College visit turns into close call with shooting
description: By Paul Gately GateHouse Media Wed Apr 18, 2007, 11:55 AM EDT BOURNE - A Cataumet mother and daughter found themselves in the building adjacent to where a 23-year-old student went on a shooting rampage on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va. Monday. Ellen Mattingly Driscoll of Cataumet and her daughter Marianna, a Bishop Stang High School student, were on the Virginia Tech campus checking in with the admissions office prior to touring the campus. Mother and daughter were unaware of the first shootings earlier in the morning. "It was business as usual on campus until the second shooting began even after the first had occurred," Ellen Driscoll said. "Surprisingly there wasn't a big police presence after the first shooting." "We were in admissions when we started hearing popping," she said. "We didn't think too much of it. A woman leading the tour, who was trying to sell the campus to parents, finally said: 'Oh, there's someone out there with a weapon.' We didn't think about what might be happening. But within minutes we heard volleys of shots. There were two loud volleys. Then there was lots of screaming. Then shouts of 'get out!'" The Driscolls were moved to the center of the admissions building where there were no windows. They were not allowed to leave until noon. Ellen Driscoll said VT is "a lovely campus and truly beautiful school," but she said her thoughts about the college were decidedly different while heading to her car at noon than they were earlier in the morning when she and her daughter had crossed the drill field for what was expected to be a routine admissions briefing and tour. -- Original Source: The Upper Cape Codder http://www.townonline.com/bourne/homepage/x1849893534 Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5.
creator: Paul Gately / GateHouse Media
date: 2007-06-01
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5
language: eng

The killer of room 2121
description: It was 7am on Monday. Another week was starting at Virginia Tech. Then the first shots rang out. Within hours, 32 people lay dead and America was left trying to make sense of the carnage. Paul Harris reports from Blacksburg. Sunday April 22, 2007 The Observer A group of Amish men, all in black, shuffled towards the chapel at one end of the enormous sports field that dominates the centre of Virginia Tech's campus. They had come to pay their respects after a tragedy they knew all too well. It was only last year that a killer struck their community, shooting dead five young girls in a tiny Amish school. Now they had driven many long hours from their Pennsylvania farms to southern Virginia, to offer solace to another American community devastated by a mass killing. They spoke in hushed tones to the Reverend Kelly Sisson, one of the pastors of Glade Church in Blacksburg. Then they entered the comforting dark interior to pray and to mourn the dead of Virginia Tech. 'They understand what has happened to us in a way few others do,' Sisson said. Everyone is trying to understand what happened at Blacksburg last week. Impromptu memorials have sprung up on the sports field, covering the grass in flickering candles, pictures of the dead, and flowers. Students, friends and family have written messages, sad, desperate, noble. They speak of loss and love. They vow to remember lives brutally cut short on what should have been just another Monday morning. But, although there was nothing ordinary about last Monday, there was a dreadful familiarity to it. Cho Seung-hui's bloody rampage cost the lives of 32 of his fellow students and staff. It was the worst mass shooting in American history, but far from the only one. There is almost a ritual to such attacks: the fleeing students, the wailing sirens, the mourning survivors, the suicide of the gunman - Cho shot himself in the face. Columbine, the Amish school, Virginia Tech, all are now names that haunt the popular imagination. Yet no on…
creator: Paul Harris
date: 2007-08-13
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

Memorials at the Chapel
description: A teddy bear and an angel are placed outside the War Memorial Chapel. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paultrumble/468803318/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical 2.0
creator: Paul Trum
date: 2007-05-29
contributor: Chad Newswander
rights: Paul Trum http://www.flickr.com/photos/paultrumble/468803318/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical 2.0
language: eng

Media Warning
description: These warnings are posted everywhere on campus buildings to ward off the media from attending class when the students returned. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paultrumble/468776222/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical 2.0
creator: Paul Trum
date: 2007-05-29
contributor: Chad Newswander
rights: Paul Trum http://www.flickr.com/photos/paultrumble/468776222/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical 2.0
language: eng

