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A Nation in Mourning

I applaud TIME for featuring victims of the Virginia Tech tragedy on the cover [April 30]. Some of the photos hinted at extracurricular interests; others were obviously school, military or formal photographs. All were pictures of promise. The images of Cho Seung-Hui were disturbing, but the faces staring from the cover, while heartbreaking, were reminders of the love and promise that abound.

Christopher Yodice LEVITTOWN, N.Y.

Your cover was a very stirring tribute and a great way to memorialize victims of the terrible shootings. Unfortunately, Cho's face was missing. While far from a tragic hero, of course, he did die that day, and there's no telling how his death--and that of 32 other people--could have been avoided.

M. Brandon Robbins, GOLDSBORO, N.C.

The truest form of self-sacrificing heroism was demonstrated by a man whose career choice promised him safety and security. As a schoolboy, Liviu Librescu survived the Holocaust; but as a professor more than six decades later, he died blocking a classroom door to save his students. Perhaps the horrors he experienced as a youth created in him a bravery so profound that as soon as he heard gunshots, he knew what to do. Librescu became a doomed but beautiful guardian angel to the students who are alive because of his heroism.

David L. Fraser CLEARWATER, FLA.

I appreciated Nancy Gibbs' writing and Hector Emanuel's photography. Nothing like the V.T. shooting has happened here, and I am extremely thankful that I now have a better understanding of the event and, therefore, deeper sympathy. The photos were very beautiful and painfully haunting. The one of Cho with the gun pointed at the camera was particularly troubling. I had never been moved to tears by a photo before. Thank you most of all for putting pictures of victims on the cover rather than a picture of the murderer.

Casey Biggs, MILLERSBURG, OHIO

While the world can sympathize with the bereaved in the Virginia Tech killings, there seems little point in the American people getting too upset about them. Such killings are merely a form of blood tax that has to be paid for the imagined privilege of gun ownership.

Paul Eastaugh, READING, ENGLAND

We mourn the inexplicable, tragic murder of innocent people at Virginia Tech--the worst killing of its kind in the history of our country, we are told. Let's also take just a moment to reflect on what every day must be like for the citizens of Iraq, where senseless killings of this magnitude have become a regular occurrence in the four years since we invaded their country. Every time we read a sidebar saying "32 killed by suicide bomber," this is what it is like.

Paul Graff, SANTA MONICA, CALIF.

Voices from V.T.

As 1973 graduates of Virginia Tech, my wife and I were very impressed with your cover honoring the victims of the horrible assault at our alma mater [April 30]. As true Hokies, we will remember the best four years of our lives at Virginia Tech. Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims and their families. In true Hokie tradition, we also feel for the family of the gunman.

Dennis L. Napier, YORKTOWN, VA.

Two diplomas on my office wall bear the Virginia Tech seal. The university and the Blacksburg community hold a special place in my heart. Virginia Tech was an idyllic refuge from many of the social issues that plague too much of modern-day America. Today it is stained by the actions of a lone coward, and a little piece of me has died inside. The media have criticized the responsiveness of police and university officials as politicians debate the merits of gun control. So-called experts have provided explanations for an insane act. In the end, we will continue to ignore the fact that our culture has so cheapened the value of life that we have instilled in a generation of young people a lack of personal responsibility.

Christopher J. Fettig, WOODLAND, CALIF.

Our son received his bachelor's and master's degrees in math and engineering at Virginia Tech in 2001. The campus has an extraordinary atmosphere. I am dismayed by those who insist that security is lax. To expect that buildings have badge readers and surveillance cameras is ludicrous. An open campus is essential to university life. Installing numerous security devices would adulterate that atmosphere. Moreover, it would give a false sense of security and would not have prevented this tragedy. A very determined, very deranged young man perpetrated these atrocities. He was intent on mayhem, and he succeeded. It was the courage of many individuals that prevented the mayhem from being far worse. Hindsight is 20/20. Rather than cast aspersions on an exemplary institution, let's move forward in healing.

Sharon Conley, RALEIGH, N.C.

Causes of Psychosis

RE Jeffrey Kluger's "Inside a Mass Murderer's Mind" [April 30]: Thank you for the insight into Cho's mental state. Of course, no one can be sure what exactly was going on in his brain, but it helps to read substantial psychological facts that might give some answers to a devastated nation. People are desperately trying to find the reason something as horrific as this could happen, and the article provided some understanding of a mentally unstable human being.

