Reaction to Hearing the News

After being advised to stay away from windows and such on April 16, many of the Career Services staff and students who were in our building at the time gathered together in an interior room (our staff lounge). As things were unfolding on campus around us we were watching the news and hearing what was unfolding. This photo was taken as we had just learned of the first seven fatalities in Norris Hall. Everyone was shocked. We couldn&#39;t believe what we were hearing. As the morning unfolded an we watched intently we were overwhelmed with grieve that this had happened. We had to be strong for the students who were among us. It was surreal. <p>I took this photo, but it didn&#39;t even feel right taking a photo at this time. I only took three photos as it was too upsetting.

Mary Ann Cole

2008-03-26

Mary Ann Cole

eng

Flashback

I was in college in the 1960s. During that wild decade, there were so many acts of violence that it felt like a time never experienced before and in many ways, it had never been known before. The assassinations, the war in far-off Viet Nam, the demonstrations against the war, the Kent State killings by National Guard troops, the murders on college campuses happened over and over like a horrible wave of increading disorder. With each event, we felt a sense of impending disaster build.

On April 16, I had finished the very ordinary task of getting my hair cut and was paying at the desk when I noticed a silent tv screen behind the receptionist. Cutlines spilled across the images and I was so shocked that I had to ask the young woman if she knew what had happened. She reponded that there had been shootings at VA Tech. I was so stunned that I couldn&#39;t move, I wanted to watch and I wanted to leave, but I could only stand there transfixed and horrified.

Because I am older and the mother of now grown daughters, I reminded myself that these were two young women the same age as those in peril on the campus in Blacksburg and I wanted to be reassuring. But shock overcame maternal instincts and I must have showed it.

The other girl turned to her computer and quickly dialed up information. The other turned away from the screen and looked busy.

It took me back to the shootings at the University of Texas and all of the other shocking events of the 1960s that came with less coverage but the same announcement on television...my first feelings were the same-- a sense of shock and disbelief --that I had felt then. I couldn&#39;t protect these two--or myself--from the television images and it made me deeply sad. Sad for the innocence of the students and faculty on the campus that day, sad for the parents who must have been in agony, and sad for all of us who remembered this cruelty from a time long ago.

My sympathy to the Virginia Tech family.

Claudia Smith

Claudia Smith

2007-08-18

Claudia Smith

eng

Virginia tech shooting

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

A nutcase shot 32 people and himself in Virginia tech. He was a loner, was obsessed with violence, and left some notes blaming "rich kids" and "debauchery" (that is, disapproved of other people having more money and getting laid more often than himself - which is a rather common human emotion, but most people don&#39;t go postal because of it).

The university is being blamed for not acting fast enough on the day of the shooting. I don&#39;t know if they should be blamed for it - I am sure an investigation will find out, one way or another - but what I would like to know is how come the university did not do anything after the guy harassed a few women and set fire to the dorm. (Maybe there is some good answer to that, too.)

The man has also written two plays that the readers found very violent and highly disturbing. <a href="http://newsbloggers.aol.com/2007/04/17/cho-seung-huis-plays/">Here they are.</a> I have read them and have not found them particularly violent or disturbing: they are rather violent, but I and people I know have written worse without shooting anyone, and they are quite angry in a teenagery way, but nothing really out of ordinary. They would not have rung a warning bell with me. I wonder if that&#39;s just me being desensitized to violence, or the people did not really see anything scary about them earlier and are just having a flash of hindsight now, or do the creative writing teachers and students see warnings much more efficiently than ordinary people like myself.

There was a lot of conversation of gun control after this. I have no strong opinion on gun control one way or the other, at least as long as it does not interfere with my pistol shooting hobby (and currently in Finland it doesn&#39;t), but after seeing several people in the US point out that the gunman could have been stopped earlier if any of the students or teachers had a gun on them, and several of my friends on IRC make fun of this argument, I must say that those people in the US really do have a point:

I don&#39;t, generally speaking, believe that an armed society is a polite society. It&#39;s a tradeoff: on one hand, if you outlaw guns only outlaws will have them, on the other hand it might well be safer when only the serious outlaws have guns than when every teenage hooligan has them.

