1 20 6 Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Adriana Seagle Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Daniel E. Loeb / The Philadelphia Jewish Voice Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-07-01 Description An account of the resource The Jewish community mourns with Virginia Tech. -- Daniel Loeb The deadliest campus shooting in the history of the US occurred on Monday, April 16 at Virginia Tech. The tragic shootings at Virginia Tech happened on the day Jews all over the world observe Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and which is marked in Israel with two minutes of silence, prayer and reflection. The United States Congress has called for a minute of silence on Friday, April 20 at noon, to remember Monday's victims, as well as the millions of other men and women around the world who have died at the hands of armed madmen and criminals. Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and injured 29 more before taking his own life. Ironically, one of the Virginia Tech victims, aeronautics professor Liviu Librescu, was a survivor of the Holocaust. He died while barricading his classroom against the gunman, saving the lives of several of his students through his sacrifice on Yom Hashoah. Librescu, born in 1930 in Ploiesti, Romania, survived the Holocaust in the ghetto of Focsani while his father was interned in the Transnistria labor camp. After the war, he studied Aerospace Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest and Fluid Mechanics at the Academia de Stiinte din Romania. He distinguished himself as a researcher at the Institute of Applied Mechanics, Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Aerospace Constructions of Academy of Science of Romania. However, then Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu did not allow him to emigrate to Israel, however, until Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin personally intervened on Prof. Librescu's behalf in 1978. After making aliyah, Librescu served as a Professor of Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering at Tel-Aviv University. In 1985, he joined the faculty at Virginia Tech where he distinguished himself as the Virginia Tech professor with the greatest number of publications. At age 76, Professor Librescu held the door of his classroom shut so that Cho Seung-hui could not enter before his students escaped through the windows. Cho shot Liviu Librescu through the door mortally wounding this Professor considered a hero by his students. Professor Librescu was <a href="http://www.pjvoice.com/v23/23001vatech.aspx">commended posthumously</a> by the President of Romania with the Star of Romania Order in the grade of Great Cross, "as a token of high appreciation for the entire scientific and universitarian activity, as well as for his heroic acts during the tragic events of April 16th 2007 in the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University campus, when professor Librescu saved his students' lives at the cost of his own". Rabbi Yossel Kranz announced that the new Chabad House at Virginia Tech will be named for Professor Liviu Librescu. "Professor Librescu's final act of heroism will be eternally memorialized in the life-affirming activities of the new center," said Rabbi Kranz. The professor's widow Mrs. Marilena Librescu and their sons Ari and Joe shared with Rabbi Kranz their wishes that Librescu House serve as a home of healing, joy and spiritual fulfillment to Virginia Tech's Jewish students. -- Â© 2007. Permission is hereby granted to redistribute this issue of The Philadelphia Jewish Voice or (unless specified otherwise) any of the articles therein in their full original form provided these same rights are conveyed to the reader and subscription information to The Philadelphia Jewish Voice is provided. Subscribers should be directed to <a href="http://www.pjvoice.com/Subscribe.htm">http://www.pjvoice.com/Subscribe.htm</a>. Original Source: The Philadelphia Jewish Voice <a href="http://www.pjvoice.com/v23/23001vatech.aspx">http://www.pjvoice.com/v23/23001vatech.aspx</a> Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Daniel E.Loeb (daniel.loeb@verizon.net) Title A name given to the resource Holocaust Survivor Slaughtered On Yom Hashoah community jewish librescu mourns prayer Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Sara Hood Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Anonoymous Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-06-22 Description An account of the resource By Anonymous The shooting at Virginia Tech serves as a tragic reminder of the importance of a strong campus community, one in which people know and look out for each other. In the wake of this event, it is important that we make sure that all students feel comfortable in our campus community. This opportunity should be seized to reflect on how to foster a greater sense of community, especially in upperclass dorms. There seems to be a presumption that, once out of their residential colleges, upperclassmen are sufficiently acclimatized to college life. While colleges provide students with RCAs who organize study breaks and generally foster a sense of commnity within dorms, upperclassmen are left to their own devices. Though eating clubs provide some measure of support for upperclassmen, nothing exists to promote