Fun Facebook in Juxtaposition with Virginia Tech Tragedy
Friday, April 27, 2007 Early Monday morning Toronto, April 16; very nice day, it's spring at last - you can feel it in the air - maybe the oxygen levels are up a little - there's a craziness in the air, a frenetic kind of feeling... I punched the computer; threw on the radio; and began to create coffee. I prime my story-writing brain with National Public Radio; but soon the voices will be in the back of my head, and I'll be blogging down a pathway in search of a twig. The twig appeared on NPR, news at 10:00; a shooting at Virginia Tech, a lock-down, nothing more... I have been interested in the phenomena of the serial and mass murderers since the 1970's - when a peer of mine took a hunting rifle to school in a nearby town. In the early eighties Elliott Leytons excellent work, 'Hunting Humans' came out; and I gave it a read. I have followed the science of profiling with interest ever since. The most strange and distorted individuals, sometimes offer the most interesting reflections of a culture. The X-files, the 1990's TV series, starred David Duchovny as Fox Mulder, FBI profiler. The shows writers used up-to-date theory and research to punch up the script. One of my favorites. I knew right away this was my twig - I also knew this was going to be a lousy day. As a writer though, it would be a rewarding one. I knew a fast breaking story like this one could change the way news is consumed. In the San Francisco earthquake of 1989, CNN went live for at least 12 hours (I feel asleep), until the next morning. It was the first time a network had done this kind of news coverage. CNN's next big gig was the 1991 war with Iraq. Brought to you live; with the CNN correspondent sending video as American Bombs rained down around him; and anti-aircraft tracer fire lit the sky at mid-night.These two events took CNN from small player to a major in the news business. Now perhaps the Internet was about to experience a similar metamorphosis. My plan was to watch a national story unfold in real time on the Internet, and write about the experience. So I click on my FireFox icon, and Boolean search: Virginia + Tech + Blogs. I've found the 'Blog 'O' Sphere' is a good place to find citizen journalists close to the scene as a story is breaking - like Baghdad Blogger in 2003 and the Blogs out of Beirut, under Israeli siege in the summer of 2006. Interesting, No Bloggers, No MySpace... List, List, List. Common thread, come on. What's common other than VTech? Facebook! Everyone at Virginia Tech is on Facebook! So I joined. Apparently, so did a 'million' other people. I'm exploring its Web 2.0 possibilities now. Yin & Yang, Dam Yin & Yang. mh Posted by Michael Holloway at 4/27/2007 06:55:00 PM Original Source: http://filter--blog.blogspot.com/2007/04/fun-facebook-rises-out-of-tragedy-at.html Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 License.
Officials examine ways to make school safer
By Joe Cressman Elmhurst Press Tue Apr 24, 2007, 04:35 PM CDT ELMHURST, IL - The April 16 tragedy at Virginia Tech has Elmhurst College officials looking at ways they can make their own campus more secure. One of those ways is to teach the community how to respond to danger signs among students, said Tony Leggett, director of campus security. "We've done a number of things," he said. "We sent out a letter to give students some of the warning signs, how to report if someone on campus they know (is) emotionally distressed." He also has been in contact with the Elmhurst Police Department. Sometime this summer, police will rehearse practice responses to an on-campus shooter, Leggett said. Charley Henderson, director of public relations, said the Virginia Tech massacre has everyone thinking about how safety measures can be improved. "This campus is essentially safe, but you never say never," he said. Original Source: http://www.chicagosuburbannews.com/elmhurst/news/x1910945457 Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5.
From Palestine to Virginia Tech: We are with you in this Time of Pain
Posted by Sami Awad on April 20th, 2007 Two days ago a tragic event took place in Virginia Tech in the US that shocked not only the people of the United States but people all across the globe. A violent massacre took place there that resulted in thirty two killed, individuals who presented different cultures, religions and nationalities. In a sign of solidarity the people of Palestine in general and those from the Sothern villages surrounding the Holy city of Bethlehem dedicated their weekly nonviolent activity against the building of Apartheid wall to the families of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre. Every Friday, Palestinians, internationals, and Israeli nonviolent activists gather in the Southern villages of Bethlehem to protest against the building of the Apartheid Wall that will eventually destroy the livelihood of these villages. This Friday, the protest began with a silent procession by the group of about fifty participants. We carried banners and leaflets with the Virginia Tech logo and statements supporting them in this time of pain. Thirty two olive trees were also carried in the procession to remember each person killed in the massacre. The olive tree is a global symbol of peace and hope. Once we reached the path created by the by the bulldozers for the building of the Apartheid Wall we dug the earth and plated the thirty two olive trees in a row - instead of building an ugly wall that divides people, let us plant trees that bring people together. Several of the participants made statements condemning the violence that we all, as the human family are witnessing and condemning the building of the Apartheid wall and the killing of innocents. Over 150 Israeli soldiers came to dismantle our protest. Our commitment to nonviolence and to achieve our goal completely paralyzed their weapons and their goals and eventually our power made them withdrawal. The planting of the trees was followed by reciting the names of all those who were killed in the Virginian massacre followed by a fifteen minute period of silence before the group moved back to the villages. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said "where there is an injustice somewhere ... there is an injustice everywhere." This also means that where there is violence somewhere there is violence everywhere... We need to work for peace somewhere so that peace can also spread every where. -- Archived with permission of author. Original source: http://samiawad.wordpress.com/2007/04/20/
This is a panoramic picture taken the day of the Community Vigil/Picnic on the Drill Field just after the vendors had setup and food was served. Chief Wendell Flinchum is in the foreground with his back turned and was met enthusiastically by the students and visitors.
