'We are so sorry, we feel helpless and lost'
description: Killer's family Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington and Ed Pilkington in New York Saturday April 21, 2007 The Guardian The family of Cho Seung-hui, who shot 32 people dead before turning his gun on himself, made their first public comments yesterday about his actions, saying they had "made the world weep". In a statement put out by his sister, Sun-kyung Cho, through a lawyer in North Carolina, the family said they were living a nightmare, and apologised to his victims. "Our family is so very sorry for my brother's unspeakable actions. It is a terrible tragedy for all of us. We pray for their families and loved ones, who are experiencing so much excruciating grief. And we pray for those who were injured, and for those whose lives are changed forever." The statement, released to the Associated Press, came on the day Americans held a collective day of mourning for the victims, with church services and vigils from Capitol Hill to California. Yesterday's solemnities were centred on a moment of silence for the dead across Virginia at noon after the governor, Tim Kaine, declared a day of mourning. Forty other states also held vigils for the dead. "This has touched the globe," Mr Kaine told a memorial service. "The universality that we all suffer, we all grieve, has touched hearts around the world." The sombreness of the day was deepened by the knowledge that it was the anniversary of another school shooting - of 13 students and one teacher at Colorado's Columbine high school in 1999. The Cho family said that it had been "humbled by this darkness". The gunman's sister said: "We feel hopeless, helpless, and lost. This is someone that I grew up with and loved. Now I feel I didn't know this person." She said that, though her brother had been quiet and reserved, "we never could have envisioned he was capable of so much violence". The family, staying in an undisclosed location, said it would cooperate fully with the police investigation. During the day of mourning, church bells tol…
creator: Staff:Suzanne Goldenberg,Washington and Ed Pilkington
date: 2007-08-10
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: In consideration of the fee of GBP 0.00 ("the Fee") Guardian News & Media Limited ("GNM") grants the Licensee the right to: publish on its website for 10 years. Contact info: Eve Thompson; permissions.syndication@guardian.co.uk
language: eng

Mother prayed as son brooded in silence
description: Jonathan Watts in Goyang Friday April 20, 2007 The Guardian The brooding silence of Cho Seung-hui was so impenetrable it disturbed his family even when he was growing up in South Korea, relatives of the Virginia killer told the Guardian yesterday. His grandfather feared that at the age of eight he might be mute; the boy's great aunt worried that he had mental problems. And his mother, Kim Hyang-im, spent much of her time in church praying for him to snap out of his unhealthy taciturnity. "She was heartbroken," said his mother's aunt, Kim Yang-soon. "After they moved to America, she hoped his silences would ease as he grew older. But in fact they got worse." The poor family had a difficult start. Cho's mother was forced into an arranged marriage with a man 10 years her senior - Cho Sung-tae, who came from a poor family in the south but had worked in Saudi Arabia for 10 years on construction sites and oilfields. Hyang-im was from a well-educated family of North Korean landowners who had fled during the Korean war. "She didn't want to marry, but she gave in," said Yang-soon. No one in the family recalls any violent behaviour from Cho that might have hinted at later carnage. But they were unnerved by his sullenness. "My grandson was shy even as a little boy and he would never run to me like my other grandchildren," his maternal grandfather, Kim Hyong-shik, told the Hankyoreh Daily. "I thought he might be deaf and dumb." Schoolmates told local media they remembered Cho as quiet. But the father doted on his children. "He would have done anything for them," the grandfather said. "But now this has happened. It's as if everything they've done, the reason for their whole existence has been for nothing." The family moved to the US in 1992. During their eight-year wait for a visa, they fell short of money, selling their second-hand shop and home to make ends meet. They had visited Hyang-im's family before they left, an occasion that was only the second time the grandparents had…
creator: Adriana Seagle
date: 2007-08-10
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: In consideration of the fee of GBP 0.00 ("the Fee") Guardian News & Media Limited ("GNM") grants the Licensee the right to: publish on its website for 10 years. Contact info: Eve Thompson; permissions.syndication@guardian.co.uk
language: eng