However, if we already are in a state where people are allowed to buy and carry firearms freely, banning guns from a small area like a university campus really will lead to a situation where everyone who is up to no good can have a gun, and no law-abiding citizen will. The worst of both worlds.

Posted by Vera at <a href="http://izrailit.blogspot.com/2007/04/virginia-tech-shooting.html">4/18/2007 12:40:00 PM</a>

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Original Source: Vera&#39;s log
<a href="http://izrailit.blogspot.com/2007/04/virginia-tech-shooting.html">http://izrailit.blogspot.com/2007/04/virginia-tech-shooting.html</a>

This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License</a>.

Vera Izrailit

2007-07-17

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License

eng

Westborough grad, a Virginia Tech student, is safe

By Galen Moore/Daily News staff
GHS
Fri Apr 20, 2007, 12:55 AM EDT

WESTBOROUGH - Andrew Dyche is safe, but for 30 terrifying minutes Monday his mother, Amy Belue, didn&#39;t know it.

Dyche, a 2003 graduate of Westborough High School, will graduate from Virginia Tech in June. He was at home in his off-campus apartment the morning fellow student Cho Seung-Hui shot 32 people, then turned a gun on himself.

On Monday, after learning of the killings from a co-worker over the Internet, it took Belue, who now lives in Colorado, 30 minutes of trying and re-trying jammed telephone circuits to reach her son. When they got through, the campus was already locked down, he told her.

Dyche left Blacksburg, Va., on Wednesday to stay with high school friends at the University of Connecticut. The atmosphere at Virginia Tech, where both his mother and father also went to school, was too much to bear, he said.

"Our campus is still swarmed with reporters, news media and cops," he said. "No one&#39;s really leaving their apartments."

The university canceled classes for the week.

Dyche, who first learned of the shootings when his roommate called him from a bus that had been stopped, didn&#39;t know any of the students who were killed or injured Monday.

For that, he feels lucky.

The week&#39;s events came as a shock, but they won&#39;t change his opinion of the school, he said. When he goes back, he will feel as safe as he could hope to feel anywhere, he said.

Belue, who moved with her husband, Dyche&#39;s stepfather, to Colorado in 2004, said she still feels a strong bond with the college she attended 30 years ago.

"We just love the community down there," she said. "It&#39;s so sad this is a part of the history now."

Dyche said though he knows there will be questions, he hopes students won&#39;t turn to blaming authorities for what happened.

"It&#39;s kind of difficult that (Cho) took his own life, because now it feels like we need to shift the blame somewhere else," Dyche said. "He&#39;s gone and you can&#39;t take it out on him."

(Galen Moore can be reached at 508-490-7453 or gmoore@cnc.com.)

--

Original Source: Milford, MA - The Milford Daily News
<a href="http://www.milforddailynews.com/homepage/x663839027">http://www.milforddailynews.com/homepage/x663839027</a>

Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0</a>.

Galen Moore / The Milford Daily News staff

2007-07-17

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0

eng

The news gets worse and worse

By <a href="http://www.mpnnow.com/about/team.php?id=9">KEVIN FRISCH</a>
Messenger Post Columnist
Posted: Apr 23, 01:00 PM EDT

What a difference a weekend makes.

Last Friday, the big story was brand new man of leisure Don Imus, who was ousted from his nationally syndicated radio program after making a disparaging remark about a women&#39;s basketball team. Since the comment was racist in nature, there were calls for a new discussion on the topic of race; a new dialogue on the parallel universes that are black and white America.

By Sunday, this conversation was put on hold — along the East Coast, anyway — as attention turned to more immediate concerns. Namely, the weather. A full-fledged &#39;noreaster made an unwelcome April visit and, for some 36 hours, it snowed slush. Or slushed snow. Or rained snow and slush. Whatever, the result was inches and inches of precipitation leading to flooding, treacherous travel and widespread power outages.

