One common thread in the apparently disconnected series of killings in widely scattered places over the last 18 months is that the assailant is young, white, male, and from a suburban or small town background. Pacific News Service asked four contributors to YO! (Youth Outlook), themselves white, to give their views on this situation. Evelyn Thornton, 19, is a student at Virginia Tech University. Second of four parts.

They're privileged white males -- the rulers of our society -- so why do they kill? Many theories are offered, from violent entertainment to the vacuum that now comprises modern suburban life. But if that were the whole story, why haven't young white women struck out -- let alone become targets themselves?

I think the very privilege the white male enjoys is at the root of these acts of rage.

Picture it: A life of video games, lacrosse practice, football practice, TV, a jeep at the age of 16, maybe a summer job doing some life guarding. The American dream, right? Well why does that dream keep spinning out these freakish nightmares?

Having grown up in rural Virginia, I am reminded of my farm experiences. The strongest rooster in the pecking order feels threatened by others who may rise against him and so, being the territorial creature he is, he attacks. The white male strikes out against someone lower down on the food chain -- not the second in command, the nineties empowered woman, but the weakest, least accepted by everyone: the gay man, the black, the Asian. In order to feel strong you have to beat down someone else.

The white male is sinking into anonymity -- feeling power slide through his hands. In California, whites are no longer the majority group -- they're just another ethnic minority. And ever since the '60s, the whole gender relationship has been changing, in favor of the female. We may still face a lot of hurdles but most of us figure we no longer need men to be our providers and protectors. We have all these women -- from Hillary Clinton to my mom -- saying, "You can make it, let's hear your voice."

Women look up at the glass ceiling today and see possibilities where once there were none. Last weekend, 73,000 people attended the women's world soccer cup game in Palo Alto.

While I'm encouraged to move forward, society takes it for granted that my white male peers will be able to make their own way -- find their own voice. This may be fine for many but there is nowhere to turn for those who lose their way. My university has a women's center, for example, but there's no "men's center."

Rarely do people disappear from positions of power without a fight. I think that the violent expressions of hate by young white males -- the ten year old with a hunting rifle who randomly fired at his classmates, the gay bashers who crucified Matthew Shepard to a fence post, the 21 year old suburban student who drove around shooting minorities -- represent the young white male's cry for territory in a world where he feels lost.