'I pretended to be dead ... people died on top of me'
description: Bobbie Johnson and Lee Glendinning Wednesday April 18, 2007 The Guardian Within hours of news of the Blacksburg shootings, a picture of the terror inflicted by 23-year-old Korean student Cho Seung-hui was being built online through videos, blogs and message boards. Clay Violand, 20, a student at Virginia Tech, described on iChat, an online messaging service, how he pretended to be dead as his classmates fell on top of him. "I watched my fucking classmates get mauled in front of me and I was the only one who wasn't shot. I feel crazy. People died on top of me," he told his friend Alana Fragar, who also attends Virginia Tech. "I am the only person who didn't get shot in my French class in Norris and I have no idea why and I don't know what to do. "I pretended to be dead and people got shot in the face ... I keep seeing gross images of blood and gunshots in the face and ... I have no idea why I lived. I didn't even get blood on me. I don't get it." Friends of Emily Hilscher, the first victim of the shootings, had gathered online to create an instant memorial. Using the social networking site Facebook, hugely popular among American college students, friends built a page asking each other to collect their pictures of the 18-year-old from stages of her life. "We want everybody that joins to post one or more things that made Emily cooler than you," it said. Tributes and messages had poured in from friends, family - and even strangers as far away as Norway. "It didn't matter who you were or if she knew you ... she would be your friend in a heartbeat," said one friend. "Emily was so spunky and full of life," said another. "She had such a creative personality, and was always making such fun new things." Youngsters gathered on the site to post tributes and messages for other victims, such as 18-year-old Reema Samaha. "Reema you were one of the funniest people I know ... We all love you," said one. Facebook is a mainstay of American college life, and used by around 18 million p…
creator: Staff: Bobbie Johnson and Lee Glendinning
date: 2007-08-12
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: In consideration of the fee of GBP 0.00 ("the Fee") Guardian News & Media Limited ("GNM") grants the Licensee the right to: publish on its website for 10 years. Contact info: Eve Thompson; permissions.syndication@guardian.co.uk
language: eng

Teacher's bravery let students flee
description: Ewen MacAskill Wednesday April 18, 2007 The Guardian A survivor of the Holocaust died trying to save his students from the Virginia Tech gunman, it emerged yesterday. Liviu Librescu, 76, who survived the Nazi killings, later escaped from communist Romania to become a respected aeronautics expert. "My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," his son, Joe Librescu, said from his home outside Tel Aviv. Student Alec Calhoun told the Guardian how Mr Librescu's bravery bought him precious seconds after the killer started shooting in the next room. "I thought I was going to die. I started to make a barricade of desks." Mr Calhoun went to jump out of the window. It was then he saw Mr Librescu. "I hung on to the ledge. The professor was trying to hold the door closed. I was the last one out that was not wounded." When he finally forced his way in, Mr Librescu threw himself in front of the attacker, a student told Israel's Army Radio. "He was killed but thanks to him his students lived," the student said. Messages were posted on the web praising the professor. "No act could be more selfless." one poster wrote. On Guardian Unlimited Full coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings Gun violence in the US Gun violence in Britain Full US coverage Related articles Virginia massacre gunman named Unofficial list of shooting victims emerges Massacre on campus Q&A: US gun laws World news guide North American Media Media CNN New York Times Washington Post Government Virginia state government portal US government portal White House Senate House of Representatives Copyright Guardian News & Media Ltd 2007. -- Original Source:http://www.guardian.co.uk/usguns/Story/0,,2059729,00.html
creator: Ewen MacAskill
publisher: The Guardian
date: 2007-08-12
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: In consideration of the fee of GBP 0.00 ("the Fee") Guardian News & Media Limited ("GNM") grants the Licensee the right to: publish on its website for 10 years. Contact info: Eve Thompson; permissions.syndication@guardian.co.uk
language: eng