By late Monday morning, even those with cold homes and flooded basements were suddenly counting their blessings as they heard the first news reports from Blacksburg, Va.

An unspeakably violent week in recent American history had another blood-soaked chapter. In the past 15 years, the week between April 15 and April 22 has seen the siege of the Branch Davidian Compound in Waco, Texas; the Oklahoma City bombing; the Columbine High School shootings and, now, the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history: the massacre at Virginia Tech. Including the gunman, 33 souls were lost on the college&#39;s campus on April 16. Another 26 people were wounded.

As the initial shock and confusion gave way to anguish and a search for likely-nonexistent answers, a few reflexive voices were raised.

There was right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh, who climbed onto his high horse to condemn the "drive-by media," whoever they are. (Apparently, Rush has a problem with news people showing up to cover what may well be the biggest story of the year.)

There was the almost immediate debate over firearm rights, a customary echo when gun-related violence explodes.

Have you ever head a loud crash in the next room, then run in to see Junior standing next to a broken lamp and the first words out of his mouth are "I didn&#39;t do it"? Then you&#39;ve got some sense of the tone of a fax sent out the night of the slayings by Gun Owners of America.

"When will we learn that being defenseless is a bad defense?" asked Larry Pratt, the group&#39;s executive director. "All the school shootings that have ended abruptly in the last ten years were stopped because a law-abiding citizen — a potential victim — had a gun."

Actually, the Virginia Tech gunman took his own life, as did the two teens who wrought carnage at Columbine, but, oh well.

On the other side of the argument were people like Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Washington-based Violence Policy Center.

"In the wake of these shootings, too many routinely search for any reason for the tragedy except for the most obvious — the easy access to increasingly lethal firearms that make mass killings possible," he told the Toronto Globe and Mail.

It wasn&#39;t hard to side with Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine.

"I think that people who want to take this within 24 hours of the event and make it their political hobby horse to ride ... I&#39;ve got nothing but loathing for them," he said.

Kaine&#39;s point is well taken; his revulsion understandable. An informal waiting period of at least a week before latching an agenda — any agenda — onto sad and painful events would be a welcome change in this country.

The time will come for dissecting media coverage and debating the availability of firearms. In the meantime, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg and America as a whole have wounds to heal; tears to cry; losses to mourn.

Whoever thought we would so quickly be nostalgic for the days when the big issue was the Don Imus controversy?

<i>Messenger managing editor and aspiring president Kevin Frisch&#39;s column, Funny Thing..., appears each Sunday in the Daily Messenger. Contact him at (585) 394-0770, Ext. 257, or via e-mail at KFrisch@MPNewspapers.com.</i>

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Original Source: Rochester, NY - MPNnow
<a href="http://www.mpnnow.com/news/view_story.php?articleId=8158">http://www.mpnnow.com/news/view_story.php?articleId=8158</a>

Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5</a>.

Kevin Frisch

2007-07-17

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5

eng

Guns Don&#39;t Kill People, Kids Who Play Video Games Kill People...

April 18, 2007

<i>I apologize in advance for the tone of this piece. I thoroughly appreciate the devastating gravity of the situation, and I extend my heartfelt condolences to those families and friends affected.</i>

Blacksburg, Virginia.

Less than a week ago, nothing would have sprung to mind. In fact, many would not even have known this small town existed.

Now, for obvious reasons, it&#39;s on the map.

The events of April 16 serve as a reminder - a reminder that society is imperfect; that society is unpredictable; and that society is unprepared.

In fairness to those involved, the events at Virgina Tech could not have been predicted with any ease. What happened was not a commonplace, run-of-the-mill, every-day happening.

I won&#39;t even go so far as to say that what happened could have been prevented - there is no reasonable way of knowing that. What I will do, however, is take a few quick shots at the aftermath.

Everyone has their own concocted theory on how to respond to this type of situation. Pat Brown, for example, argues that whoever was the owner of the weapons used in the attack should be held accountable for the deaths of each and every student and professor on Monday. She believes that somehow, this would prevent a psychopath from acquiring the weapons they would choose to employ for such causes.