Employees at the Virginia Department of Transportation preparing for a moment of silence. VT Graduate Mike Branham speaking.
Although I have not finished with music that I feel is worthy yet, I wanted to share the words with our VT families. My prayers are with all of the families. Lee Stephens - Christiansburg Deep Blue Ridge Rain Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains, lies a beautiful place I know Yes deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains, it's the place I now call home But today I am in great pain, as the world looks here to mourn A most hateful thing among us, taking with it those so young Blue Ridge Rain, the reflection of the pain As the mountains cry Tears flowing, hearts broken, Virginia's proud remain We have lost our innocence but certainly not our pride Those that are not a Hokie, you have to be one tonight Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains, people smile and say hello They are always wanting to help you, real people, you know Yes deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains, so far from the world's strife But the world came crashing in today, violent, destroying life Blue Ridge Rain, the reflection of the pain As the mountains cry Tears flowing, hearts broken, Virginia's proud remain We have lost our innocence but certainly not our pride Those that are not a Hokie, you have to be one tonight Yes deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the pain is running high No one understands it; no one can, though you try But high on the mountain tops where strength abounds Blue Ridge Mountains rock hard people will Rebuild the aura and town Blue Ridge Rain, the reflection of the pain As the mountains cry Tears flowing, hearts broken, Virginia's proud remain We have lost our innocence but certainly not our pride Those that are not a Hokie, you have to be one tonight.
The Morning News - Personal Essays It stunned the nation that the Virginia Tech murders took place; it shocked Virginians that they occurred in Blacksburg. A former longtime resident, BENJAMIN COHEN traces his connections to the tragedy. -- I drove home from Charlottesville in confused panic after cancelling my afternoon class. Noah Adams was on NPR talking about the stark clash of nature and humans, setting and event. It was the visual, sensory contrast between Blacksburg, the bucolic valley town in southwestern Virginia, and mass murder news story. That this human tragedy could happen there, in that natural majesty. From all the 11 scattered years I lived there, before moving to the University of Virginia last year, the bucolic descriptor is one that sticks. It’s exaggerated, I know, but it works. And it’s the one the media evoked all week: Blacksburg, a quaint, off-the-beaten-track bucolic college town nestled in the mountains of southwest Virginia. Being “nestled” also seems key, the town cradled by the mountains, the students by the valley. I walked that nestled town too many times to count, and ever after have the image of my son cruising down Draper Road sidewalks wearing his red Keds and pushing his toy lawnmower. Adams apparently had written about the New River a few years ago—a river paradoxically named, since it’s in fact one of the oldest in North America, if not the world—and thus knew the area. He was speaking in the first phase of tragedy, when people confront the fact that senseless things don’t make sense. This was before the pre-spin spin phase, when people talk about what people will soon be talking about: too many guns, not enough guns, no Bibles in schools, too much God in schools, moral decay, media glorification, video games, actual worldwide wars, daily death in Iraq, numbness, surveillance cameras will save us, mental illness is awful, failure of health-care system, campus judicial systems, parents, society, it’s “society’s” fault, and however else Nancy and Greta might try to understand it. After 9/11, they gave us, what, a three- to four-day opening phase? The duration is apparently proportional to death count; this time it lasted three to four hours. I didn’t know any of the victims, but everyone I know knew one or more. From this, I found there is only one direction with things like violent tragedy: It isn’t that I was fortunate not to know any of them directly, but that it was unfortunate so many did; you can’t feel better, you only feel worse or more worse. I went to Virginia Tech because its application didn’t require an essay. When I graduated, I had no idea why I’d chosen my major (chemical engineering), and I wasn’t even particularly fond of the school itself. But Blacksburg was significant to me. In this way, I have always been critical of an institution that has also come to define me; I placed the natural setting of Blacksburg as one thing, the human institution of Tech as another, as if they were separate, which they are not. So yes, I finally admit it, my adult identity was born there. There’s that. My biography’s tightly intertwined with the town, the valley, the school. I met my wife there. She had been a freshman in West Ambler Johnston Hall. Three months after graduation, we got married in the chapel on the Drill Field at the center of campus. I played wiffle ball out there all afternoon on my wedding day, getting a slight sunburn in the calm afternoon sun. The sunburn shows in the wedding pictures. The Drill Field is that seemingly fabricated collegiate setting, the only one admissions folks want you to see—frisbees, wiffle ball, rugby, picnics, sunbathers, dogs and tennis balls, kites. It’s also a good place to hold candle-light vigils. If anything, Blacksburg was known in the mid-’90s because of the Blacksburg Electronic Village. (It was the first “wired” town. Soon, obviously, everyplace was a wired town, so I guess it didn’t really matter anymore.) Yes, Axl Rose supposedly once stopped by The Cellar after a concert in nearby Roanoke, but I never found out if that was really true. When we, my wife and I, came back for graduate school later in the decade—for something called “science studies,” something explicitly not engineering—Blacksburg had become a football school. Plus, one year Outside magazine said it was a great place to live. So much hiking; the Appalachian Trail close by; lots of mountain biking; did you know they filmed Dirty Dancing in a mountain retreat just miles away? Yes, everyone does; rolling hills; serene sunsets; a great vegetarian restaurant downtown; cows, horses, sheep, farms; tubing on the same New River that enchanted Noah Adams. One summer I lost a T-shirt in that river, and my keys and a shoe. It wasn’t until reading the New York Times last weekend—”Students Recount Desperate Minutes Inside Norris Hall”—that I remembered my classes had been in Norris Hall that summer. Once when my wife was an undergraduate, there was a