Message Boards Texas Tech
description: Students from the law school at Texas Tech University sent a signed message board to Virginia Tech to express their support and condolences. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paultrumble/468762863/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical 2.0
creator: Paul Trumble
date: 2007-06-11
contributor: Chad Newswander
rights: Permission: Paul Trumble http://www.flickr.com/photos/paultrumble/468762863/
language: eng

Memorials at the Chapel
description: Flowers are laid at the War Memorial Chapel to mourn the victims. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paultrumble/468810625/in/set-72157600109935601/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical 2.0
creator: Paul Trumble
date: 2007-06-11
contributor: Chad Newswander
rights: Permission: Paul Trumble http://www.flickr.com/photos/paultrumble/468810625/in/set-72157600109935601/
language: eng

Memorials at Norris Hall
description: Items are laid outside of Norris Hall in remembrance. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paultrumble/468800615/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical 2.0
creator: Paul Trumble
date: 2007-06-11
contributor: Chad Newswander
rights: Permission: Paul Trumble http://www.flickr.com/photos/paultrumble/468800615/
language: eng

Where do we go now?
description: Sometimes I can be really eloquent. Giving a toast at a wedding, a briefing at work; I can really hit the post. I've been wanting to write about how I feel here for two days. But I haven't, stopped by disbelief, the taxes I couldn't bring myself to finish on Monday, and the belief that I wouldn't adequately be able to put together words to explain what Blacksburg and Tech have meant to me. That picture, http://farm1.static.flickr.com/5/6929893_3276db6dfb_m.jpg, is of a couple of my old room mates Jeff (in glasses) and Donnie tailgating at the Tech - USC game in August of 2004. I graduated from Virginia Tech in 1986, with a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies. 20 plus years later, we are still close friends. Probably closer than we were in school. We vacation together, are godparents to each others kids, and watch football obviously. Blacksburg is a special place. When you're there, you might not realize how special. It's beautiful, peaceful and even knows how to have a good time. I have idyllic (and therefore heavily filtered) memories of my time at school. I think that's why all of my old room mates and I are still such good friends. When you leave Blacksburg, you realize that the real world isn't so beatiful, isn't so peaceful, isn't so special. And you reach out and hold on to whatever can give you a little of that Blacksburg feeling again. After 20 years you'll still see most of the alumni I know dressed pretty much like the kids you've been watching on TV this week. Virginia Tech Sweatshirts and Hats are ubiguitous. Returning to Blacksburg, was to drink in that atmosphere, to rejuvenate the energy that the real world has sapped from you. Coming around the 460 bypass and seeing the mountains rise up beyond campus elated me. A burger at Mike's, a pitcher at Hokie House, a walk across campus returned me to the man of my youth. And now that bastard has let so much of the real world into Blacksburg, where it doesn't belong and isn't welcome. It's amazing the l…
creator: Paul Trumble
date: 2007-08-19
contributor: Paul Trumble
language: eng

