absorb from the Virginia Tech massacre. I cannot fathom the depth of the discussions on every American campus the woulda, coulda, shoulda. Certainly, millions of students are doing mental reviews of people in their spheres of campus life, wondering which ones could be lurking or capable of going off like Cho Seung-Hui. Campuses are pressure cookers. It comes as a kind of leap of faith to join a college community and face the tough academic demands and even be accepted. Fitting in is a real issue.One week, our country was fixated on the racial and sexist comments of radioman Don Imus, yet getting a much needed national examination of the way we talk and think. Then abruptly, without warning, came a national ferocity of mass killing in residence halls and classrooms at a Virginia university of high repute and with enviable campus community qualities. Good investigative work is quickly showing Chos profile and trail of trouble. Theres a litany of stories from people who saw his meanness, anti-social actions, stalking, dark writings, sullenness, weird ways of wanting to take pictures of girls legs under classroom desks with his cell-phone, his psychiatric evaluations, et al. And all the wondering at why the systems failed. Of course, on a daily basis, desperate people do heinous things to others one and two victims at a time, drawing all too little calls to make systemic changes to our mental health services in this country. Violence in America has become too common, and the Virginia Tech bloodbath only affirms a world opinion that were a Wild West nation where gun powder settles things.We cannot emphasize enough that there is something seemingly and dangerously inherent in the American society that differences can be settled by force and that our rights to bear arms cannot be compromised. (Its always been my view that the Second Amendment was put there to give citizens the arms to overthrow an evil government and preserve freedom).So much needs to come out of the Virginia Tech nightmare: American school campuses at all levels that have effective security and alerting systems without feeding the frenzy and wallets of the very real fear industry in this country. Campuses need to develop better ways to early intervene when students display troubling behavior. Sharing of information, without Big Brother means, needs to take place. Students need to feel more free to come forward when they feel vibes about people or encounter strange conduct. Personality screenings and counseling would help. Campus ministries have long been havens and places to go for students dealing academic, social pressures, broken romances or other upheavals. Ministries need to rededicate themselves to be balm in the pain and storms of campus life. On a larger level, mental health must be given respectability as legitimate illness that requires adequate money for research and treatment. Legislatures must renew their commitment to supporting mental health services with a realization that insanity, depression, bipolar conditions, schizophrenia, psychopathy, paranoia and other aberration lead to untold consequences and even mayhem. The Virginia Tech events marginalize news out of Iraq on Wednesday that at least 183 people died from four bombings in Baghad — 127 alone in a market bombing. It was business as usual so contrary to the woeful words of Iraqi war apologists like Sen. John McCain that military action is bringing progress to the process of bring freedom to Iraq. Imagine what our years of intervention there have done to create crazed people who will do still more desperate things to others in the years ahead. How many returned U.S. servicemen with post-traumatic stress syndrome will some day attack their families or others and get a small story in the back of the paper. Whats to stop others from replicating Cho Seung-Hui has done and go out big? Theres just a whole lot of heads need to get together to figure out how to properly get into other peoples heads and give them help. The mind continues to be the last frontier.

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