peeping Tom incident at the dorms. It was unsettling. That such a thing could happen in that little town. By the time we returned for our graduate stint—living the next county over, a few mountains to the west, in fact, not even in town—Blacksburg was a football school, and there had been a shooting at a local bar, several stabbings, and other violent incidents downtown. This added to my ambivalence about the school and the town and my place there. I didn’t see how I was tied to the area in the way I do now. My graduate department was likely the most liberal-leaning one on the generally conservative campus. Our offices were in the middle of the ROTC quad. We’d be talking about ethics and technology and social structure and the military-industrial complex inside; they’d be doing roll call and formations and hut-hut-huts outside. In further contrast to this, a fellow graduate student friend was an activist organizer in town. Her friend, another grad student and probably the most visible and active of the activists, was murdered by yet another peace activist, an unstable married man who was having an affair with her. His subsequent suicide kept the motive unclear. Unsettling, in that case, is a disrespectful understatement. It was horrific. Our children were born in Blacksburg. We lived there for 11 of our first 15 post-high school years: adulthood, education, dating, marriage, education, jobs, family. So it’s not only my biography that is interlaced with the town and the school, but my children’s as well. During the third week of my first semester teaching, after a lecture about the U.S.’s history of involvement in the domestic affairs of other nations, I walked back to my office and was stopped along the way by a friend who said only that “they hit the towers, they hit the buildings.” I had no idea what that meant. Sitting on the front porch of our building, the one facing the ROTC quad, on an amazingly crisp, clear, solid blue-sky day, someone else was the first to quote Fargo—“And it’s such a beautiful day,” she said, in disbelief. In such a placid town, nestled in the mountains of Virginia, we watched New York and the Pentagon burn. All of this, three months before our son was born. We had a lot of those “what kind of world…” conversations, all set against the backdrop of bucolic Blacksburg. When we moved into Blacksburg for our last year of studies, as a way to be closer to campus and friends and to live by foot more than car, we walked the mile from our house to downtown many times a week. Then we were true Blacksburg residents, with all the trappings, including first-name greetings at the coffee shop and that vegetarian restaurant and the credit union and the bookstore and the Greek restaurant and the farmer’s market. Our son pushed his toy John Deere lawnmower in front of him every time we walked downtown. He became “that adorable kid,” the one with the lawnmower in the red Keds. At the coffee shop, I recognized, though didn’t personally know, all the regulars. The one we called Stay-at-Home Dad always seemed odd, and my wife didn’t think he was really a father for the first year. (He was; we eventually saw his children.) Weird-Kid-Who-Should-Probably-Have-a-Job was always there too, usually playing backgammon with Stay-at-Home Dad. Unfriendly-Hippie Couple saw us every day for years, never once saying hello. Scowling peaceniks always confused me. A year after we moved to Charlottesville in 2005 after all that time in Blacksburg, that weird kid at the coffee shop was arrested, then escaped from jail, killed two people, and caused a lockdown on the Virginia Tech campus on the very first day of the semester. We watched the news from afar, absolutely stunned, completely silent that this was actually in, as the now-well-worn moniker has it, bucolic Blacksburg. College kids were being interviewed on CNN, terrified that this was their greeting to their new world. I still work with colleagues from Blacksburg. I spoke to my doctoral adviser, himself in the history department at Tech, days before the massacre last week, and had heard there’d been bomb threats over the past month. That’s eerie. Because of my own biography there, I knew what others there were already going through before this happened—another adviser was dealing with her husband’s death last year; a classmate had a devastating miscarriage a little while back; another friend’s younger brother had unexpectedly died in February. And then, as I was leaving my second of three classes Monday afternoon, here at the University of Virginia, someone asked if I’d heard about Virginia Tech. Yes, I’m from there, I said, misunderstanding what she was asking me. I fast-walked to my office and saw all the news. After I called my wife, hurriedly cancelled class, found my car to drive home, heard Noah Adams on the radio, scolded myself for being irritated by trivialities like CBS’s calling it Virginia Tech “University”—after that, I got home to find my family in the yard, the kids wanting to take a walk around the block. Though he hadn’t given it a second look for several years, my son grabbed his old toy lawnmower from the shed. Then my daughter got her baby stroller, and we walked around our peaceful violent American society. -Published April 24, 2007 Benjamin Cohen is an assistant professor of science, technology, and society at the University of Virginia. He also helps out at the McSweeney's web site. You can email him here. -- Archived with permission of the author. Original source: http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/personal_essays/blacksburg_and_biography.php
Did that really happen that April spring day? When 32 lives in an instant were swept away? That terrible day: 32 lives lost, ended too soon; The day Heaven was draped in orange and maroon. Blacksburg's winds that day roared loud and sweeping - That was the tortured sound of God Himself weeping. That tragedy turned all of humanity into pallbearers: A heartbreak so painful, strangers became mourners. A nightmare too horrific for words, just grief; All of us clinging to our precious belief That hope will shield us from our worst fears; But for that day, that time, there were only tears. That day we hugged a loved one a little tighter And sought the hope to make our souls stronger; We learned you will never be alone, whatever you do, As long as there are people who care about you. We grieved together, all united with one noble heart; Whatever we could do, we wanted to do our part. If I could share my soul, my strength with another, I would, we all would, if only because he is my brother. Whoever we were, wherever our loyalties lay, The individual ceased to matter that gruesome day. One phrase brought the world closer together solemnly: "Today we are all Hokies!" we proclaimed proudly. Tragedies may shape us but they cannot define us, As long as we care for each other in times of distress. Some wounds may heal; some scars may last forever - Thirty-two gone but not forgotten: We will always remember. May 7, 2007