Chinese woman cited for rescuing US campus students
description: A Chinese woman assistant professor, or rather a doctoral student at the college of engineering at Virginia Tech, has shed a light onto the campus shooting rampage on April 16, which claimed a toll of 33 lives (including that of the gunman himself). In the past two days, a wise Chinese middle-age lady has been featured in American media, and her name is Haiyan Cheng, who, calm and composed, rescued the lives of students in her class at an extremely precarious situation. When her story was released and publicized, many Americans admired her courage from their bottom of hearts, "Really great, the Chinese." April 16 was a murky day at Virginia Tech when Seung-hui Cho, a young South Korean student, drenched the university compass in bloodbath. In Classroom 206, when students of civil engineering were having their lesson, their professor fell in blood. In Room 207, a German lesson was in session, 10 of a dozen students were shot and killed, in Room 211, a French lesson was in session, there were about 15 casualties out of the 20 students at the class and their professor was massacred ï¿½ï¿½ Meanwhile, in Room 205, the whole class still retained intact as Haiyan Cheng, the assistant professior, was filling in for the professor, who was away at a conference. Cheng, now in her late 30s and the mother of one daughter, came to the United States from the city of Hohhot, northern China in 1998. She obtained a Master's degree in Applied Mathematics from Michigan Technological University and a Master's degree in Computer Science from the University of Windsor, Canada. She is now working on her PH.D at the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech and concurrently serves as an assistant professor. Cheng arrived at the campus oft Virginia Tech earlier as usual that day (April 16). Her class started at nine o"clock sharp am and went into her office to at 8:50 am to check her emails. When she went into her class at about 9 am, an unexpected tragedy occurred all of sudden shortly …
creator: PD reporter Duan Congcong and PD special report to the UN Headquarters Hou Lingyu
date: 2007-07-18
contributor: Na Mi
language: eng

On "terror"
description: Many Americans have once again been plunged into terror since a gunman massacred 32 people at Virginia Tech in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern US history, and a string of endless media reports, the gunman's cruel, merciless confessions and blood shed by 32 victims have further increased the fear of Americans. First of all, it is the fear of guns. As some American resolutely defend or safeguard their rights to own or possess guns conferred by the US constitution, other Americans cannot but have to live in a gloomy shadow at gun points. At present, 35 percent of the American families own their guns, with the existence of some 260 million guns (of which perhaps 60 million are handguns) in the United States. For scores of years, political rifts, rivals and even struggles centered on gun control have never ceased with the repeated occurrence of homicides or murder cases. As the National Rifle Association, or NRA, and other related organizations are so powerful that it was hardly possible for US Congress to pass a bill for the rigid control of guns. Secondly, it is the fear of people and, to be specific, the fear of alien immigrants. Right after the massacre at Virginia Tech, someone immediately came out to direct accusations against a student from the Chinese mainland in press and there was also a reference to a Pakistani. And all sorts of such conjectures and suspicions of Asian immigrants inundated all of sudden overnight in US media and society. Police identified the shooter in the campus killings as Cho Seung-Hui, 23, a senior from South Korea who was in the English Department at Virginia Tech and lived on the campus. Then, the ambassador of the Republic of Korea (ROK) to the United States and ROK immigrant groups or societies openly and promptly made their apologies to the American people, and the ROK itself was, too, landed itself in a state of immense restlessness. Apparently, the South Korean immigrants in the U.S. and ROK residents have also felt terrif…
creator: People's Daily Online, China
date: 2007-07-18
contributor: Na Mi
language: eng

EEUU endurece sus leyes sobre armas tras la matanza de Virginia Tech
description: Creado por Periodista Digital 14.06.07 El asesinato de 32 personas por un estudiante desequilibrado el pasado mes de abril en la Universidad Politécnica de Virginia, en Estados Unidos, ha propiciado que por primera vez en 10 años el sacrosanto derecho a portar armas que impera en el país vaya a ser matizado con un control más estricto en los puntos de venta y del historial (psiquiátrico y delictivo) de los compradores. La nueva ley ha sido propuesta por la ultraconservadora Asociación Nacional del Rifle (NRA, en sus siglas inglesas) y aprobada por aclamación ayer en la Cámara de Representantes. Ahora espera el trámite final en el Senado. "Tal y como nos recordó el tiroteo de Virginia Tech, existe una urgente necesidad nacional de mejorar el sistema de antecedentes" para controlar a quién llegan las armas, señaló la presidenta de la Cámara, la demócrata Nancy Pelosi. Según el texto, los Estados que conforman EE UU se beneficiarán de importantes incentivos financieros para poner al día la base de datos sobre personas para las que está prohibido comprar un arma, en particular criminales y sujetos con problemas psiquiátricos. Además, los Estados serán multados si no ponen en marcha estas medidas. Sin embargo, y como una concesión a la NRA, la nueva legislación permitirá también que personas que hayan cometido "infracciones menores" sean eliminadas del fichero, así como que los veteranos de guerra con problemas mentales incluidos en el mismo tengan la posibilidad de limpiar el registro. Una matanza evitable En el caso de Cho Seung-Hui, el estudiante que mató a 32 personas en Virginia, éste nunca debía haber obtenido el permiso para comprar un arma, dado que tenía antedecentes de problemas psiquiátricos. Wayne La Pierre, vicepresidente de la NRA, ha precisado que la ley no "descalifica a nadie" que tenga la intención de comprar un arma legalmente, si no que, "al contrario, al contrario, da la oportunidad aquéllos que han sido descalificad…
creator: Periodista Digital.com
date: 2007-07-30
contributor: Elva Orozco
rights: Creative Commons Attribution 2.5
language: spa