A brutal mind
description: 11.15am Media reports portray Cho Seung-hui as a troubled boy with a murderous imagination Michelle Pauli Wednesday April 18, 2007 Guardian Unlimited Just one face stares out of the front pages of the papers today. With the naming of the perpetrator of the Virginia Technical College massacre, all attention is focused on Cho Seung-hui, the South Korean loner who shot dead 32 of his fellow students and professors. The Telegraph and the Mirror both use the killer's own words as their headline: "You made me do this." The line comes from the note left behind by Cho, which also rails against "rich kids", "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans". The picture that is emerging of Cho is of a troubled loner with a history of mental health problems. Roommates at the dormitory where he lived called him "weird", while fellow students in his creative writing class describe being frightened by his "morbid and grotesque" plays. The Washington Post has an interview with the head of the English department, Lucinda Roy, who had taught Cho in one-to-one sessions after a colleague had been disturbed by his work. According to the Post, Roy said she warned school officials. "'I was determined that people were going to take notice. I felt I'd said to so many people, 'Please, will you look at this young man?' " The question of whether Cho could have been stopped - if not before the first two killings then in the period before the further shootings - continues to be examined. The Guardian says that "angry" students want to know why the campus was not locked down and classes cancelled and why it took more than two hours for them to be sent a warning email. Details from those two and a half hours "remain sketchy" says the paper but it is believed that the police thought that the first two shootings were a domestic murder committed by someone who had then left the campus, leaving them surprised when the second shootings occurred. "The university has blood on their hands," says one student, Billy…
creator: Michelle Pauli
publisher: Guardian Unlimited
date: 2007-08-12
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: In consideration of the fee of GBP 0.00 ("the Fee") Guardian News & Media Limited ("GNM") grants the Licensee the right to: publish on its website for 10 years. Contact info: Eve Thompson;permissions.syndication@guardian.co.uk
language: eng

The challenge of preventing violence is not just an American problem
description: Commentary John Monahan and Jeffrey Swanson Sunday April 22, 2007 The Observer One of the largest mass killings in American history was carried out last Monday at the hands of a 23-year-old university student with mental illness. The reverberations of the events that ended the lives of 32 students and faculty staff at Virginia Tech - and of the offender as well - are shaking the already wobbly mental health system. This American tragedy surely holds lessons for the UK as it considers the revision of its Mental Health Bill. The scientific challenges of predicting violence, and the legal challenges of preventing it, transcend national borders. Both UK and US look first to mental health professionals. But how good are psychiatrists and psychologists at distinguishing which people with a mental illness will be violent? Research shows professionals are better than pure chance, but not much. Predicting harmful behaviour is like predicting bad weather. An inaccurate prediction doesn't necessarily mean the clinician or the meteorologist has 'missed something'; it may just mean the science of forecasting has a long way to go. Tools to aid mental health professionals in the task focus on proven risk factors: characteristics that define the person (e.g. young, male); disorders that a person has (e.g. a major mental illness, a personality disorder, and alcohol or drug abuse); what the person has done (e.g. past violence); and what has been done to the person (e.g. being raised by violent or substance abusing parents, and being physically abused as a child). These risk factors can distinguish patients with a low risk of future violence from patients with a high one. What can be done to preclude anticipated violence? If people need treatment, don't want it, and might do something harmful if they don't get it, can the state override their right to refuse? The law of civil commitment - being hospitalised against one's will - in almost every US state focuses on two things: whether t…
creator: John Monahan and Jeffrey Swanson
date: 2007-08-12
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: In consideration of the fee of GBP 0.00 ("the Fee") Guardian News & Media Limited ("GNM") grants the Licensee the right to: publish on its website for 10 years. Contact info: Eve Thompson;permissions.syndication@guardian.co.uk
language: eng