The real world begs to differ, Pat.

What we need to take away from the Virginia Tech Massacre is very simple - there are people out there that need help. Guns didn&#39;t kill those students; the Asian man didn&#39;t kill those professors; what transpired at Virginia Tech is exactly what happened at Columbine, Taber, Montreal, and every other mass shooting.

These people were neglected.

Do I believe in any way that whatever circumstances the shooter may have been put through justify his actions? No. Reciprocity, particularly when it involves violence, solves nothing.

With that said, however, how do we take ownership of Monday&#39;s events? Do we pretend that this was an isolated incident - a single student lashing out at random? Did this man wake up on the wrong side of the bed, and decide that morning to take the lives of 32 innocent people?

I don&#39;t think so.

Society perpetuates the attitude and the atmosphere that leads these people to commit horrendous acts. If this young man had been cared for, appreciated, respected, and amongst friends, would there still be 32 innocent people dead? Would the thought ever have even crossed his mind that he could be capable of such an atrocity?

These murderers are not the product of their own tendencies - they are products of society, as are we all. Maybe they needed medical attention, or maybe they had deep-rooted psychological issues; that could absolutely be a contributing factor.

At the end of the day, however, someone pushed this young man over the edge, and was repaid in the most horrific kind.

DO NOT fool yourself into believing that we are not responsible for what happened. Each and every one of us, through our thoughts, words, or actions, could spur or prevent the next Virginia Tech. We point fingers at the school&#39;s administration, the local police, the county flower... ultimately, we must all hold ourselves and one-another accountable for the citizens we are.

Blacksburg, you have our thoughts and prayers. If nothing else, remember:

This too shall pass.

In mourning, this is BSPM, signing off.

Posted by keh619 on April 18, 2007 05:08 PM

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Original Source: <a href="http://blogs.usask.ca/politics/2007/04/guns_dont_kill.html">http://blogs.usask.ca/politics/2007/04/guns_dont_kill.html</a>

Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0</a>.

keh619 / Tales of a Back Seat Prime Minster (blog)

2007-07-09

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0

eng

In the Mind of a Murderer

Justify it as you like, I cannot think of Cho Seung-Hui as anything other than a murderer. A lot has already been said about the subject, so apart from the links to his plays <a href="http://newsbloggers.aol.com/2007/04/17/cho-seung-huis-plays/">here[link]</a>, I won&#39;t be saying much.

The content of his plays being sophomoric aside (in all honesty my high school freshmen have written richer and deeper material than this), I don&#39;t think the content of his plays immediately says that he "fits the profile of a school shooter." As a previous entry said, there is no such thing as a profile; each situation is born of unique circumstances mingling with the unique turmoil in each unique individual. However, it <em>is</em> a definite warning sign of a person being disturbed, coupled with his general attitudes and way of pushing others away. Help was offered, but he refused it and did what he wanted to do anyway.

One can&#39;t help but feel powerless when confronted with a person like this. The other school shootings we had in the past were perpetrated by children who I think could have been talked to—just that insufficient attention was given to their behavior. However, this guy was already an adult—like many other instances of adults going on a rampage, they have already made up their minds and will no longer respond to reason. This is why it is imperative that schools should take events like this seriously. Sure, they are <em>aberrations</em>, but this implies that <em>somewhere, something went wrong.</em>

The most immediate problem seems to be security, of course. Students will not be able to bring firearms (or poison, as in the case of Gelyn Fabro) if the security weren&#39;t so lax. Guards search bags, yes, but do they know what they&#39;re searching for?