DANIEL EL ESTUDIANTE PERUANO / DANIEL THE PERUVIAN STUDENT
description: Por Peruanista April 18, 2007 Esta tarde estuve leyendo la historia de Daniel Pérez Cueva, publicada en un diario local. Sentado en el tren de regreso a casa, no pude evitar conmoverme hasta casi llorar. La historia de este compatriota me resulta muy cercana, la historia de su familia, me es conocida por que es la historia de tantos inmigrantes, de mis amigos, mis alumnos, mis vecinos, es mi historia. Y me apena mucho. Una tragedia ha sepultado el esfuerzo de Daniel y de sus padres. Lo siento tanto por ellos. Ser inmigrante en EEUU no es fácil, como algunos podrían creen en Perú. La vida aquí no es un exilio dorado, pues aunque los estándares de calidad de vida son mejores, pero aquí todo cuesta obtener y cada día puede ser una lucha constante para muchos. La historia de Daniel y sus padres, es la historia de tantos peruanos en este país y en el mundo, tratando de encontrar un mejor futuro, que nuestra patria no nos pudo ofrecer lamentablemente. Y esto no es una queja inoportuna, sinó la realidad, aunque de lamentos no se puede vivir. Puedo ver a doña Betty Cuevas tratando de matricular a su hijo en la escuela secundaria, recién llegado de Perú. Tratando de conseguir los certificados de estudios de Lima, traduciéndolos, y vacunando a Daniel para que sea aceptado. Puedo ver a doña Betty trabajando en varios empleos, un full-time y un part-time como hacen tantos inmigrantes, para conseguir el dinero para la educación de sus hijos. Estoy seguro que los familiares en Lima celebraban cada éxito de Daniel, cada carta, llamada, cada noticia, habría sido motivos de orgullo para su padre, aún en la distancia. El sueño de Daniel se apaga, pero el fuego de su ejemplo sigue vivo en la memoria de su familia y amistades. Entre los peruanos inmigrantes, hay un sentimiento de pesar pero también de solidaridad. No solamente los Cueva-Pérez perdieron a un joven talentoso, sino también nuestra comunidad, nuestro primer país. Es tiempo para otros peruanos de con…
creator: Peruanista
date: 2007-07-25
contributor: Elva Orozco
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0.
language: spa

