After the attacks, a search for answers

Re “Bright daughter, brooding son: enigma in the Cho household,” April 22

As an Asian American psychotherapist, the tragedy in Virginia has alerted me to the challenges in reaching out to the Asian American population, which tends to be underserved in my experience. I want to remind people, especially teachers, doctors and helping professionals, to consider the unique needs of immigrants’ families. The process of immigration and pursuing the American dream can be extremely tough, and its effect can last across generations. Their struggles are so real, but they are so often dismissed by ignorant people asking them, “Why don’t you go back to your own country?”

Asian Americans can be particularly vulnerable to isolation by the dominant culture because of their different physical features and languages. Also, because of xenophobia -- the fear of strangers -- most people just do not know how to interact at ease with immigrants (even without language barriers), which contributes to the further isolation of immigrants’ families.

Asian American immigrants’ families need a lot of help and support from society, and sometimes it will take us an extra mile to reach out to them and offer help before it is too late.

SHARON LAW

Los Angeles

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This article presents a narrow view of a complicated societal issue. It appears to blame Seung-hui Cho’s family and culture for the killings at Virginia Tech.

Based on some facts presented, the Chos appear to be typical immigrant parents who did the best they could for their children, and it sounds as though they were successful: emigrating to the U.S. and providing their children a middle-class lifestyle that should have led to promising futures.

To kill 32 people and take your own life are obviously extreme acts of violence that even the majority of people who grow up in the most horrible of situations do not commit. I think we need to wait for more facts before we start blaming the Cho family or the sexism in Korean culture for Cho’s acts. Obviously he was deeply ill and deranged.

The fact that he was an antisocial loner for most of his life still does not explain his acts. As a teacher, I have known many children who are isolated and don’t quite fit in. Often these students’ families are as baffled as their peers. Cho’s silence as a child could easily have been dismissed by his teachers and family as an adjustment period.

Please give your readers substance and not overly sensationalized news. Our culture definitely doesn’t need more reasons to heighten its already high xenophobia. We need to focus on the facts: those about Cho and those about how this could have been prevented.

ELAYNE RODRIGUEZ-HAVEN

Long Beach

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Re “We’re not all victims,” Opinion, April 20

Kudos to Rosa Brooks for saying what many of my generation may think. Living through World War II and losing loved ones, as I did, not to mention thousands of young servicemen in brutal battles, was traumatic, but somehow we coped and got on with our lives. We didn’t consider ourselves victims; we were witnesses to history, then as we are now.

FREDERICA MILLER

South Pasadena

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I found Brooks’ column to be particularly angry and cold in the midst of such a tragedy. Many of us are Virginia Tech alumni or are deeply connected with the area. We may not have lost anyone close to us that day, but the understanding that it could have been us, our dear professors or our little brothers or sisters lost that day resonates deeply within us.

It hurts because of the violent, horrific nature of the deaths, the immediacy of the loss and the youth of most of the victims.

I hope we don’t see a day when it has to be our own loved ones dead to feel moved, disturbed, hurt and devastated at the loss of our fellow humans. I hope we are not so deprived of a sense of community in this country that we would remain unaffected in the face of so much pain and devastation.

ERIN MCMORROW

Los Angeles