What horrible news we greeted yesterday with the shooting at Fort Hood Army Base in Texas. So far, 13 people are reported dead, with 30 others injured during the rampage. Our hearts go out to the victims and their families. As a country, we mourn together.
But let us hope we as a country also heed the words of President Obama today not to jump to conclusions as to what could have motivated the suspected shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist no less. In our post-9/11 world, as we wage wars in Afghnistan and Iraq, Hasan’s Muslim identity has, of course, served as the focus of much speculation, though Hasan was born and raised on American soil.
We, Korean Americans, know this story all too well. I doubt I’m the only one who thought of Seung-Hui Cho, the mentally-troubled student who gunned down and killed 32 people at Virginia Tech before taking his own life two years ago. Many of us remember how awful we felt after the shootings, and then how fearful we became after learning the shooter was ethnically Korean. When I heard Muslim American groups held a press conference yesterday to show solidarity with the victims, their families and their fellow Americans, I thought of the Korean American and Korean groups who felt the need to apologize after Cho’s rampage.
So, given our own experience, let us, Korean Americans, not just respond by saying, “Glad this time the killer’s not one of ours!” Let us instead be part of the chorus that cautions against gross speculation about this latest American shooting rampage suspect. And when we witness the mistreatment of Muslim or Arab individuals who might become targeted because of this horrible tragedy, let us speak out. Because we know this pain. We’ve walked in these shoes before.
