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VTech, Bush and the Nature of Evil
Contributed by: Louise Benson on 4/25/2007

Just after Columbine eight years ago, then-Governor George Bush attributed this tragedy to "A wave of evil passing over the land." He was not using the term "evil'' in a generic way, but in the Biblical sense, and many called for the reinstitution of prayer and the Ten Commandments in public schools. Faith-Based Initiatives, Ashcroft prayer breakfasts and use of the Patriot Act in ordinary crimes were the answer to the wave of evil. "Evildoers" are what President Bush calls terrorists, and they call us the Great Satan, and infidels. "Evil" is now being used to describe the VTech massacre.

In Biblical and medieval times, mentally ill people were thought to be possessed of the devil, had their demons cast out or exorcised, or deserved whatever awful fates they endured. Are we returning to those barbaric times?

As a physician doing armchair diagnosis of the Vtech killer, it is quite apparent he had what is termed a psychotic break. This is the rapid expansion of symptoms he was no longer able to contain, and which had not yet fully developed when he was evaluated in 2005. Had he lived, he would have been diagnosed as having paranoid schizophrenia. He exhibited the classic pattern of personality change and onset in late adolescence and early adulthood. One roommate said Cho said he had "Vacationed with Vladimir Putin." He was tragically, and criminally, insane. He was not evil. (Notably, mentally ill people are less likely to be criminals than those in the "normal" population, but when they are, their crimes are more bizarre and hellish.)

And what of the Columbine killers, were they evil? Many Christians certainly thought so, and fled heathen public schools in droves, for homeschooling and charter schools. The truth is, Klebold and Harris were teens with immature brains that had become twisted and psychopathic, similar to death row inmates who endured far worse childhoods. Is how they were all treated, evil?

When events are cast in religious terms such as good and evil, it is hard to see answers to earth-bound human problems such as mental illness, bullying, education reform, child abuse, and even international relations!


(Dr. Benson is the author of Scapegoating for Columbine: Collateral Damage in the War on School Violence. The Columbine connection to Colorado's quasi-Christian charter schools is explored, along with the harm of zero tolerance discipline, and state of the art anti-bullying and school safety programs. Available at the Boulder Bookstore, Barnes and Noble, online stores in print and ebook, or www.ScapegoatingforColumbine.com.)



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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Louise Benson

Broomfield , CO

Louise Benson has posted 64 stories and 38 comments since joining on 3/11/2007. Louise Benson 's average story rating is 4.51.
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