The 1967 blockbuster movie about Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow featured two of Hollywood's most hip and glamorous, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. Beatty's Clyde and Dunaway's Bonnie were gorgeous, gun-toting desperados audiences just had to love. Bonnie and Clyde must have been cool, right?

Not according to historians. By all accounts of their bloody rampages in the 1930's, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were a couple of losers, similar in emotional vacancy, feeding off each other's greed, rage and thirst for killing. People sure seem to have a way of finding each other.

Now the mad mass murderer who struck on the Virginia Tech campus has his day in the sun. Much like Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, every detail of his life and each of his twisted words are on display, and we are fascinated. Spellbound, really.

This nut who likely made no positive difference in his pathetic little life is today exactly where he fantasized of being at any cost to others or himself. He is important. He is famous. He will be long remembered. His dreams have come true.

The most chilling aspect of the killer's highly publicized ramblings, in my opinion, is his naming of other high profile school killers and joining his name with theirs in his very public, self-serving excuse making. He is one of them, he clearly states. What are they? They are martyrs, the nut asserts. They do their killing because , as he repeats, "you made me."

Blaming victims is terribly unoriginal. It is the oldest excuse in the book. You provoked me. You enticed me. You pushed my buttons. You made me hurt you.

I suspect people who commit horrific acts of violence then blame victims share a common trait. They are terrified of their own reflections. Blame is the name of the game. As negative emotions grow and behaviors deteriorate, they become, I am guessing, completely incapable of looking into the eyes in the mirror and realizing, "I need to change."

In the end, mass murderers can call it whatever they wish. Payback. Revenge. A social statement. But, if we buy their excuses, I believe we are guilty and negligent.

Many issues surrounding mental illness need a good hard look. Identifying mental illness is a complex ball of wax all by itself, especially when those suspected of being mentally ill do not recognize their own problems. Forcing people who appear mentally ill into programs for treatment or arresting them is next to impossible, even if the clearest crystal ball shows they are dangerous.

Mental illness aside, the most prominent issue I believe we need to address in our world today is our glorification of the murderously insane, which only prompts the next murderously insane to grab the only sort of glory within reach.

The road to glory is not paved with the blood of innocent victims. Or, is it?