President Steger addresses Virginia Tech Review Panel
By Larry Hincker BLACKSBURG, Va., May 10, 2007 -- Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger addressed the Virginia Tech Review Panel here Thursday. These were his comments. Governor Kaine, Colonel Massengill, and members of the commission. Normally, I would address a commission by saying that I am happy to have the opportunity to appear before you. We know that is not true. Each of us appears here today with heavy heart, a most profound sense of sorrow...and yes, still to this day...disbelief. A terribly deranged young man....one of our own students...visited unimaginable horror upon our university, our bright young minds, our rising stars, and our caring and learned faculty. He took 32 precious lives and then his own. He wounded 25 more. In the process, he seriously injured an entire nation. As we have noted many times throughout this terrible ordeal, the families of those who lost their lives and the injured have remained our highest priority, followed by the needs of our greater university community. We will do everything possible to assist with their recovery. I have said time and again, that Virginia Tech, our commonwealth, all of higher education, and indeed, the world must learn from this tragedy. I personally asked the governor for your work. We have been and will continue to cooperate fully with your review and findings. I have appointed a lead individual, a retired university executive with experience in many sectors including audit, to assist you with your data gathering and be your liaison with any office on campus. Each one of us and each sector of our society that has been touched by this tragedy must welcome the inspection, introspection, and the scrutiny of a thorough analysis. In our own case we have underway after-action reviews, which can inform your data gathering. In addition to understanding the incidents, we will be looking at three broad areas: telecommunications infrastructure, the physical infrastructure as it relates to safety and security, and most importantly, the internal protocols for information exchange. I am particularly interested in those intersections between the academic enterprise, counseling, our disciplinary system, the legal system, and the police. Our preliminary schedule calls for those reviews to be complete by late August, which I understand is within your study time-frame to be of use to you. In addition to our incident response, I know that you will be looking at the broad spectrum of issues including policies, protocols, and the law. I have read and heard other university presidents and pundits say that this tragedy could have happened on any campus in America. We draw no solace from such observations. My hope is that we - and every campus throughout the nation - can learn in the months ahead what happened and why...to the extent that rational conclusions can be drawn from irrational violence. We will learn and the world will learn from this. There already is a vigorous national discourse underway on many issues - mental health, the interplay between the rights of individuals and the rights of societies and communities, the interaction between gun laws and privacy, campus security and the underlying physical infrastructure, and much more. We need to know how well our mental health system is performing. Is this country devoting the time, resources, and energy to helping those in need? We need to know if privacy laws can or should change so that school administrators, court officials, or the mental health profession itself, has the information it needs to treat and handle those with mental illnesses on college campuses. Certainly, you will bump into the nexus of individual rights and privacy laws versus the rights of a society, a community, or a university to protect itself against possible harm from the mentally ill...or anyone else, for that matter. We need to know if the university reacted in accordance with accepted procedure in its response to the murders within our residence hall. Our university police and rescue squad responded within three minutes of a report that someone fell from a bed within a residence hall. Within minutes thereafter, the police, then knowing of a gunshot fatality and injury, secured the residence hall, began investigating, and within one hour had a "person of interest." Your analysis of this and the terrible events following is of crucial importance. My campus has 19 miles of public roads on its 2,600 acres and 153 mostly accessible buildings. On any given day, we have about 35,000 people coming and going. How does an organization secure a university campus during an emergency? Or for that matter, what levels of security are appropriate for normal operations? We need to know about the preparedness - to the degree that any institution can prepare for horrible and irrational mass violence - of my university and other schools like ours for violence or other mass events that require an institutional response to protect the health, safety, and welfare of a campus community. We have multiple methods of emergency communications and have in the works implementation plans for more. We all need to know whether universities such as our can do more to protect and inform its populations and multiple audiences in emergencies. Tomorrow, Virginia Tech will celebrate its annual spring commencement. This is our time for celebration. Commencement, of course, means "the beginning." For our graduates, it is and will be the beginning of the next phases of their lives. We know that they will carry with them not only those treasured memories unique to the college experience, but also the searing memory of the tragic events of April 16. We owe it to them, we owe it to the injured, we owe it the families of the fallen... indeed, we owe it to all other schools and campuses in this country to examine all these issues in their totality....and find ways of preventing anything like this ever again. Contact Larry Hincker at hincker@vt.edu or (540) 231-5396. ##07265## -- Original Source: http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?relyear=2007&itemno=285
Grace Cathedral Memorial San Francisco Tuesday April 24 2007
During a service in remembrance of the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech, the Rt. Rev. Marc Handley Andrus spoke about how his time at the university. informed his understanding of God. Andrus and his wife Sheila attended graduate school at the Blacksburg, Virginia, campus. The noon service on Tuesday April 24 2007 at Grace Cathedral was attended by about 70 people, including 20 or so Virginia Tech alums.