Acts of bravery amid the horror
description: Letters Wednesday April 18, 2007 The Guardian We have heard the arguments for years regarding the modern-day relevance or not of the second amendment, which engrains the right to bears arms into the American constitution and psyche, and they need not be rehashed now. I am sure all readers are intelligent and well-informed enough to realise and accept that although they may have strong views on the rights of people to own guns, many others do not share that view. But this argument should not be the focus of today's editorials, columns and letters. Nathaniel Hawthorne said that "A hero cannot be a hero unless in a heroic world", so let us today for once become a world that celebrates heroism rather than focusing on the acts of the wicked few. The bravery of students to carry their friends, their classmates and people they didn't even know to safety and help while under fire shows the acts of heroism that are still required in our world. Today it is them and their fallen colleagues that we should be focusing on, not the evil act of one person. We will focus on how to turn heroic acts into unnecessary acts tomorrow, but for today let's celebrate the lives of those who have once again been taken by the winds of fate and those who were willing to risk their lives simply because it was the right thing to do. Let us tomorrow reignite the debate over gun ownership, and this time have a full and frank debate rather than the shouting match that has developed in past decades and led to a stalemate which only allows further acts of terror to plague our society, but just for one day we can put our differences aside and immortalise the all too soon forgotten heroes of our world. Michael Hunter Glasgow It's really very simple. If you permit people to buy firearms they will buy firearms. If a person owns any kind of tool they are likely to use that tool for the purpose intended. Firearms have only one use: they are designed to shoot and to kill. Don't quote in defence "the constitut…
creator: Guardian News & Media Limited
date: 2007-08-09
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Eve Thompson-Acting Permissions Executive Syndication;permissions.syndication@guardian.co.uk
language: eng

Virginia Tech professor 'died saving students'
description: Ewen MacAskill in Blacksburg Tuesday April 17, 2007 Guardian Unlimited Alec Calhoun, an engineering student at Virginia Tech, described today an individual act of bravery by one of his professors that saved his life. Mr Calhoun, 20, had been in Room 204 in the college's Norris hall taking a class in solid mechanics. "We heard what sounded like an enormous hammer. We though it was construction. The scream told us it was something else." The killer, having murdered two people two hours earlier, had started a shooting spree in the classroom next door. "I thought pretty early on that I was going to die. I started knocking desks over [to make a barricade]. Others were pulling the windows down. It is lucky someone thought of the windows." The class was on the second floor and the first students to jump were hurt. "I was the eighth to jump. I hung onto the ledge. I saw the professor. I think he was trying to hold the door closed. "I was the last one out that was not wounded. The two behind me were shot. I jumped onto a bush and fell onto my back. It was about a minute between hearing the shots and jumping out of the window." He said his professor had been killed. After reaching safety, he immediately phoned his father, James, a teacher, to tell them he was safe. Special report United States of America World news guide North American media Media New York Times Washington Post CNN Government US government portal White House Senate House of Representatives Copyright Guardian News & Media Ltd 2007 -- Original Source:http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2059205,00.html
creator: Ewen MacAskill
publisher: Guardian Unlimited
date: 2007-08-12
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: In consideration of the fee of GBP 0.00 ("the Fee") Guardian News & Media Limited ("GNM") grants the Licensee the right to: publish on its website for 10 years. Contact info: Eve Thompson; permissions.syndication@guardian.co.uk
language: eng

US college shooting 'could happen in UK'
description: Debbie Andalo Tuesday April 17, 2007 EducationGuardian.co.uk The mass shooting at Virginia Tech University could easily happen on a UK campus, an academic and former vice-president of a US institution warned today. Prof Geoffrey Alderman, formerly the vice-president of Touro College in New York, said: "If you asked any university security guard in the UK whether what happened in Virginia could happen here, and they replied no - they would be lying. "I am sure every university in this country will be reviewing their security and although they will be shocked at what has happened in the States they would not be shocked at the suggestion that the same thing could happen here." He added that institutions had "better face the fact that what happened at Virginia Tech could happen in any British university". He said if someone was determined to shoot people, he couldn't see any way to prevent it. Prof Alderman was vice-president of Touro College for nearly three years until he returned to the UK in 2002. He remains an emeritus professor in history at the college. Referring to security at the New York campus he said: "Security was pretty tight. Every student and member of staff had to wear photographic ID and there were security guards on the gates of every campus. Nobody was allowed in or out without ID. "But security ID can only go so far, especially if you have a sprawling campus, and not one that you can lock-down - if you go to Oxford or Cambridge, for example, the universities are embedded in the cities." Prof Alderman believes a key factor behind the Virginia Tech tragedy, which claimed 32 lives, is the United State's innate tolerance of guns. He said: "This is an issue about the availability of guns in the US - the right to carry arms is enshrined in the American conscience. In my New York days it was something that was enshrined in the American psyche - even in New York where they are quite strict about the carrying of arms. The Fulbright Commission, the Anglo-Amer…
creator: Debbie Andalo
publisher: Guardian Unlimited
date: 2007-08-12
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: In consideration of the fee of GBP 0.00 ("the Fee") Guardian News & Media Limited ("GNM") grants the Licensee the right to: publish on its website for 10 years. Contact info: Eve Thompson; permissions.syndication@guardian.co.uk
language: eng

