Who to Blame at Virgnia Tech?

People are trying to figure out who to blame for the tragedy that took place earlier this week at Virginia Tech University. Korean-American organizations are all strongly condemning what took place at the University and are expressing concern over the possibility of retaliation because of what happened. The university is under intense scrutiny for failing to shut down the school after the first incident (see time line) and the police are answering tough questions as well about the fact that he was under legal scrutiny because of past offenses, but no one could seem to do anything about him.

Fingers are pointing every where, except where they belong -- at Cho Seung-Hui (picture), the perpetrator of the crimes. Most people seem to be participating in a similar type of "blame game" that the murderer was playing. The murderer, in his multi-media package that he sent to NBC, blamed everyone but himself for the murders he had already done and those he was about to do. The murderer went so far as to blame all of us for the crimes he was committing. To listen to the media, the culture, and all the other chattering voices, there is a great deal of collective validation of his views. The "blame game" is pervasive in our culture. It differentiates the winners (those who own responsibility for their behavior) from the losers (those who always blame others).

We shouldn't play the game of losers such as Cho Seung-Hui. Let's put the responsibility on him, where it belongs, and let us work at developing approaches to prevent such tragedies in the future. The first step in that process is appropriately assigning blame where it belongs.