The shooting at Virginia Tech is undeniably one of the worst tragedies American students have ever faced. Stories of heroism make their way out of the situation, but the media is focused on the death and destruction caused on the campus of Virginia Tech University. One thing, however, should give Virginia Tech students, and Americans throughout the country, something to be proud of. In the absence of professional newsmen, students took control of the media, showing an unprecedented ability to shape the coverage regarding their event. In the wake of the worst campus massacre ever in the United States, dozens of news organizations flocked to Virginia to cover the tragedy. Before they arrived, however, the mainstream media relied on reports from those already on the ground: the college students themselves. Armed with the video and still cameras on their mobile phones, dozens of students set out to create their own coverage of an incident that was very much their own. The first audio and video accounts of the incident aired by CNN came from iReport, their citizen journalism program. The video, shot on a Nokia smartphone, made its way around the networks, all courtsey of a Virginia Tech student named Jamal Albarghouti. Dozens of similar stories are to be told. In the hours preceding the arrival of professional reporters, Virginia Tech students had, unfortunately, the opportunity to shape the world’s news. Their coverage helped to show the world how terrible the massacre was and helped to qualm some fears about students that were safe. Twitter, a “stream of consciousness” blogging tool by Obvious Corp (utilized mostly by web celebrities such as Robert Scoble and Thomas Hawk), served constant updates to the internet, courtesy of a user named Tom Markiewicz. Chris Pirillo, a web celebrity in his own right, helped to stream live coverage with a tool called UStream.tv. His conversation with Planet Blacksburg, a new student-run publication from Virginia Tech, captured nationwide attention as sections were aired on various evening news programs. What most surprised me, however, was the caliber and tenacity of the coverage coming from the students themselves at Virginia Tech. Via the aforementioned Planet Blackburg, they helped to broadcast news of the tragedy throughout the world, becoming the go-to site for immediate updates. The Web2.0 movement, which many experts see as a bubble ready to burst, finally showcased its effectiveness yesterday. YouTube has showed its staying power by drawing users in to watch videos on their website. The entire citizen journalism movement, however, displayed its prominence yesterday with the Virginia Tech shooting. Never, in years past, would internet surfers be granted the same hard-hitting coverage as Planet Blacksburg provided yesterday. In this day and age, everyone is a reporter. Yesterday, as CNN broadcast video from a student’s cellphone video, and as Planet Blacksburg updated faster than the almighty network news, it became apparent. The “new media” is here to stay, and, from the looks of it, it’s ready to provide better coverage than had ever been imagined. The shooting at Virginia Tech has caused incredible sadness and grief. It has, however, caused something else: the birth of a new generation of reporters. News of the incident continues to stun the staff here at New School Politics. In the coming days, we’ll be doing everything we can to help, but for the moment, the best we can do is to give our condolences to those involved in the tragedy at Virginia Tech. On April 30th, we’ll be participating in One Day Blog Silence, a day of quiet on the blogosphere dedicated to the memory of those who lost their lives in this terrible tragedy. Date : 19 April 2007 Categories : Liberal Content, media, culture, education, tragedy, web2.0, Virginia Tech -- Originally posted by Zach Sims on the New School Politics blog: http://www.newschoolpolitics.com/liberal-content/out-of-darkness-comes-light/ Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Virginia Tech Massacre: Crucial Next Steps
4.16.2007 Horror is the natural first reaction. It is hard to get beyond tumultuous emotions given the stories, scenes, and sheer numbers coming out of the massacre today at Virginia Tech. The facebook has emerged from a period as a nascent form of disaster-response, as seen often enough with individual students deaths, to a full-blown mechanism for channeling overwhelming public grief. But moving rapidly beyond initial reaction is of paramount importance. Thinking clearly about the response to the incident is essential. Even as President Bush encouraged prayer today, he should have done something even more important - encouraged preparation. The grim prospect of copy-cat actions should be a very real concern for colleges and students nationwide, especially given the magnitude of the massacre and its proximity to the anniversary of the Columbine shooting and Hitler's birthday, among other things. As with Columbine, the unavoidable deluge of media and informal attention paid to the perpetrator will no doubt serve as a regrettable temptation to some. How can individual students possibly prepare? How will university administrations respond and prepare? These are questions that need to be moved swiftly to the front burner of public discussion. As someone who recently departed campus and may soon be returning to that environment, I think students should demand a proactive response from administrators even as they insist on retaining the personal liberties critical to a meaningful academic environment. The report that Virginia Tech students and staff did not receive e-mail notification of the incident until 2 hours after the first shots were fired is absolutely chilling. Eerily, it seems nearly impossible to fully prevent events like the one at Virginia Tech from happening without repressing student life beyond recognition. But some measures, at least in the areas of communication, can be taken. For starters, here are some possible proactive measures I can think of: 1. A sort of mobile phone-based Amber-type general Alert - Students could voluntarily sign up for a robocall (ironic, yes) alert to their cell phones that emergency services or the administration could send out upon receiving word of a campus shooting situation. The list would be used for no other purpose than such an alert. The same could be done with AIM addresses for a similar alert. Such a scheme would admittedly have the potential of having copycat problems of its own. 2. A specific pattern on tornado sirens or the lighthouse horn - As suggested in part by Erik Opsal on his blog, this would stand to get a general message across quickly. A specific distinct pattern of sounds (if possible) for a shooting situation could be conveyed to the student populace beforehand. 3. Chancellor's Blog - The chancellor should have a simple blog as a central resource wall for students and staff to turn to to get the most comprehensive and official news in the event of a crisis. Really, I am deeply saddened. The heinous actions of one domestic terrorist have ended the lives of 33 people - and stand to irreversibly alter the American higher educational experience for the worse. The lack of clear ways to prevent similar situations makes me almost physically ill. But forcing ourselves beyond the shock in short order is key. Moving forward, students on campus need to walk the unenviable tightrope of being wary of both unhealthy paranoia and potential copy-cat actors. I am thinking about a lot of friends out there on campuses. Sleeping in the dorms tonight will be tough. Going to class tomorrow will no doubt be difficult. So as you join facebook groups to grieve, join one - or start one - dedicated to putting forward pragmatic suggestions for dealing with the Virginia Tech incident in a concrete way on the UW campus and other campuses out there. It's a crucial next step. UPDATE: Liveblog of the days events from Bryce, a Virginia Tech student. Via Technorati. posted by Brad V at 5:42 PM -- Originally posted on April 16, 2007 by Brad Vogel on Letters in Bottles blog: http://lettersinbottles.blogspot.com/2007/04/virginia-tech-massacre-crucial-next.html Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
In honor of Virgina Tech University, Niagara Falls lit both the American Falls and Canadian Horseshoe Falls on 4-22-07 with their school colors of orange and burgandy, in remembrance of those who lost their lives. This was a joint effort on both the American and Canadian side of the Falls. This is the American Falls, taken from the Canadian side facing the USA. Our hearts and prayers are with the families and friends of those who lost their lives.
