Last night during the news on TV, reporters mentioned that at the Northern Illinois University campus where five innocent, helpless students had been gunned down by Steven Kazmierczak, crosses had been erected to honor the dead.  The reporter then mentioned the names of the students and then stated that there was one other cross, without a name, that had been erected for Kazmierczak.  My husband and I were dumbfounded.  Are we insane?

 Why should a mass murderer get any recognition or sympathy after killing five college students in cold blood?  Of course we are hearing the usual slant on how the killer was a "victim", too.  How we, as a society, didn't recognize the signs of his mental illness or didn't have enough gun laws....  blah blah blah.  We should have done more to help him!!!   Look at the stories abounding in our own Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel, presenting the "issues" this poor guy was dealing with - mental illness, a bad relationship, an interest in guns.  How he was really a "nice" guy.

 Well, this "nice" guy, Steven Kazmierczak, didn't like to take his medicine that would have helped his behavior.  He liked guns.  For some reason, he didn't "like" college students at NIU.  We should not be wringing our hands and crying about how we as a society, failed this young man.  He is not a victim.  Help was out there if he wanted it.  Steven Kazmierczak is a murderer - he was responsible for killing five people and wounding several others. 

 What I'd like to see are more stories about the victims and their families.  What about their backgrounds?  What were they hoping to become?  How do their families feel about a  cross being erected to remember the man who gunned down their child?    

Steven Kazmierczak does not deserve to be honored with a cross.  The administration or students at Northern Illinois University should have Kazmierczak's cross removed.  That would be the decent thing to do to honor the true victims.