An American Dream Dies

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Jiverly Wong was not doing well. A Vietnamese immigrant, Wong came to the United States for the same reason as millions of foreigners: he wanted to live the American dream. Unfortunately, that dream never became a reality for Wong. He lived in Los Angeles for over a decade, and later moved to New York City. But Wong could never hold a steady job. Unsuccessful at having any steady relationships, Wong worked as a sushi delivery man, vacuum assembler, and an I.B.M. computer dissembler. But Wong was extremely frustrated, financially and in his daily life. The man struggled to learn English, and a heavy Vietnamese accent made it hard for him to communicate and socialize with coworkers. As a man who worked with him at Shop-Vac said, “He was really a loner. He didn’t have any personality problems that I could see…he just didn’t speak very much English.”

From the outside, people who knew Wong thought he was just a quiet guy. But no one knew what was really going on in Wong’s head. He began taking out his frustration at a local firing range, where he would go every weekend and shoot targets. He got his gun certification in 1996. He used to talk about how he was going to shoot the politicians running for office. When a coworker told him he was going to call the police if he talked about killing people, Wong responded: “I’m just joking around.”
Yesterday in New York, Wong walked into the building where he had been trying to improve his English, the headquarters of the American Civic Association. With two handguns, he shot and killed 13 people. He then shot himself. It was the worst mass killing since the Virginia Tech shootings. The kid who killed all the people in Virginia was not so different from Wong, a loner who felt he had no place in the world.

This is an example of a man who came to America looking to find his foothold, to get a steady job and support a family. But he soon learned what it means to be impoverished in America. He was one of millions looking for employment in these tough times. His belief in the American dream slowly eroded as time went on, and it left an angry, bitter man who needed a purpose. He finally left his mark on history yesterday, in the only way he could.

But once, he was just a dreamer.