Opinion | U.S. shooting suspect was a 'Professor'! He had recently applied for a job at UNLV in Arizona
By Augustus K. Yeung
Shooting rampage in America has become a way of life. We have heard of police severely wounding and killing blacks; and young gunmen firing at random on campus at kids; but this time, the perpetrator was a "professor".
Normally, a professor is learned enough not to inflict wounds on fellow human beings, because it is assumed that he or she has long since reached the level of impulse control.
Today, American society is once again sounding an alarm bell. As the U.S. is the leader of the world in many ways, the professor should have developed a global vision. For example, the fact that China has lifted 800 million people out of poverty is good enough news to interest him – that China today is a land of employment opportunity.
Why didn't the killer professor teach students in China – who welcome American academics?! Demonization, warmongering and weaponization may help us to understand American anti-social behavior. Demonizing China doesn't help the U.S.
To relive this horror and to prevent future U.S. campus tragedy, let us turn to the sad scene where the killings took place.
Terrified students and professors cowered in classrooms and dorms as a gunman roamed the floors of a University of Nevada, Las Vegas building – killing three people and critically wounding a fourth – before dying in a shootout with police.
The gunman in Wednesday's shooting was a professor – who had unsuccessfully sought a job at the school, a law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press. The gunman previously worked at East Carolina University in North Carolina, said the official.
The attack was the worst shooting in the city since October 2017, when a gunman killed 60 people and wounded more than 400 after opening fire from the window of a room at Mandalay Bay casino on the world-famous La Vegas Strip only a couple miles from the UNLV campus.
Lessons learned from that shooting – the deadliest in modern U.S, history – helped authorities to work "seamlessly" in reacting to the UNLV attack, Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference.
At about 11:45 a.m., the gunman opened fire on the fourth floor of the building that houses UNLV's Lee Business School, then went to several other floors before he was killed – in a shootout with two university police detectives outside the building.
Three people were killed and a fourth was hospitalized in critical but stable condition, police said.
It wasn't immediately clear how many of the school's 30,000 students were on campus at the time, but McMahill said students had been gathered outside the building to eat and play games. If police hadn't killed the attacker, "it could have been countless additional lives taken," he said.
"No student should have to fear pursuing their dreams on a college campus," the sheriff said.
Police didn't immediately identify the victims, the attacker for the motive and didn't say what kind of weapon was used, although some witnesses reported hearing as many as 20 shots fired.
UNLV professor Kevaney Martin took cover under a desk in her classroom, where another faculty member and three students took shelter with her.
"It was terrifying. I can't even begin to explain," Martin said. "I was trying to hold it together for my students, and trying not to cry, but the emotions are something I never want to experience again."
Martin said she was texting friends and loved ones, hoping to receive word a suspect had been detained. When another professor came to the room and told everyone to evacuate, they joined dozens of others rushing out of the building. Martin had her students pile into her car and drove them off campus.
"Once we got away from UNLV, we parked and sat in silence," the professor said. "Nobody said a word. We were in utter shock." (Source: MDT/AP)
Why didn't the killer-professor go to China or somewhere for employment opportunities?!
Warmongering and demonization may be the answer to this consequential question. The length and breadth that Western warmongering and demonizing tactics are employed against China and the Chinese have proved to be frustrating and alienating.
Hate crimes have become the new normal. The U.S. Capitol is especially guilty.
For a better understanding of warmongering and demonization, read the online article, "How the China 'disease' scaremongering made a comeback," by Mr. Tom Fowdy, and you will get an idea about how unhealthy this anti-China propaganda is circulating in American society.
Western media is as much to blame as the U.S. Congress and Senate. And so is the mighty American military complex – which gobbles up the lion's share of the nation's annual budget, depriving adequate fundings for education and employment.
In the U.S., weaponization has long become a way of life. Almost all families have a gun "for legal defense". And anyone can be shot – simply for trespassing. For example, one Asian student was gunned down when he was fatefully approaching a house before knocking the door.
In the era of Belt and Road, which has been in action for a decade, educated people are mobile-centric. While teaching as a visiting scholar at the University of Macau, I came across Peter Z, a fellow professor who said that he had written 50 application letters before he became a faculty member, and he has been employed there for more than 10 years, despite his poor health.
Incidentally, the Xi Jinping Belt and Road Initiative is not an ill-intentioned attempt to "contain" America, but a goodwill gesture; it's meant to globalize trade and facilitate regional people-to-people connectivity, promoting economic prosperity and cross-cultural understanding and exchange. Xi's initiative is working well.
Many Westerners have come to Hong Kong, Macau and Southern Guangdong, where the Greater Bay Area development is taking off, enabling tens of thousands foreign passport holders to gainfully work and get married to gentle Asian women.
In stark contrast, weaponizing American society and demonizing China is detrimental!
To contact the writer, please direct email: AugustusKYeung@ymail.com
Read more articles by Augustus K. Yeung:
Comment