socialization in upperclass dorms or among the many students who do not choose to join clubs or remain in the residential colleges. Independent work, which puts increased pressure on upperclassmen and often requires them to spend significant time alone, means that community feeling outside of eating clubs often suffers. Some students go through an entire year without meeting all their neighbors. Though social dynamics among students is, in the end, the result of our own behavior, there is room for the administration to provide a helping hand. While the University provides mental health services for those in need, having intermediaries step, similar to RCAs, would greatly stimulate social interactions in upperclass dorms and encourage students with psychological issues not to isolate themselves. This could easily be achieved by expanding the mission â€” and budget â€” of dormitory assistants, whose current responsibilities are focused on questions of maintenance and living conditions. These measures are not intended to prevent tragic instances such as those at Virginia Tech. They would, however, encourage interaction in upperclass dorms and foster a greater sense of community. It would encourage people to meet and take an interest in their neighbors, reducing the risk that students who are depressed, or feel particularly lonely, slip through the cracks unnoticed. We share the pain of the Virginia Tech community and hope that from this tragedy, we can all realize the vital role of looking out for the wellbeing of our classmates. -- Original Source: <a href=http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2007/04/20/opinion/18175.shtml> Daily Princetonian - April 20, 2007</a> Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Daily Princetonian Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Kavita Saini <ksaini@Princeton.EDU> Title A name given to the resource A call for community community outreach princeton Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Sara Hood Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Uwe E. Reinhardt Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-06-22 Description An account of the resource By Uwe E. Reinhardt Princetonian Columnist Students gathered in Richardson Auditorium last night for a service in memory of the victims of Monday's shooting at Virginia Tech," reported The Daily Princetonian on April 18. A day earlier, President Tilghman stated that "my reaction was horror at the loss of so many innocent young lives," a sentiment echoed by President Bush when he remarked that "those whose lives were taken did nothing to deserve their fate. They leave behind grieving families and grieving classmates and a grieving nation." Congress openly prayed for the victims and their loves ones. Flags flew at half-mast across the nation. It was good. Solidarity with stricken fellow human beings forges a group of people sharing a geography into a "community" or "nation." As Associate Dean of Religious Life Deborah Blanks put it so eloquently during the memorial: "We dare to affirm that there is strength in community." It takes nothing away from the grief we share with Virginia Tech's community to let the mind wander from that tragedy to another one, the daily toll of fellow human beings grotesquely destroyed or maimed in Iraq, among them many American men and women just as young and innocent as those killed at Virginia Tech. As Keith Olbermann of MSNBC's "Countdown," standing out from the herd politically correct journalists, asked boldly on April 17: "In just the last 10 days, 32 American troops, many the same age as the Virginia Tech students, have died. While one may take issue with the comparison, one cannot ignore the similarities ... It seems fair to ask the question, if the violent deaths in Virginia send the nation into shock and expressions of concern and anxiety, why is not the continuous flow of blood in Iraq creating a similar reaction? Why isn't our flag permanently at half staff?" Olbermann has a point. In just the two days following the shooting at Virginia Tech, close to 400 Iraqis were brutally blown to shreds and hundreds more seriously wounded, along with the usual daily toll of U.S. military personnel. Stories on their fate were pushed way down the list of reports on TV or in the daily press. Did Congress pray for them? Are these human beings part of Dean Blanks' "community"? It appears that the daily slaughter of people in Iraq has become so routine now that reports on it must compete for America's attention with updates on Wall Street, sport scores and the Anna Nicole Smith story. On our campus, the indifference may be amplified by what USG president Rob Biederman '08 called at the memorial the "Orange Bubble," namely, the fact that "every college should be a place apart," presumably from the outside world. The tragedy at Virginia Tech seems to have penetrated that Bubble only because of what Biederman called "the similarity of all students' campus experiences." Military service for one's country and the horrors of war are as far removed from the campus experience as one could imagine. To illustrate, in early October of 2005 I wrote to the then editor-in-chief of the Daily Princetonian: "I would like to make a suggestion that would add grace to the 'Prince.' Show every day, on the front page of the paper, the names of American