Seoul does some soul searching over Virginia massacre
description: Wednesday April 18 2007 By Mark Tran / USA 04:39pm Like others around the world, South Koreans have reacted with horror to the killings at Virginia Tech university, but they are also nervous about a possible backlash against the large Korean community in the US. The headline in the Korea Herald encapsulates the sense of alarm: Massacre puts US-based ethnic Koreans on alert. "I and my fellow citizens can only feel shock and a wrenching of our hearts," said the south Korean president Roh Moo-hyun at a press conference, the third time he has offered his condolences. The government has already held several cabinet emergency meetings since the killer was identified as a South Korean, although he had been in the US since the age of eight. South Korean citizens pray for the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre in front of the US embassy in Seoul. For the blogger, Michael Hurt, an American of Korean and African-American descent who lives in South Korea, the incident raises interesting questions about South Korean society and the "cultural context" of the killing, which he admits is highly sensitive ground. Hurt believes that the South Korean fears of retaliation are misplaced but argues that such fears are a "fair extrapolation of how foreign Others are treated as scapegoats and categorical symbols of many Koreans' opinions of other nations and races". But he raises more troubling points such as the apparent problem that Korean male students have in adjusting to the US. From conversations he has had with American academics, he says: "What came out is that many Korean men felt displaced and disempowered as males who lived in a society that catered to them, while in the US, those forms of automatic power and status - being male, rich, or having come from Seoul National University - mean nothing. And at the same time, Korean women experience a social liberalisation compared to where they would often be in Korea." In further food for thought, Hurt notes that the record holder …
creator: Mark Tran
date: 2007-08-10
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: In consideration of the fee of GBP 0.00 ("the Fee") Guardian News & Media Limited ("GNM") grants the Licensee the right to: publish on its website for 10 years. Contact: Eve Thompson;permissions.syndication@guardian.co.uk
language: eng

LA TRISTEZA Y LA DESOLACIÓN, OSCURECIERON LOS CIELOS Y LOS CORAZONES DE BLACKSBURG
description: Publicado por Carmen Moreno Martín Miércoles, 18 de Abril de 2007 11:28 En la universidad de Virginia Tech -clicad aquí- se vivieron momentos en los que el sin sentido y el pánico fueron los únicos rectores de las conductas. Treinta y dos personas, más el presunto asesino, murieron a balazos. El presunto autor de la matanza era un muchacho, dicen que solitario, pero un muchacho, que tenía, al parecer, dos pistolas; y las tenía porque las había comprado con toda naturalidad. El caso es que en EEUU se compran armas como si de comprar piruletas se tratara, y cualquiera que tenga más de 21 años y unos antecedentes penales limpios, puede comprarlas y portarlas sin ningún problema, y en Virginia es aún más fácil obtenerlas. Escuchaba en las noticias que en EEUU hay casi doscientas mil pistolas en los armarios y cajones de los ciudadanos. El caso es que el derecho a poseer un arma de fuego es en ese país un derecho constitucional y que cada vez que el debate sobre el tema surge, los intereses de la industria y de las asociaciones y núcleos de presión, tienen más fuerza y más poder que la vida y ganan la partida: los derechos humanos, la razón y el sentido común se desvanecen y la muerte vence. No es la primera vez que este tipo de matanzas se da en EEUU, pero la universidad de Virginia Tech, se ha llevado trágicamente la palma. Bush se dirigía a los familiares y estudiantes diciendo algo así como que el problema era que los muertos habían estado en un lugar equivocado, en un momento equivocado... Pero ni el lugar ni el momento eran erróneos porque los muertos, que eran estudiantes y profesores, estaban donde debían: en la universidad; y el momento era el adecuado: el inicio de las clases de la mañana. Lo equivoco, lo erróneo, lo desafortunado y lo criminal -además de tener que sufrir a un presidente tan sumamente necio- es el hecho de no haber acabado ya con la facilidad de adquirir armas y de portarlas. Clinton promulgó una ley prohibiendo …
creator: Carmen Moreno Martín
date: 2007-08-11
contributor: Elva Orozco
rights: Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-SinObraDerivada 2.5 España
language: spa