Of course, there&#39;s also the whole issue with of how the person is treated. The school can only do so much—personal and parental problems are already beyond the reach of guidance counselors—but still, the school can provide the student with an environment where he or she can express his or her frustrations in a harmless way. Cho&#39;s situation was different—this guy was already an adult, and that&#39;s why I believe that his problems were already beyond reasoning. He had to deal with them by himself, and he couldn&#39;t. He had to choose the worst possible option. But for high school students, I believe that something can be done. Of course, people are different. There are university students who might be receptive to counseling. Cho&#39;s case is indeed an aberration, but aberrations do not excuse the school from not taking any action. In his case, action was indeed taken. Schools just have to be sure that they&#39;ve done everything in such cases.

I&#39;ve always believed that elementary students need a teacher who they could see as a parent. In high school, they need a teacher who they could see as a friend or elder sibling. In college, a student needs a teacher who he or she could see as a mentor. Thankfully I&#39;ve had such teachers in all my years in the academe.

On a less serious note:
<a href="http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=231">Another Mario parody[link]</a>

~ by J. R. R. Flores on April 20, 2007.

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Original Source: <a href=http://aslancross.wordpress.com/2007/04/20/in-the-mind-of-a-murderer/">http://aslancross.wordpress.com/2007/04/20/in-the-mind-of-a-murderer/</a>

This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License</a>.

J. R. R. Flores

2007-06-20

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License

eng

on the VT massacre

<p>17 April 2007

The talking heads keep talking about the "VT Massacre", not that it doesn&#39;t deserve attention, but this is too much attention. And VT is getting a bad wrap unfairly on one specific point: the notification of students on campus as to what was going on.

The media seem obsessed with the 2-hour gap between the first shooting and the campus-wide email. They think the whole campus should have been told immediately. This is a short-sighted and impatient assumption, and is definitely not appropriate in a time like this when cooler heads should prevail.

First, when the first shooting occurred, no one knew what the hell was going on! As with any incident like this, the police responded immediately, and their first priority was to figure out what happened. From what the VT police have said, they had reason to believe the shooter had left campus. So, what good would it have been to lock the campus down? And even if they had, how would that have stopped the assailant from coming back, as this may have only added police officers to the list of the dead. <strong>My point is VT authorities didn&#39;t notify anyone immediately because they didn&#39;t know what to tell them!</strong>

In this age of information and 24-hour TV news, many have been spoiled into thinking they should have answers immediately, and that someone has failed them if they don&#39;t. Spoiled is definitely the best word for that outlook. Answers aren&#39;t always available right away, and rarely is the complete picture seen even days after an event like this, if ever.

So, why are some in the media out to vilify the very people who were trying to protect the public and figure this whole thing out? I can see no reason other than lack of understanding and sensationalism, neither of which is an acceptable answer.

---

On a different note about the incidents of yesterday: As a life member of <a href="http://www.kkpsi.org">Kappa Kappa Psi Honorary Band Fraternity</a>, as was receiving updates on the status on members of our chapter at VT. All were accounted for by midday and none harmed.

But we did get unfortunate news: One of the fallen was a member of the VT Band, a brother-in-arms, if you will. From <a href="http://www.music.vt.edu/performance/ensembles/mv/index.shtml">the Marching Virginians website</a>:</p>
<blockquote><i>The Marching Virginians are deeply sorrowed by the loss of fellow MV and friend, Ryan "Stack" Clark. He was a loved friend, mentor, and role model who will always hold a special place in the hearts of all the MVs as a true example of The Spirit Of Tech. Stack, we thank you for all the memories, and for sharing with us your true love of life. We will love and miss you always.</i></blockquote>
<p>Please continue to keep those up at Virginia Tech and their families in your thoughts and prayers.

-the Progressive Conservative

posted by Matt Collins at <a href="http://conservativeprogress.blogspot.com/2007/04/on-vt-massacre.html">4/17/2007 08:51:00 AM</a>

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Original Source: <a href="http://conservativeprogress.blogspot.com/2007/04/on-vt-massacre.html">http://conservativeprogress.blogspot.com/2007/04/on-vt-massacre.html</a>

This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/">Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License</a>.</p>

Matt Collins

2007-06-17

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

eng

Thinking about Virginia Tech

I&#39;d been thinking about starting this blog up again for a few weeks now. I didn&#39;t think I&#39;d have something so tragic to write about.