too much coverage of the Virginia Tech tragedy
description: April 19, 2007 The amount of coverage has been staggering--dozens of stories per day in the top national newspapers, nightly broadcast news programs that are lengthened by half an hour, 24-hour repetitions of the same information on cable news, even a blow-by-blow account in the "Kid's Post" section of the Washington Post, which my 7-year-old reads. I first found out about the Blacksburg tragedy because a student TV news crew stopped me on the street to ask my opinion. This is a global phenomenon: Le Monde and the BBC also led with Cho Seung-hui's picture when I looked. It's a choice to devote so much space and time to those 33 deaths. Bombers killed 158 in US-occupied Baghdad on Wednesday. Nigeria, the biggest country in Africa, saw violence connected to its presidential vote. Comparisons are odious; they imply that one doesn't care about particular victims and that human lives can be counted and weighed. I do sympathize with the Blacksburg victims and their families. I sympathize because I have been told their stories in detail; but there are many other stories that I could have been told--other tragedies, or (for that matter) other narratives that are important but not tragic. Perhaps the Virginia Tech victims deserve sympathy from all of us, but I suspect they would prefer less attention. I find it hard to see how the deserve something they don't want. One reason to tell the Virginia Tech story in detail is to provide us with the information we might need to act as voters and members of various communities. For instance, I work at a university much like Virginia Tech and could agitate for new policies in my institution. But it is generally a bad idea to act on the basis of extremely rare events. There have been about 40 mass shootings in the USA. During the period when those crimes have occurred, something like half a billion total people have been alive in America. That means that 0.000008 percent of the population commits mass shootings. There cannot be a gene…
creator: Peter Levine
date: 2007-06-07
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5
language: eng

Message on Safety and Security
description: (This message was distributed to all faculty, staff and students April 27, 2007.) In the days following the Virginia Tech tragedy, our solidarity with and sympathy for the faculty, staff, students and families affected by the loss of lives on April 16, 2007 remains front and centre in our minds. Openness and access are features that define us as a university, and we cherish those attributes greatly. At the same time we are conscious that these features make us vulnerable to the behaviour of troubled or violent people. Our overall approach to providing a safe environment is therefore guided by the desire to maintain and nurture openness while doing all we can to prepare for, prevent, and respond to crisis situations. The events of Friday April 20 were a good test of our overall philosophy and systems with respect to both safety and security. Shortly before 5 pm, a report was received of a male with a rifle in the vicinity of the bowl. Saskatoon Police Services (SPS) and Campus Safety responded, conducted a sweep of buildings in the vicinity, and declared the incident over at 7 pm. The next day SPS concluded, based on the report of another eyewitness, that the rifle was actually a bike seat and post and declared the incident a false alarm. This incident demonstrated strengths in our systems, including effective coordination with SPS. It also highlighted some areas for improvement, including our ability to communicate with the entire campus when necessary. There are many dimensions to our approach to safety. Our department of Campus Safety maintains a 24-hour watch over the campus, with a team of security staff on duty and a video-surveillance system. The U of S works closely and cooperatively with Saskatoon's emergency service organizations, engaging in joint training initiatives. There are a number of additional safety measures in place including safety alert notices, the Safewalk program, campus emergency phones, and counseling and health services for staff and stud…
creator: Peter MacKinnon and Richard Florizone
date: 2007-06-09
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution 2.5
language: eng

Now You Have Blood On Your Hands That Will Never Come Off
description: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old senior majoring in English at Virginia Tech, has completed his transformation from Clark Kent to, well, Rambo. Having killed and maimed over thirty people, in a calculated and merciless way, he has shown another facet of evil and pain to the world. Alone, bitter, unhappy and insane, his sad story reverberates on several levels. Is it better to have stricter gun control, or have more guns in the hands of law abiding people to protect themselves? Have privacy laws and rights for the mentaly disabled gone too far, or should involuntary committment for treatment be easier to order? Has community and the support of family been destroyed by the cheapening of our culture, or has the stigma of needing help become so great that those most in need shun it? There were heros at Virgina Tech - Professor Lucinda Roy, who tried so hard to get Mr. Cho the help he so badly needed; another Professor, Liviu Librescu, a 76 year old Holocaust survivor who gave his life offering his body as a shield for his students; during the aftermath the poet, Nikki Giovanni, leading students in a cheer to affirm that they will survive and be stronger - 'We are HOKIES!'. But there is one party who will not be a hero during all this, and that is the National Broadcasting Company news organization. After Mr. Cho shot his first two victims in his dormitory, he made a rambling videotape with his jeremiad on debauched rich students and how they had driven him to this action, shortly before he entered a classroom, chained the doors shut and killed thirty more people. This insane person took the time to film and mail his video between murders, and NBC chose to make it public. Poor Dylan Klebold - he never thought of making videos before killing his classmates at Columbine High School. Now, Mr. Cho has created a new item in the iconography of mass murder, one that we will surely see again. We have come a long way from the days when shooting Ronald Reagan…
creator: Peter Porcupine
date: 2007-06-02
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License
language: eng

