It could be any of a thousands neighborhoods in America -- rows of generic homes with little or no sense of community. None of the neighbors knew (or knew anything about) Cho Seung Hui.
It raises a bleak question. If it takes a village to raise a child, what happens to the child if there's no village to support it?
Here are some excerpts from Fisher's column:
Neighbors said Cho was a silent guy who didn't respond to routine greetings. Of course, any of us could say that about many, if not most, of our neighbors.[...]
Nice family -- lots of smiles, very polite. Quiet street. Nothing ever happens here. One after another, the neighbors in the Sully Station II development dredged their memories and came up with the thinnest of passing moments.
"People come and go," said Doris Main, who has lived across from the Chos since the family arrived in 1999. "We're the only people home because we're the token senior citizens on the street. Everybody works. The only time you get to know people is when there's a big snowstorm."
[...]
When police arrived Monday night, six cars zipping into the narrow lane, the neighbors had no idea that the Chos were in any way connected to the Virginia Tech shootings. The neighbors said they watched from behind the living room curtains or from their upstairs bedrooms or from a door opened just a crack.
Nobody went outside to have a look or ask a question.
Let me explicitly say the neighbors do not bear responsibility for the way Cho turned out. His demons obviously have roots vastly deeper than simply a nondescript neighborhood.
But it raises questions about how many of us live in communities in which we have little or no connection to our neighbors. More neighborhoods than ever before can best be described as bedroom communities, places where people go only to rest, but have to drive away to work, shop, or play.
There's plenty of scientific evidence to show that this isn't just bleeding-heart psychobabble. The isolation of suburban sprawl is affecting America's emotional heath. USA Today reported as much last year it this article, Study: 25% of Americans have no one to confide in:
Americans have a third fewer close friends and confidants than just two decades ago - a sign that people may be living lonelier, more isolated lives than in the past.In 1985, the average American had three people in whom to confide matters that were important to them, says a study in today's American Sociological Review. In 2004, that number dropped to two, and one in four had no close confidants at all.
"You usually don't see that kind of big social change in a couple of decades," says study co-author Lynn Smith-Lovin, professor of sociology at Duke University in Durham, N.C.
Close relationships are a safety net, she says. "Whether it's picking up a child or finding someone to help you out of the city in a hurricane, these are people we depend on."
Also, research has linked social isolation and loneliness to mental and physical illness.
We talk about sprawl as a transportation and environmental issue. But is it time to think about how we build our communities as a social and emotional issue?
This leaves very little time to socialize.
This is not good for many, many reasons.
But I'm really writing because it looks like The Green Miles blog just got linked to AGAIN in Wonkette. http://wonkette.com/
Congratulations.
I have neighbors with teenagers. Some of them are sullen, some friendly. How much do I really know about them?
A lot to think about here, GreenMiles. Thank you for posting it.
Now that the full story of this guy is coming out, it's easy to see how little substance this article had.
As far as the theme of it takes a village, it is difficult to participate in a community when you are spending 2-3 hours a day commuting -- there's no denying that. Yet there are communities in the Centreville area, thanks to the men and women who give so much of themselves to church groups, Scouts, athletic teams, dance groups, homeowners associations, drama clubs, PTA's, etc., and we all should do what we can to support those efforts.
A reporter simply can't see all those connections, just driving into a neighborhood behind a wave of police cars investigating a mass murderer.
There has been a lot of research on the loss of community support groups, e.g., as covered in the book "Bowling Alone" by Robert Putnam. It is not garbage -- there is something important there worth analyzing and discussing.
Another factor I think is that these developments really are densely populated without much elbow room. Some people need a little more space to relax and be neighborly.
Fisher was a reporter trying to come up with something against a deadline, and didn't come up with much of anything -- and ended up writing a lot of filler. I think the impulse of reporters sometimes is to punish people who don't help them out in getting a story, and there was a little of that payback in the piece for the people who didn't come out of their houses to talk. If you think about it, how could it ever be possible to write up Cho's background without interviewing his family and others in the Korean community?
So it's not about Centreville, it's about calling bs when a reporter does a substandard job.
I am equally hard pressed to see how this is different in densely developed Ballston or Pentagon City or Crystal City. Do these high-rise, high-rent districts offer a greater sense of community? Do tenants in a high-rise apartment building make up one large, happy family that suburban communities do not?
If people want to be left alone, does the community have to force them from their homes to participate in a drum circle? =) And if people don't want help, how do you help them?
Also, I would note that the statistics that you present from USA Today do not link isolation to suburbia. They suspect it as a cause, but it could be a number of other things like TV.
Ultimately, I don't know where you are going with this. Are you saying suburban communities are a potential cause of homicidal maniacs that we need to investigate?