troops who have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. The idea would be to remind young Princetonians, many of whom aspire to be future leaders, that there is a war going on and that they have contemporaries who are willing to stand tall for their country and to pay the ultimate price for it." In a courteous email, the editor replied that she understood and agreed with my sentiment, but that "The Daily Princetonian has a defined scope as a newspaper: We cover events and people affiliated with the University Community." She pointed out that the national newspapers are to keep us abreast of other events. Alas, who among college students these days actually reads these dailies? In fairness to the 'Prince,' not all dailies report on the blood cost of the war either. For example, I had earlier asked The Wall Street Journal, a major cheerleader for the invasion of Iraq, to honor on its front page the names of the fallen warriors. That request did not even warrant an answer, presumably because the Journal does not want to highlight that war has its costs. As a member of the University community, I can well understand the comfort the stricken Virginia Tech community may find in Princeton's and the nation's vigils for them and the sentiment that begot the vigils. But as the parent of a Marine who narrowly escaped death on the battlefield in 2005 and may yet have to serve a fourth tour of duty (because too few career-minded inhabitants of the College Bubble are willing to take over from him), I also share the loneliness that all military families feel in a nation that seems preoccupied with things other than the human toll in Iraq. Uwe E. Reinhardt is the James Madison Professor of Political Economy and a professor in the Wilson School. He can be reached at reinhard@princeton.edu. -- Original Source: <a href=http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2007/04/23/opinion/18202.shtml> Daily Princetonian - April 23, 2007</a> Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Kavita Saini <ksaini@Princeton.EDU> Title A name given to the resource The narrow reach of 'community' community princeton response tragedy Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Sara Hood Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cornelia Hall Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-06-22 Description An account of the resource Alumnus defends administrators' actions but says he understands complaints By Cornelia Hall Princetonian Staff Writer Richard Benson '73, dean of the Virginia Tech College of Engineering, has spent the last three days struggling to maintain composure while confronting his own grief over the deaths of his colleagues and students. In his first media interview since Monday's shooting, Benson relived his emotions in the aftermath of the incident, praising the nation's sympathy and the cohesiveness of Virginia Tech's campus while reflecting on ways to move forward. Benson was at a conference in Puerto Rico when the tragic violence unfolded Monday morning. The gunman, Virginia Tech senior Cho Seung-Hui, shot two people in a dormitory before moving, around two hours later, to Norris Hall, a central building in the School of Engineering and home to Benson's office. Cho shot and killed 30 people in Norris Hall before taking his own life. Benson, who majored in mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton, was attending an Engineering Deans Institute meeting over the weekend. He first heard about the shooting when he checked his email during a coffee break and read that there was a gunman loose on campus. It was only when he switched on the television at his hotel that he saw that the shooting had moved to Norris. It was then that the reality of the situation hit home for Benson. "That's my building ... I walk through those doors every day," he said of Norris Hall. "It was just terrible to see that and not to be there." Upon hearing the news, Benson first tried to call his staff members in Norris Hall. "I was unable to get anybody, anybody," he said. He immediately booked a flight home and waited through flight delays and a layover to arrive in Blacksburg after midnight. "I would've gotten in a car and driven home," he said. His distance from his campus when the violence unfolded made the tragedy even more devastating, Benson said. "Being away heightened my emotional reaction," he said, adding that he repeatedly thought about how it was "very likely that people that I cared for had died." Though Benson's assistant, Linda Perkins, and his chief of staff, Ed Nelson, survived, he said he knew of people down the hall from his office and on a lower floor who had been killed. Of the five deceased faculty members, three taught at the Engineering School. Lessons from the massacre Benson said he did not blame the Virginia Tech administration for its widely reported delay in notifying the campus community of the first shooting. While some students and parents have accused the Virginia Tech administration of not doing enough to prevent the escalation of violence by alerting the student body of the danger, Benson said he disagrees. "I understand grief, and I understand why somebody would be really angry," Benson added, emphasizing that he did not fault the students or their families in any way for criticizing the administration. "There's a human