Virginia Tech
description: Publicado por Batz Friday, April 20, 2007 Todos vimos/leímos sobre la matanza que hubo en Virginia Tech esta semana. Un suceso terrible que personalmente me sorprendió mucho por estar tan cercano al pueblo al que me fui de intercambio en 1997, y a donde muchos de mis amigos fueron a estudiar tras graduarnos de la preparatoria. Por las fechas en que terminamos la escuela, supuse que no habría nadie que yo conociera, pero igual me hizo sentir gran pesar. Que pena que fuera así como viera a mi ex casa por las noticias, en vez de algo de lo lindo que conocí en ese año. La noche siguiente, estando en el MSN, me encontré con mi novio de esa época [y durante 4 años]. Nos saludamos y me dio una muy mala noticia. Me dijo que uno de los estudiantes asesinados es [era] amigo suyo, y hermano de una de mis compañeras de generación: Jarret Lane. Su hermana Alicia y yo no somos amigas, pero compartimos mucho tiempo juntas en el equipo de basketball. Como dije antes, todos pensamos que el suceso fue terrible, pero ahora que me da como un calambre pensar lo pequeño que es el mundo, y que con esta sociedad cada vez menos propensa a solucionar sus frustraciones de forma sana, nos vemos mas expuestos a ataques como este. Narrows es un lugar muy chiquito, todos se conocen y ahora se encuentran inmersos en una tristeza general que me ha llegado hasta acá. So sad... -- Fuente Original: Batz' Journal http://batzjournal.blogspot.com/2007/04/virginia-tech.html Licencia de uso: Creative Commons Atribución-No Derivadas 2.5 México.
creator: Batz
date: 2007-08-11
contributor: Elva Orozco
rights: Creative Commons Atribución-No Derivadas 2.5 México
language: spa

"SOLO LE PIDO A DIOS"
description: Publicado por Mariluz Barrera González viernes 20 de abril de 2007 Siempre pienso en mi padre, en cualquier instante de mi vida, siempre está presente. Sobre todo en los momentos más difíciles o cuando siento que las cosas empeoran cada vez más. A veces siento que el espíritu pierde fuerzas, se agota o debilita ante tantas circunstancias, tantos eventos que me cuestionan si ser tan objetiva y sensible a nuestra realidad vale la pena, en un mundo donde ya nadie quiere serlo, y donde al parecer serlo me convierte poco a poco en un ser fuera de lugar, principalmente en mi lugar de trabajo. Me preocupa dejar de ser sensible, he comentado que en mi trabajo y en mi profesión la realidad es algo que se muestra con mucha crudeza y dolor la mayoría de las veces; y sin embargo se me hace difícil entender que aún así a las personas les cueste trabajo aceptar ayuda y peor aún querer terminar con esa situación que les provoca sufrimiento. Entonces entiendo por que la humanidad atraviesa por tantos problemas que aún no se resuelven. La matanza de Virginia es para mí una consecuencia muy grande del grado máximo al que podemos llegar ante lo peor de la indiferencia, dejar de mirarnos como personas a nosotros mismos y por consiguiente a los demás. Dejar de hacerlo nos convierte en seres que no me atrevería a decir de que tipo. Creo que el asesino de Virginia sintió que definitivamente ya no era mirado ni tratado como tal (Aunque por los antecedentes que tenía tal vez nunca lo fué) y como consecuencia pensó que este acto ruin y terrible era una llamada de atención para ser observado aunque sea por un instante y no pasar desapercibido, en un mundo donde ya nadie se mira; donde nos tratan y nos tratamos como objetos. En terapia muchas veces les he preguntado a mis pacientes adictos que diferencia existe entre ellos y una silla y sorprendentemente no tienen una respuesta, a veces me contestan que la silla tiene 4 patas y ellos dos. Reconocer nuestra humanidad ya n…
creator: Mariluz Barrera González
date: 2007-08-11
contributor: Elva Orozco
rights: Creative Commons Atribución-No Comercial-No Derivadas 2.5 México
language: spa