Local colleges reflect on Va. Tech shootings
description: By Peter Reuell/Daily News staff The MetroWest Daily News Posted Apr 16, 2008 @ 12:35 AM ASHLAND — A year after the shooting massacre that left 33 people dead at Virginia Tech, security remains a concern on local college campuses. On campuses from Framingham to Franklin, officials said, the aftershocks of the shooting - and a more recent incident at Northern Illinois University, which left five others dead - are still being felt. After the April 16, 2007, killings at Virginia Tech, many schools quickly re-evaluated their security plans, particularly their ability to communicate with faculty and staff in a crisis. At many, including Framingham State College, the solution was to install a system that allows administrators to send emergency messages by phone and computer to the entire campus at the touch of a button. "You learn from the incident, and it allows you to, perhaps, make changes in your own systems," said Framingham State spokesman Peter Chisholm. The school later this month plans to finish installing a siren that will alert students, faculty and staff to campuswide emergencies. "At every college or university campus in the country, I'm sure, the president and public safety administrators sat down and reviewed what they had in place, and what improvements they could make," Chisholm said. The incident that sparked those meetings happened a year ago today in Blacksburg, Va. Just after 7 a.m., disturbed Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho killed two students in a dormitory, then went on a shooting rampage in a classroom building, eventually killing 32 people and himself. At Massachusetts Bay Community College in Wellesley, administrators are close to installing a campuswide notification system similar to Framingham State's. They have held numerous meetings to review the school's crisis policies. "There's a method or protocol for just about every situation that could arise on campus," said Lisa Cascio, the school's director of communications and public affairs…
creator: Peter Reuell
date: 2008-04-19
contributor: Kacey Beddoes
language: eng

Virginia Tech memorial in Second Life
description: 18 April, 2007 I was doing a bit of wandering in Second Life today, and came across a rather well-done memorial to the Virginia Tech tragedy in an area that's academically focused (it's staffed 50+ hours per week by volunteer reference librarians around the world... very cool). There is a wall featuring portraits of those lost, as well as a place for people to leave memorials/tributes. It's done with a good heart and worth checking out. It's another example of communities coming together virtually (lots of positive energy in Facebook, too). posted by phe at 18:29 -- Original Source: http://www.phework.com/2007/04/virginia-tech-memorial-in-second-life.html Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States.
creator: phe
date: 2007-06-02
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States
language: eng

Emergency plan and safety measures information
description: By Philip Caruso The Department of Public Safety, in conjunction with the Milwaukee Police Department and other government emergency agencies, has an emergency plan and training in the event a major security issue should occur. MPD is training all officers for an active shooter situation. "There may be a situation when an officer can't wait for the SWAT team," MPD spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said. "We hope we never have to use it." Public Safety officers are trained to carry semi-automatic weapons, batons and pepper spray. The university purchases bulletproof vests for Public Safety officers that they are required to wear. Cameras have been placed around campus to aid in preventing crime. Emergency blue light phones, which immediately connect with Public Safety dispatch, are stationed around campus. IDs are required in order to enter residence halls and Raynor Library. "Students and faculty should take any threatening-type comments heard from a friend or acquaintance as a serious threat and should be reported immediately," Associate Director of DPS Capt. Russ Shaw said. -- Original Sourc:Marquette Tribune - April 19, 2007
creator: Philip Caruso
publisher: Marquette Tribune
date: 2007-09-03
contributor: Sara AA Hood
rights: "Sheaffer, Amanda" <amanda.sheaffer@marquette.edu>
language: eng