desire to blame somebody, [but] I worry that we're going to start blaming people who worked like crazy, who are grief-stricken, who didn't sleep that night." Benson also stressed the extreme improbability that the shooter would strike a second time. "A two-site crime is extraordinarily rare," he said. "People were trying really hard to find the person who did it ... I do believe that the authorities were responding very quickly, very ably." Yet the reverberations from the violence are likely to continue indefinitely. "You can always do better," Benson said of the University's response to the incident. "We've learned something in the last two days." Administrators from other institutions have been contacting him to offer condolences and to ask the question, "How can we prevent this?" The incident has prompted concerns about campus safety across the nation. Though Benson acknowledged the importance of developing preventive measures for academic communities everywhere, he said he knows that the next step for Virginia Tech is to deal with the emotional repercussions. "The point is [that] we know that we need to provide a lot of counseling, and we're going to do that," he said. Department heads will convene today to address the issue of counseling services not only for students but for faculty, Benson said, adding that he hoped this would help them better support students emotionally. "I want our faculty [to be] as insightful as they can possibly be," he said. "And frankly, they also need counseling." The most affected faculty members are likely those who were in Norris Hall when the violence unfolded. Benson described the experiences of several of his colleagues while Cho was in the building. One professor, Liviu Librescu, barricaded the door of a classroom to allow his students to escape through the windows, Benson said in a widely distributed email. Librescu, a Holocaust survivor, was shot through the door. "Heroes! Never forget their names!" Benson wrote. A campus transformed Norris Hall is forever changed, as the Virginia Tech community will always associate it with the horror that occurred there. Benson acknowledged that it is a place marked with emotion. "Many of us aren't ready to walk into that building, not yet," he said. "There is an enormous job in Norris Hall to come to grips with the magnitude of the killing that went on there." Until the end of the semester, only investigators will be allowed in the building. Monday's events will also have academic ramifications, Benson said. While some classes will be relocated to other campus buildings, "some courses will just end." One graduate course taught by civil and environmental engineering professor G.V. Loganathan will simply be eliminated, Benson said, since Cho shot the professor and the majority of students in the class. Despite the shock, horror and grief overwhelming the Virginia Tech campus, Benson said he cannot help but be moved by the outpouring of emotion he has witnessed. "There's something very beautiful unfolding at Virginia Tech," he said, attributing the campus' unity to the spirit of compassion pervading the student body. "I have been hearing over and over and over again, on the radio and on TV, how struck people are by that spirit, and I think it's absolutely true," he said. "All of these people wanted to let their pride come through." Faculty members, too, provided sympathy, offering their offices to those displaced from Norris Hall. His voice breaking, Benson expressed his pride and respect for the students. "Despite the horror, you take away something really uplifting," he said. "Boy, they are just banding together." -- Original Source: <a href="http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2007/04/18/news/18132.shtml"> Daily Princetonian - April 18, 2007</a> Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Kavita Saini <ksaini@Princeton.EDU> Title A name given to the resource Virginia dean Benson '73 recalls tragedy community faculty reflection princeton Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Brent Jesiek Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Eugene Cho Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-06-16 Description An account of the resource Beauty and Depravity | eugene cho's blog [eugenecho.com] Like everyone else - here [Seattle], there [Virginia], West [United States, East [Korea], and everywhere, I am trying to make sense of something that is simply - senselesss. Personally, the emotions have been even more convoluted because I am Korean-American. I am a Korean immigrant [immigrated at the age of 6] and understand the immigrant experience; I am a Korean-American Immigrant Male [who even shares the same last name - 'C-H-O' - as the gunman]. I am a Christian pastor involved in the institution of Religion that Seung Hui Cho criticized and expressed disappointment. For these reasons, many have asked, called, IM'd, and emailed asking me to share some of my thoughts - as a person, a Christian, an immigrant, a pastor, but especially as a Korean-American man. I'm sharing some thoughts [some which are still in vomitaceous process] in hopes that we can dialogue here - that it may serve as part of the healing and redemptive process. Monday night was an incredibly eerie day for me. After watching the news with incredulity and horror, I posted a <a