Article written for the DMAC, Motion Matters Newsletter, April Edition: On Monday, April 16, 2007, a sanctuary of learning was violated in Blacksburg, Virginia. As a Virginia Tech Alumni, father of a VT student, husband to a VT faculty member, and avid supporter of the Marching Virginians - this tragedy really hit home. I have spent most of my last 30 years involved in the Virginia Tech community in many ways. As I attended the convocation, sitting in the club boxes at the stadium because the coliseum was filled, I felt a connection to everyone in that room, on that field, and in the coliseum like I never felt before. The expressions of grief and sorrow expressed by Governor Kaine and President Bush were eloquent, sincere and uplifting. To watch all of this unfold, the outpouring of love and support showed how resilient and strong this community is. But even more so - it showed all of the world, the value and strength and resiliency of a community of people, united in a quest to improve their lives through knowledge. The love and caring that shined bright in Blacksburg on the day after the explosion of a troubled mans mind was rewarded back with an outpouring of love in unimaginable ways by a world that truly does recognize goodness. Everyone can hang on to that Hope that leads us to the next hour, next day, to move forward with God's help. On Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - everyone found out what a real Hokie is, and became one...... ..... We are Virginia Tech! Let's Go Hokie's..... Let's Go Hokie's..... Let's Go Hokie's
Submitted by boldfaith3 on Wed, 04/25/2007 - 11:29pm. Let me start by saying I am a student at Virginia Tech on my way to a degree in mechanical engineering. I have not been on this site in a while due mainly to the events last week which I am sure most of you have heard about. In light of the tragedy we have been forced to undergo, I have a lot to say. Let me first start with my story. On April 16, 2007 I slept through my 8am engineering lecture. This is something I try not to make a habit of, but with this class it has happened quite a few times. I woke up somewhere around 9:30 when my fiance called me and told me she was coming over. This was unusual since she normally has class at this time. That was when she told me that they had closed down all of the campus buildings. My first thought on this was that there was another bomb threat (We had two bomb threats in one of our buildings the week before). That was when she told me that there had been a shooting in West Ambler Johnston, a residential building where I lead a small group Bible study for Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. I was fairly shocked at this. I have heard about school shootings at colleges before but there is rarely ever a crime of that magnitude at Virginia Tech. We have had a small number of sexual assaults and one student was killed last year I believe, but it is rare enough that it still comes as a shock. Moving on, my fiance came over and we proceeded to check e-mails and the news to try to figure out what was going on. This is also when we called our parents to let them know we were safe (mine actually called me first). As we were talking to our parents, they asked about something that came on the news saying that there were some 22 students killed. This was entirely unbelievable and confusing. I could only think that my parents were looking at something wrong because there was no way that 22 students had been killed when I had originally heard that one student was shot in a residential building. All this time we had been recieving e-mails about lockdowns and telling us to stay where we were. During this confusion the number of sirens that screamed past my apartment brought a painstaking realization that this was real and all I could think of was something went really wrong. That's when other people started spreading news around and all the facts began to unravel. By the time we had our information all sorted out, we were horrified to realize that 33 students had been killed, 31 of them (including the shooter) during classes in Norris hall, an engineering building. The first thing I want to say about this event is that it was deeply disturbing and I am still horrified that something like this has happened so close to home. My deepest sympathies go out to any of the families and friends of our hokie family who were involved in this tragic event. I have been praying for you all that God will show you his comfort and healing power through your grief. I did not know anyone involved personally though I have many friends who did and I know a few people who should have been involved. One of my roomates also slept through a class that morning after being up all night to do work. His class was in one of the rooms in Norris Hall that was attacked. One of my small group members who lives in WAJ lost her roomate. I have realized through this tragedy, the importance of those people around me and the relationships I have which so often suffer for the sake of homework assignments. I believe that many of us have felt the impact of this as we realize how many of our friends and teachers we forget to express our gratitude and appreciation for as we struggle to meet deadlines. If there is one thing I have learned from this it is that people will ALWAYS come first. In the week following this tragedy I have broken down in tears more times than I can remember. I think about the people around me that I could have lost and then I think about the pain that those people are going through who did lose their dear friends and family. The pain that I went through was difficult but I cannot begin to imagine the pain of friends and family. I can only offer again my deepest sympathies. If anyone should need someone to listen, please don't hesitate to do what you can to express your grief which I would not expect to be anything less than inexpressible. All that being said, I will say this: Virginia Tech will not be remembered for this tragedy. We are a community like no other I have ever experienced, and that is what we will be remembered for. We are hokies. We will not allow this school to become synonomous with tragedy and sorrow, but with coming together and rebuilding. I have never been more proud to be a hokie. The support that has come together from this school has been incredible. Students coming together to embrace others that they don't even know in a simple gesture of understanding and common grief. We are grieving as a body and we are moving forward as a body. This is a community where teachers are encouraging students to grow and continue to move forward and to prove that we can get through this together. A community where students are encouraging teachers and giving them strength to keep going when many of them are simply unable to continue teaching. This is a community that defines the very term community and says that we are here to help each other. I have never been more proud to be a hokie. Along these lines, we also fall behind President Steger. This is our President, a hokie. I have grown tired and disgusted at the attacks on how this situation was handled. Campus was locked down after the first shooting. Yes, campus was reopened. Under the shield of safety we have all learned to live at ease, with no fear of any kind of danger, let alone a danger of this magnitude. There are certainly more precautions taken at night with regards to walking alone or letting our friends walk home alone, but for