jgnat
I agree with you about the mental illness, we do not know the facts of the case. We only know what the media is choosing to report. And in Salt Lake City (mormon cult capital of the world) at that.
As for Lepine (said gently), did you know he was neither old, nor a professor, he was a 25 year old who had been rejected by the University's School of Engineering and the military, and blamed it on affirmative action for women. Raised by an abusive mother, if I remember correctly.
Was he ill? Yes, the guy suicided. He was sick, one would have to be to mass murder 14 people.
But so are KKK members who don white outfits and murder African Americans. They, too, are mentally ill and have a pathological hatred of other races. One would have to be crazy to believe, in this day and age, that someone's skin colour makes them inferior to you. Do I feel pity for them? Yes. Empathy? No.
The purpose of memorializing this date is, imho, not to remember him, but that hate crimes are still perpetrated on women simply because of their gender.
Marc Lepine, 25, separated the men from the women and before opening fire on the classroom of female engineering students he screamed, "I hate feminists." Almost immediately, the Montreal Massacre became a galvanizing moment in which mourning turned into outrage about all violence against women.
(quote from CBC News Radio, found via google *marc lepine*)
December 1989
(I hope that didn't come off as yelling, or poke at your sore spots, jgnat.)
A human tragedy, on all sides. This story is as well.
talesin