In praise of Nikki Giovanni
description: Virginia Tech's vigilant professor of English is a true leader Philip French Sunday April 22, 2007 The Observer The following correction was printed in the Observer's For the record column, Sunday April 29 2007 In the article below we said, when referring to Virginia Tech , that 'Edgar Allan Poe enrolled there in the 1820s'. He was, in fact, a student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. The Agricultural and Mechanical College, Virginia (Virginia Tech) was established in 1872. --------------------------------------------- This has been an extraordinary week for Yolanda Cornelia 'Nikki' Giovanni, born in Knoxville, Tennessee 64 years ago, called by some 'the Princess of Black Poetry', up in the African-American literary pantheon with Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou. A poet, essayist and political activist since her teens, Nikki Giovanni was a friend in the 1960s of the revolutionary Communist academic Angela Davis and the gay black polemicist and novelist James Baldwin. More recently she went bravely, recklessly public as an admirer of the late, embattled rap star Tupac Shakur. Since 1987, Giovanni has been a professor of English at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, an enormous multicultural campus now universally known as Virginia Tech. Edgar Allan Poe, among the first American poets to win wide acclaim in Europe and a writer with a peculiar understanding of madness, enrolled at the university in the 1820s. At that time, Virginia was a slave state, and after the Civil War it retained educational segregation until the 1950s. When the Korean-born, American-raised Cho Seung-hui marched out last Monday across the Virginia Tech campus, killing as he went, we have his demented account of the aggressive, vengeful thoughts that went through his mind. We have a more lucid idea of what went through the mind of his teacher, Nikki Giovanni. Cho's stories, conduct in class and general demeanour had excited her concern, suspicion and fear, which…
creator: Philip French
date: 2007-08-09
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Eve Thompson-Acting Permissions Executive:permissions.syndication@guardian.co.uk
language: eng

VT Vigils Make Us Ignore Other Tragedies
description: Commentary By Philip Grant Dear Chancellor Drake, My most heartfelt sympathies are also with those affected by the terrible events of last week at Virginia Tech. I write to you nonetheless not merely to share my sympathies with you, but to express my anger. I am deeply disturbed by the message you have sent to the community of UC Irvine. My misgivings lie at two levels. Firstly, I do not understand why the victims of the massacre at Virginia Tech are alone deemed worthy of special e-mail messages from the chancellor of the university, of candlelight vigils and so on. Consider the following statistics: Wednesday, April 18, 2007, Baghdad, Iraq: 200 dead in six separate bombings. March 6, 2007, Hilla, Iraq: 90 dead in two bombings. Feb. 3, 2007, Baghdad, Iraq: 130 dead in a single bombing. Dec. 2, 2006, Baghdad, Iraq: 50 dead in a single bombing. Nov. 23, 2006, Baghdad, Iraq: 200 dead in a series of bombings. These are only the major "incidents" of losses of civilian life in Iraq in the eight months since I have been at UCI. I do not recall any e-mail messages inviting us to candlelight vigils on their behalf. I do not recall that they were even considered worthy of a single second of serious reflection on any of our parts. Perhaps we are overcome by a surfeit of suffering: Whether one Iraqi dies or 100 is all the same to us, since there are just too many deaths for us to comprehend. What need solidarity, therefore? Yet the "families and friends of the victims" of the more than 60,000 Iraqi civilians (Iraq Body Count, reported deaths only) or the 100,000 to 150,000 Iraqi civilians (Iraqi Ministry of Health), or the 655,000 Iraqi civilians ("The Lancet") that have been killed since the beginning of the war - could we but speak with them face to face - might have something to teach us concerning what it means to be confronted with suffering on an unimaginable scale. Perhaps we can no longer muster the humility required to look on them and listen in attentive silence. Wha…
creator: Philip Grant
publisher: New University
date: 2007-08-19
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Zachary Gale <newueic@gmail.com>
language: eng