Probably it goes without saying that my thoughts and best wishes go out to the students, faculty, and staff at my alma mater, Virginia Tech, and especially to the families and friends of the victims.

I was working from home today, heads down with all my external inputs (radio, TV, email, IRC, RSS feeds, etc.) turned off, so it wasn&#39;t until mid-afternoon that I became aware of what had happened. It has shaken me up, more than I would have expected it would.

It&#39;s disconcerting to see a community that you&#39;ve been part of suffer an event like this, especially when you see so many images on the news of places you&#39;re quite familiar with. When I was a student at Virginia Tech, I had friends who lived on the 4th floor Ambler-Johnston Hall, where the first shooting took place. I had classes in Norris Hall, where the second shooting occurred. I know these places. They were my places. It was my community. Even though I&#39;ve been gone from Tech for a long time, it still hits close to home.

Back in &#39;88-&#39;89 I was one of the editors of the <a href="http://www.collegiatetimes.com"><em>Collegiate Times</em></a>, Virginia Tech&#39;s student newspaper. I&#39;ve thought a lot about the students working at the <em>Collegiate Times</em> today. What was the biggest story we dealt with back in &#39;88-&#39;89? I think a steroids scandal on one of the sports teams. Nothing to compare to what happened today. What a time it must be for those young, aspiring journalists. How difficult it must be to cover what will probably be the biggest story of your life when you are just twenty or twenty-one. Doubly difficult since it is the slaughter of your classmates that you have to cover. As young journalists they must feel a great deal of excitement at The Big Story . . . and, at the same time, a great deal of guilt and dread for being excited while their friends lay dead. I hope they sense the importance of their role of as the student voice of the Virginia Tech campus more than ever. (<a href="http://www.collegiatetimes.com">CollegiateTimes.com</a> is down, and the server is re-directing to <a href="http://CollegeMedia.com">CollegeMedia.com</a>, the parent site for the student media outlets at Tech. And I just noticed that the <em>Collegiate Times</em> Online Editor, who has been posting to <a href="http://www.collegemedia.com">http://www.collegemedia.com</a> all afternoon is named Christopher Ritter. No relation, if you were wondering.)

Besides my former professors, I only know a couple of people still at Virginia Tech. None of them were likely to have been in either of the buildings where the shootings took place, but I&#39;ve dropped them emails anyway. And I&#39;ve been contacted today by former classmates who I haven&#39;t heard from in years. When something like this happens, you start thinking about the people who shared your life then and you want to reach out to them, even if you&#39;ve been silent for years, because their the only ones who are going to understand your loss in the same way.

The news reports are saying that this is the worst shooting on a college campus in American history. Oddly, one of the other campus massacres that has been mentioned repeatedly was a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_Lu_Massacre">1991 shooting</a> rampage by a physics grad student (who also killed himself) at the University of Iowa, where I went to graduate school. My other alma mater. That took place just three months after I left Iowa City, and, unlike today&#39;s tragedy at VT, I knew many people who were on campus at that time.

Then a few years back, in the fall of 2000, <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101010625-130940,00.html">a student murdered one of his classmates</a> at Gallaudet University, and went un-apprehended for months until he killed again in February. I had worked at Gallaudet for three years and left just a bit more than a year before the murders there. Again, I was gone, but, again, I knew many people affected by this. It wasn&#39;t the kind of rampage like at Iowa or Virginia Tech, but it held the campus hostage to fear nonetheless.

So this is the third time I&#39;ve watched a campus where I have lived, studied, or worked be victimized by a murderer.

It sucks. It sucks for me, it makes me cry to see a community -- <i>my community</i> -- ravaged, even after I&#39;ve been absent from it for years

And as miserable and helpless as I feel, I can&#39;t imagine how horrible it is for those living through it.

