Many of us were sickened by the constant projection on television screens of the face of evil, Cho Seung-Hui, who shot and killed 32 others on the campus of Virginia Tech University recently. He had arranged what has been described as a “video manifesto” about his vicious and violent extremism and made it available to a major TV network.

NBC seemed immensely proud of its acceptance by the slayer, and many other media outlets were delighted to share in “the scoop” of sorts. But excerpts are one thing; the endless, incessant playing of long sections of the hate piece showed terrible judgment by media outlets.

Cho already had terrorized fellow students and others on the campus but he clearly wanted a larger audience to recognize his grisly achievement and, in effect, credit him for some terrible kind of ingenuity. Why did so many media outlets play right into his bloody hands and give Cho such a forum to gloat in posthumous fashion?

There are those among us who still shudder at the fact somebody so vile was given so many opportunities to gloat. And we continue to wonder what steps can be taken to lessen the chances that would-be emulators will have opportunities to impose similar violations of the human condition. Sadly, the ease with which weapons of destruction can be gained by demonic souls is a severe bone of contention.

But there is another aspect to all this that was described well by the Observer of London, England. Said the Observer:

“The image of Cho striking murderous poses crosses all cultures. It is the face of modern, media-literate terror. That is not a fair emblem of modern American society. A truer symbol is found in the packed classrooms and lecture theaters of Virginia Tech, filled, just days after the massacre, with students who were determined to get on with their education – a triumph of youthful optimism over deadly nihilism.”

Whenever, unfortunately, we again may be exposed to the hateful visage of Cho and his terrible behavior, we need to shift our thinking quickly. We must remind ourselves instantly that there are ways to triumph over evil, then allow those hopeful faces reflected from the Virginia Tech campus to restore our faith in the good things we can accomplish.