Laura Bowman, LOS ANGELES

Cho's mental illness is just one of the many issues in the terrible tragedy in Virginia. But most types of mental illness do not have a component of psychosis. In fact, many people with psychosis are rehabilitated with medication, counseling and monitoring and never turn violent. Let's use the term mental illness judiciously so that its stigma does not prevent people from seeking help and early intervention. If we don't, paradoxically, that could cause more patients to slip through the cracks.

Anuradha Gupta, STAMFORD, CONN.

I commend Kluger for a very articulate piece on an extremely important topic. Many people in the media have dismissed him as a loner and a psychopath. While he was both, such an attitude is not only callous (to the innocent boy he once was, not to the monster he became), but it is also very dangerous. Without reflecting nonjudgmentally on the causes of Cho's psychosis and thereby learning to identify and treat individuals who might be on a similar path, such horrific incidences will occur again.

Kevin Cannon, NEW YORK CITY

It is unfortunately true that, as forensic psychiatrist Neil Kaye said, "we glorify and revere" killers. But in response to his doubts about people recalling Ted Bundy's victims, those of us who were at Florida State University in the late '70s have not forgotten Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman. Likewise, I doubt that those who survived that day at Virginia Tech will forget their classmates and teachers. It is the media that keep the killers' names alive while those who were there and those who care remember the victims.

Donna Sessions Waters, PENSACOLA, FLA.

Bear Care

RE "Postcard: Woolong" [April 30]: For a species that numbers only 1,600 and has a habitat of barely 5,000 sq. mi., reintroducing pandas into the wild might turn out to be an important complement to the more basic need to conserve habitat. China deserves credit for making the world aware of the panda's plight and for getting East and West to cooperate in saving the animal. The $4 million that four U.S. zoos contribute annually to saving the pandas' habitat is a piddling amount compared with the need, but China has responded by pouring billions into a "Grain to Green" program designed to convert marginal mountainside farms back to forest. There is nothing to be gained by focusing on a few misguided efforts and ridiculing a program that has been highly successful overall.

Donald Lindburg, North American Coordinator for the Giant Panda Association of Zoos & Aquariums, SAN DIEGO

Giant pandas are like a boyfriend or girlfriend who is staggeringly good looking but otherwise brainless and self-absorbed. Pandas often have to be artificially inseminated because so many have lost the most primal of urges. When pandas reproduce, many cubs have to be cared for by zookeepers because the mothers take no interest in them. Over time, pandas have worked themselves into an impossible ecological niche. They eat almost nothing but bamboo shoots and then, depending upon their appetite at the moment, only certain varieties. If the right kind of bamboo is unavailable, they will starve to death. If ever there was an example of a species hell-bent on committing suicide, it is the giant panda. In keeping with the Darwinian concept of survival of the fittest, we should allow them to do so.

Holmes Brannon, WOODLAND PARK, COLO.

Getting Bush to Budge

RE Joe Klein's "Making Bush Make a Deal" [April 30]: I have another idea for bringing the Iraq war to a close. Let's initiate a pay-as-you-go policy for the war instead of financing it with borrowed money. We could start with an early sunset on the big tax break that President George W. Bush gave to his wealthiest friends. Perhaps we would be more careful about rushing into war if we had to shoulder some of the financial burden instead of deferring it to our children and grandchildren.

Tim Courtney, FLORENCE, KY.

The arguments advanced to support continuing the Iraq war are eerily reminiscent of the domino theory used to justify extending the Vietnam War. That doomsday prophecy didn't come true, and ending the American presence in Iraq won't be as bad as war supporters claim. As William Faulkner wrote, "The past isn't dead. It isn't even past."

Chet Ramey, NOVELTY, OHIO

Impoverished and Afraid

Alex Perry's excellent article "Land of Chains and Hunger" highlighted the tragedy of Zimbabwe under the rule of President Robert Mugabe [April 23]. Another loser is South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki and his ineffective policy of "quiet diplomacy" (what South Africans call "silent diplomacy"). Mbeki's supposedly close ties with Mugabe have not helped him develop a plan to rescue Zimbabwe from its dire situation. It is only a matter of time before the African leaders who so often criticize Western governments start calling on them to aid Zimbabwe.

Gavin Murray, ONBRIDGE, ENGLAND

Digital Lit

The Sony Reader may be able to hold 80 novels in one small package, but it's not going to replace books in my household [April 30]. I do my pleasure reading almost entirely in the bathtub. If I doze off and drop a book into the tub, I can dry it out. The Sony Reader, on the other hand, would become a very expensive doorstop.

Karen M. Campbell, SACRAMENTO, CALIF.

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