Posted by Greg on April 16, 2007 10:48 PM

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Original Source: <a href="http://www.tenreasonswhy.com/weblog/archives/2007/04/thinking_about_1.html">http://www.tenreasonswhy.com/weblog/archives/2007/04/thinking_about_1.html</a>

Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial 1.0</a>.

Greg Ritter

2007-06-09

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial 1.0

eng

In Memoriam: Virginia Tech, April 16, 2007

April 16th, 2007

As one who worked with school districts across the country, I know the issue of school shootings is every school official&#39;s nightmare. The apparent random nature of all the shootings only makes the nightmare more fearful, for after dozens of workshops at countless conventions, the only thing anyone can say for sure is that they do not know where the awful sounds of gunfire will next echo down the hallways and in the classrooms.

But no one I knew or any of the workshops ever talked about the possibility of the equivalent of a Columbine occurring at a college. Every school district in the country has detailed policies in place if it ever happened to them. Their teachers, administrators and staff are trained in what to do and local law enforcement officials participate in the planning and the drills.

Now that it has happened at a college they, too, will have to undergo similar training and create similar plans. Campuses will seem less safe, new rules and drills will need to be implemented and college officials and teachers will now understand the nightmares of their secondary colleagues.

At the center of that nightmare lies a dark, bottomless pool. As with the Columbines of this country, people will stare into the pool seeking answers. Some will see reflections and try to generalize from them about the nature of the shooter and the victims, but the reflections they see will only be their own. Interest groups will look into the pool and see their causes, filling the talk shows with spokespersons who will say that if we had only done "x" the event would have never happened. Others will take a longer view trying to peer into the depths of the pool seeking confirmation of trends historical, social and psychological. They too will see only their own reflections.

For those at the center of it all, the parents, relatives and friends of the victims and the shooter, those who witnessed it and lived, and those who somehow made a decision to not go to those places at that time the pool will seem more like a maelstrom in which they are caught and cannot get out. Spinning helplessly they will try to maintain some sort of equilibrium, some rationality to keep from drowning in it all. For some this may mean just focusing on the immediate, the details of that which has to be done and it is only days, weeks, even months after that a delayed reaction will overcome them.

To help them survive the maelstrom the college will bring in the teams of counselors whose jobs are to somehow get everyone through this. Going in they know theirs represents a task akin to diving into that bottomless pool and seeking to build something solid. They will work miracles with some and experience heartache with others. Each case will be different, but will they will also hear the echoes of past times like this and try to somehow connect them with what now faces them.

Our country will experience yet another crack in its marble-like structure. And it too will become part of that pool if we let it. But staring into the pool accomplishes nothing, breeding only frustration, despair and even anger. The dark pool will beckon us with its siren songs to stare into its depths or even dive in.

Instead we need to turn away from the pool and remember that at least for a brief tick in time all of us will be as one, united with those Hokies at Virginia Tech into a collective version of Hokie Nation. For now is not a time for politics or debates or even business as usual. Instead families and communities need to realize how fleeting order and life can be and hug one another because that is all they can do. This time as with all those other times we will pledge to love one another a little more and show it. We will swear not to hate and to watch out for those stray souls who slip between the cracks only to emerge from those dark places with guns in their hands. Perhaps this time we can make that oneness last longer.

Perhaps we can remember that kind words can conquer hate and vitriol. Perhaps we can remember to succor the meek, the powerless, the people who have been dealt a bum hand through no fault of their own. Perhaps we can remember that in situations like the Virginia Tech shootings that we are in fact all equal, that it could have been any one of us who died or knew someone who died and yes who knew the shooter, for death recognizes no classes, no races, no languages or cultures as superior. Most of all we can try to nurture that feeling that all of us struggle to feel right now, that feeling of empathy with other human beings we did not know before and whose friends and family we somehow each wish we could help.

Posted by liberalamerican

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Original Source: <a href="http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/2007/04/16/in-memoriam-virginia-tech-april-16-2007/">http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/2007/04/16/in-memoriam-virginia-tech-april-16-2007/</a>

Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported</a>.

Ralph Brauer

2007-06-08

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported

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