The “war on terror” and the terror we see in Blacksburg, Va., have some common elements with all other terror.

First, the folks who resort to terror feel they have no other choice. They feel they are not heard. They resort to violence after they have unsuccessfully tried everything else they can think of. It doesn’t matter that their thinking is less than rational from an ethical point of view.

Second, they feel they have nowhere to turn. They are loners. It might, however, be more appropriate to say they are members of groups who feel, and, in fact are, out of sync with their society, their culture. Cho Seung-Hui is not a loner. He is a member of a group. A subgroup of the group we all belong to.

Third, and most important, the mental health services which might help people like Cho are only grudgingly available, often on terms unacceptable to people like him. Instead of waiting lists for mental health services, we might want to try aggressive outreach for such services. We might want to rethink how we best reach the folks who resort to violence in order to be heard. That might require considerable money. Where would we get such resources?

Possibly by rethinking the war we wage on terror.

James Tierney, Auburn