Cranes Up Close
description: Close-up of origami cranes in a box on the first floor of Squires Student Center. A sign on an adjacent display case reads "please feel free to take as many as you want." Many thousands of cranes were folded and contributed after the events of April 16, including as part of the "1000 Cranes @ VT" campaign. Photo taken July 6, 2007. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0.
creator: Brent Jesiek
date: 2007-08-10
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
language: eng

Free Cranes and More Cranes
description: A large glass display class on the first floor of Squires Student Center is filled with paper cranes. An overflow box of cranes sits on the floor to the side. A sign on the other side of the display case reads "please feel free to take as many as you want." Many thousands of cranes were folded and contributed after the events of April 16, including as part of the "1000 Cranes @ VT" campaign. Photo taken July 6, 2007. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0.
creator: Brent Jesiek
date: 2007-08-10
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
language: eng

Free Cranes
description: A large glass display class on the first floor of Squires Student Center is filled with paper cranes. The sign on the display case reads "please feel free to take as many as you want." Many thousands of cranes were folded and contributed after the events of April 16, including as part of the "1000 Cranes @ VT" campaign. Photo taken July 6, 2007. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0.
creator: Brent Jesiek
date: 2007-08-10
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
language: eng

1000 Cranes @ VT
description: About the bird: Cranes are large, long-legged and long-necked birds of the order Gruiformes, and family Gruidae. Unlike the similar-looking but unrelated herons, cranes fly with necks outstretched, not pulled back. Most have elaborate and noisy courting displays or "dances". (from Wikipedia) Cranes are known for their long life spans. Though the average life span cited in various sources to not necessarily agree (probably depends on the sub-species also), numbers tend to be in the 60 to 80 year range. This was much longer than the average life span of humans in ancient times. As a result, the crane, together with the turtle/tortoise, became symbols of longevity, and, consequently, of good fortune in China and the surrounding countries. East Asian Folklore states that cranes live for 1,000 years, and turtles/tortoises for 10,000 years (a bit of an exaggeration). About Origami: The word "Origami" is Japanese for "Folding Paper". It refers to the art, as well as the paper made specifically for the activity. The origin of Origami is not known, but it was most probably invented in China, as most things were, soon after the invention of paper. It propagated both east and west together with the technology of paper making: east toward Japan where it became known as Origami; west through the Islamic Empire all the way to Spain, where it is known today as "Papiroflexia" (Paper Folding) or "folding pajaritas." (The "pajarita" is a fold popular in Spain which represents a sparrow.) About the Tradition of Folding 1000 Cranes: In Japan, tradition states that if you fold 1000 origami cranes, it will bring you good health and good luck. When someone is suffering from a severe sickness or injury, spouses, parents, children and other family members and/or friends, and sometimes the patient him/herself, would fold 1000 cranes to wish for the person's recovery. It is unclear hold old this tradition is, but the term "Semba-Zuru" (1000 Cranes) dates back at least 200 years. About the 100…
creator: The 1000 Cranes @ VT Project
date: 2007-08-10
contributor: Brent Jesiek
language: eng