the most part we have all felt entirely safe. It is a perfectly natural response then after being told that the shooting was a domestic issue to believe that there was no harm to any other students. The first shooting was initially believed to be caused by someone who was angry with their girlfriend. The decision to send students back to classes may not have been the most cautious decision, but it was certainly reasonable under the conditions and I find it highly unlikely that anyone else would have done differently. The terrible tragedy following could not have been forseen by anyone. That being said, there are arguments that Cho (the shooter) should have been taken out of school. He was a loner type of student who had been believed to have issues before with anger and also looked into for stalking a number of women. Let's start with this, He was taken out of his classes and taught one on one by his english professor who believed he had psychological issues. He was also sent to counselling which he did not continue to go to for very long. You can't force a 22 year old student to go to counselling. His writings were disturbing and somewhat violent but there was no apparant threat of danger to anyone other than himself. He had not told anyone, as far as we know, of any thoughts that could have indicated his later actions. This was certainly a troubled kid and the university did try to get help for him. It bothers me that people think now that their first thought was that it was him. Yes this may have been true, but looking back we can always make guesses as to who we think may have done something based on their personality. That doesn't mean that it is always true and doesn't mean that it could have been anticipated. Couselling and Corrective measures were taken and though they were obviously not enough, this could not have been forseen. We want to lay off on the blame and have people realize that we are here for each other. This is our community and we will not allow it to be torn apart with blame and guilt. I will say once more that through this tragedy I have realized the importance of life and those people that share it with us. This was a tragic and horrifying event that hit entirely too close to home but unfortunately there are similar events that happen all over the world constantly. Just after this hit the news there were tickers showing hundreds killed by bombings in Iraq. We don't want this to be a juice story. We don't want our suffering to become exciting headlines. This is a terrible thing that we are grieving over and we offer each other all the help we can. We remember the things that have happened and come together to move forward. But we also want to remember the suffering and pain that is occuring accross the globe. As Americans, especially on the Virginia Tech campus, we don't expect tragedy of this magnitude, but many other places do and for that reason it is ignored. We no longer want to ignore that suffering that is constantly occuring around the world but to bring all of this tragedy into the light all at once so we can all move forward and bring this world to a better place where the media is no longer captivated by bloody headlines. We want to see the change in this world and see the inspiration of so many people who work to make that change. We are hokies. This is our community. We will not be defined as a headline but as a hopeline If you would like to give money to support the families and the healing process of those here at Tech please visit this site to do so: http://www.vt.edu/tragedy/memorial_fund.php God bless you all and may His grace embrace us all giving us comfort and protection. For these three remain: Faith, Hope and Love. But the greatest of these is Love. 1 Corinthians 13:13 Original Source: http://www.progressiveu.org/022902-virginia-tech-in-light-of-tragedy Creative Commons License: Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0
Thursday, April 19, 2007 College is supposed to be an overall positive experience. You're finally getting to sort everything out in terms of what you want to do in life, where you're headed and learning and growing as a young adult while having some fun in the process. For many peeps it's the first time you get to step out, live away from home and get your first taste of adulthood. It's the last time in your life when the only responsibilities you have are to get up, go to class and study your butt off unless you also have a job you're juggling to help pay your tuition. I guess it's why I enjoy walking around on various college campuses when I do follow Dawn to various fencing tournaments. It takes me back to my own college days in that respect. It's hard for me to imagine what it would have been like to have that peace of mind shattered by a gunman suddenly popping up in one of my classes, firing shots at me and my classmates, then to discover a day or so later that he was a classsmate that peeps had been seeing disturbing behavior patterns about for two years leading up to that horrific incident. Even the folks who weren't in those Norris Hall classrooms that morning are haunted by 'That could have been me' thoughts. I can only imagine what was going through people's minds as their buildings were on lockdown wondering if the incident was over of if their building was next on the shooter's target list. What about the peeps who for some reason decided not to go to class that morning? I know they feel just as hurt as the gun shop owner who sold Cho the weapons he used. How would I feel about that? How do you put that behind you and move on with llfe, if you ever do? It's also tough at that age to lose a classmate because up until you get past your college years and your ten-year high school reunion you have this false feeling of immortality. You walk around in your late teens and 20's with this attitude that you have plenty of time to accomplish the things you want to do or get your life together. There are 32 people that have been tragically taken from us including Cho. But to the Virginia Tech students who may be reading this blog, life does go on. In 1966 The University of Texas suffered a similar tragedy. It took a while but people eventually forgot until Monday that a deadly shooting occurred on its campus. It brought back the flood of memories in Austin and on the UT campus of what Charles Whitman had done almost 41 years earlier. It was interesting to read Nikki Giovanni's account of her 2005 encounter with Cho in her writing class she was teaching at Virginia Tech. I think what needs to happen in the wake of this tragedy is to strenghten the ability of college professors and administrators to compel folks with disturbing behavior patterns to undergo counseling once its verified. Would that have prevented the shooting? That's a debatable question. As far as the gun issue I'm going to deal with that another time. In this post I want to continue focusing on the 32 people we lost, the folks at Virginia Tech and their families who are grieving and trying to make sense out of an irrational situation. We will never know what types of contributions those fallen people would have made to our society and others around the world. We can only guess about that as we mourn them, memorialize them and sadly have to move on. Posted by Monica Roberts at 1:39 AM Originally posted on TransGriot blog: http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2007/04/virginia-tech-tragedy.html Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 License.