Threats to Civil Liberties arising from the fallout of the Virginia Tech Forcible-disarmament Frenzy
description: May 1, 2007 4:51 pm An article from a new contributor: Loren Bliss THERE ARE TWO EXCEPTIONALLY grave dangers to American liberty arising from the present, post-Virginia-Tech forcible-disarmament frenzy. These are: (1)-The criminalization of even the mildest forms of mental illness, as proposed by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), in HR 297. (2)-The criminalization of political protest and dissent, as proposed by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, (D-NJ), in S 1237. Each of these measures is enthusiastically supported by the Bush Regime. The Lautenberg bill was written at White House/Justice Department request — a leading Democratic senator serving as the mouthpiece for a despised Republican administration — an unprecedented act of collaboration with the most corrupt regime in U.S. history. Once again, opposition to the Second Amendment is being used as a diversion behind which to conceal an all-out, bipartisan attack on the entire Bill of Rights- including, via S 1237, repeal of the presumption of innocence that is the cornerstone of all English-language jurisprudence. Meanwhile, welcome to the New American Reich, where (if McCarthy, Lautenberg and Bush have their way), anybody deemed a mental case, an effective labor activist or a disruptive political nonconformist will soon be forcibly disarmed, denied all rational means of self defense and thereby condemned to perpetual victimhood. ********* Modern efforts to criminalize mental dysfunction have a long history dating back to Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany and are typically part of a broader right-wing agenda of oppression and euthanasia. But in the United States, the primary advocates of criminalization are the forcible disarmament cult and the Communitarian movement, members of which universally (and often vehemently) claim to be leftists and/or "progressives." The Communitarians have argued for at least two decades that diagnosis of mental illness should instantly terminate not only all one's civil rights but also strip one …
creator: Loren Bliss
date: 2007-08-09
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution 2.5
language: eng

Virginia Tech Massacre--Finding Peace
description: Sometimes I'm just amazed at the ignorance of people. I've come across many blog entries that are outright idiotic but usually chalk it up to 'that's where they're coming from' or 'everyone's entitled to their opinion'. However, some Erie bloggers recently have been spewing forth complete garbage that needs to be addressed. The gist is this: those students killed at Virginia Tech were partly to blame for their death by not fighting back. Underlying this is the premise that American's have been lulled into submission and taught not to self-defend. I reject this in all of its absurdity and callousness. I was absolutely furious this morning after reading these two Erie bloggers, Sassafrassin and Kodera, for their statements. To try and disguise their comments as intellectual or serious commentary would be disingenuous. Flat out, they are out of line and need to be called out on their statements and insinuations. Disregarding the fact that no one really knows what was going on in the minds of those who were murdered, but to turn around and somehow place the blame on them is reprehensible. It's disgusting. It's obscene. Although part of me realizes that what is going on here are people trying to understand and give meaning to what is completely senseless and without explanation, these kinds of statements reveal underlying problems of our society. Not only does it reveal a deeper violent tendency, but a lack of ability for compassion and understanding--both of which are essential to Peace in this world. To these two bloggers, who seem to be professedly conservative (and at least one has expressed he is Christian), Jesus Christ would be considered a liberal pansy for allowing himself to be executed and for making the statement, "If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also." Instead we're all expected to be like warriors in some Hollywood flick, living up to superficial ideals. You know, part of my response and anger to these two bloggers has to do with …
creator: RichardZ
date: 2007-08-09
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States
language: eng

Virginia Tech massacre an unbelievably sad event
description: Friday, April 20, 2007 - The China Post A total of 32 people were killed Monday in a Virginia Tech campus building in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history. The gunman, a student from South Korea, took down his victims in two attacks that were spread two hours apart. The tragic incident has sent shockwaves around the world. We wish to express our sympathy to the victims' families and hope they will get all the help they need to make it through this very difficult time. The other students at the university should also be assisted so they can overcome the shock and grief they are suffering. U.S. President George W. Bush has ordered flags flown at half staff across the nation. Speaking at a memorial service on the Virginia Tech campus, Bush said "it's impossible to make sense of such violence and suffering." "Those whose lives were taken did nothing to deserve their fate," the president said. "They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now they're gone -- and they leave behind grieving families, and grieving classmates, and a grieving nation." At first it was reported that the alleged killer was a student from China. Later, however, police found the gunman was a fourth-year student from South Korea, described in the media as a "loner." Authorities said he was a legal resident of the United States. The suspect committed suicide after the attacks. Police said there was no evidence of any accomplice at either of the two attacks, but are exploring the possibility. The shocking incident has prompted debate and discussion about the prevalence of gun ownership in the United States. An Indonesian mother, according to a news report, bemoaned the availability of guns in the United States after learning her son was among those killed in the massacre, while South Koreans expressed shame and shock that the gunman came from their country. "Why can people bring guns to campus?" the Indonesian mother said, recalling third-year doctoral student Partahi Lumba…
creator: The China Post
date: 2007-07-22
contributor: Na Mi
language: eng