Virginia Tech Tragedy: Human Nature & Networks
By Aaron Mannes While the Virginia Tech tragedy has spawned the predictable media frenzy, there has - so far - been an admirable lack of speculation about the killer, his motives, or what this event says about American society. Leftist philosopher Herbert Marcuse once observed, "Not every problem someone has with his girlfriend is necessarily due to the capitalist mode of production." Humans are complicated and there are dark places in the human soul that will emerge. Sometimes ideologies and causes will spark these evil inclinations. But they exist and have emerged in every time and place. Knowing that tragedies are part of the human experience - whether from natural or man-made causes - it is essential to take proper steps to ameliorate their impact. Dwight Eisenhower once observed, "Plans are nothing; planning is everything." Predicting the exact shape of the next tragedy is rarely possible. But the processes of preparing for some kinds of disasters and attacks will help develop the systems and habits necessary to respond to whatever fate throws. Lives were saved on 9/11 because some WTC tenants had consistently practiced evacuation techniques in the wake of the 1993 bombing. University Presidents are akin to mayors. Universities are attractive targets and favorable locations for a variety of adverse events (violent attacks, disease outbreaks, criminal activity, and mass disturbances.) Undoubtedly yesterday's tragedy will increase interest in disaster planning at universities. One factor that should become central to planning is the ubiquity of mobile communications technology. Students texted each other to stay abreast of events and of course, there is the now famous celphone video. Properly harnessed this technology could have been an invaluable resource - not only for informing the students and public about evolving events - but for helping authorities locate the injured and track the killer's movements. This is the age of the network, and the ability of people to quickly form networks and exchange information is an integral part of disaster response and mitigation. In the wake of Katrina, evacuees formed online communities to support each other emotionally and also through practical measures. We have seen the bad guys (terrorists and criminals) and commercial interests make creative use of communications technology to organize internally and get their message out externally. There is no reason the good guys can't do the same. April 17, 2007 11:08 AM Original Source: Counterterrorism Blog http://counterterrorismblog.org/2007/04/virginia_tech_tragedy_human_na.php Creative Commons License: Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5
Student Use of Technology During Virginia Tech Tragedy
Posted Friday, April 20, 2007 by Eric Schnell on The Medium is the Message (Blog) As the Virginia Tech tragedy unfolded students used a familiar the technology to keep connected with the events, friends, and families: Facebook. Using laptops and wireless connections, students created new Facebook groups on the fly as the day unfolded. Thousands of people joined a group called "I'm ok at VT," which was used by students to announce that they were safe, ask for details about friends unaccounted for, and to report the names of victims. Other groups such as "VT Unite" were also created and thousands of people world wide not associated with VT joined them. The use of this social networking site to publish and discover information and report personal experiences was a natural since it is what today's students use to gather online. Facebook provided immediate and quickly-updated information. As I watched the quality of the footage released much it was obviously generated by camera phones. In my Technology Trends for 2007 post I described the emergence of a concept called Mobcasting, a phenomenon where event observers capture events on their video phones and podcast the footage on a blog. I described how the the resulting aggregation of content will lead to live event coverage by bloggers that is more in depth than can be captured by mainstream media. This tragedy demonstrated of power and potential of this concept. Unfortunately, there was dubious information also being created. There has already been media debate about the accuracy of the information that was contained on these sites. Of course, traditional media outlets have processes they use to vet information before it is released. While this verification of information takes time it is not flawless (Dan Rather, Jayson Blair). The trade off is that is one wants to have information faster it may not be as dependable or reliable. Still, I think there's a great potential for the ability to connect individuals that are there on-the-ground during events as they unfold and using blogs, RSS feeds, and Facebook as tool for publishing their personal experiences. While some can argue the result may not be as accurate as mainstream media, the coverage is significantly more complete. Original Source: http://ericschnell.blogspot.com/2007/04/student-use-of-technology-during.html This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 2.5 License.
Photo taken in front of Burruss Hall of the entrance to Norris Hall. I wanted to create an image that showed the beauty and life of the campus in the foreground, with the tragic events in the background. Most students feel safe, alive, and happy here, and I hope this image conveys that feeling. We will prevail. We will prevail. We will prevail. We are VIRGINIA TECH.