target="_blank" href="http://eugenecho.wordpress.com/2007/04/16/tragedy-at-virginia-tech/">blog entry about the tragedy in Virginia Tech</a>. About 9pm [PST], I began to literally have over hundred people instantaneously get to my blog in a span of two hours. <blockquote>Search Views | seung cho blog 18, cho virginia tech myspace 17, virginia tech shooting cho 17, cho 15, cho virginia tech 15, virginia tech cho 13, cho virginia 9, virginia tech student shooter Cho 9, virginia shooter cho myspace 8, Sung Cho Blacksburg 7, virginia tech blog cho 7, blog virginia tech 2, cho seung virginia tech shooting 2, Cho, Korean, Blacksburg 2CHO, virginia shooting korean 2, Virginia Tech Myspace Cho 2, Cho myspace virginia tech 2, Cho Seung virginia tech 2, virginia tech cho shooting 2, Myspace Cho Virginia Tech 2, "Cho" Blacksburg 2, viginia tech cho korea shooting 2, "Cho" virginia tech korea myspace 2, cho virginia tech shoot 2, korean virginia tech cho 2, pastoral health 2, quest eugene cho 2, cho virginia tech shooting 2, virginia cho 2</blockquote> As I examined my dashboard through wordpress, it was fairly obvious to me that while the news wouldn't be shared to the larger world until the next morning, there was strong suspicion - perhaps through authorities or through some of the student body - that the gunman may have been someone named Seung [Hui] Cho. I was speechless, ashamed, angry, and afraid. [You can also add 'guilty' because of my selfishness. Like others, I felt "pathetic" in wishing the person wasn't Korean or Asian...I became more self-focused rather on mourning with those who have suffered in the tragedy]. Some vomitaceous thoughts, questions, and reflections: 1 We need to remember, foremost, that lives have been dramatically impacted. 33 people have died. 32 who were completely innocent. Each person that died or was severely injured has a name, a story, a family, a passion, a dream, and a life. Let's not forget that in the midst of the media frenzy. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/ref/us/20070418_VICTIMS_GRAPHIC.html">This is a must read</a>. 2 It's clear that Seung Cho was unhealthy, unstable, disturbed, ill [schizophrenia?], angry, lost, and [place your words here]. But that's the only clear thing. I needed the turn the TV off because the 'stretching' for information, analysis, scrutiny, and answers to who, what, where, when, and why was overly speculative. Compare the reporting of Fox News and <a target="_blank" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/">BBC News</a>... While I understand the need for 'why,' we're simply not going to know the full picture. While Seung's action were horrible and evil [<a target="_blank" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6570241.stm">and premeditated</a>], we must remind ourselves that he too is a human being - as difficult as that might be. Knowing some of the dynamics of the Asian/Korean culture and the synthesis of pain, guilt, and shame, I am sincerely worried for his family - particularly his parents. They, too, are victims in this story. Update: read the <a target="_blank" href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003674966_webfamilystatement20.html">statement issued by Sun Kyung Cho and her family.</a> One thing that the media won't touch is the simple and painful matter: Evil exists in our world. There is a spiritual dimension that the media won't discuss but the church must engage. As much as we seek to create a perfect world [and it is a worthwhile pursuit], this will not be the first nor will it be the first murder or tragedy. <strike>3 why do the media keep calling him 'cho'? he has a first name... maybe it's me, but i'm tired of hearing and reading my last name. couple folks actually emailed me [from other parts of the country] through the blog to ask if i'm related to seung.</strike> 4 Will there be racial backlash? Do Asians and Koreans need to fear? On the most part, I do not believe there will be overt backlash but there are always going to be pockets of people that will be stupid and do stupid things. It would be nonsenical for people to associate this violent act to Koreans or Asians simply because of Seung Hui Cho's ethnicity. In that same vein, it would have been preposterous and unjust for us to place blame on African-Americans for the actions of John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo in the 'Beltway Sniper attacks' of 2002 or to ask White Americans to share blame with Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma bombings of 1995. But the question must be asked. How is the media influencing the construct of the national consciousness? That's a worthwhile question for me. In the early reporting, I was perturbed that Seung was being referred to as 'the Asian killer' and 'the Korean killer.' While he is Asian and Korean, the media needs to be more responsible in their sensational reporting. What do you think? As one commenter replied in an earlier posting: <blockquote>i definitely wish/ hope that most would not see the shooter as representative of all asians, but in america, if the person in question is not a white, heterosexual, protestant, middle class, educated man, then their race, creed and color seems to always be part of the equation. he has been marked as the resident alien from abroad who came into our land and terrorized us, and with our heightened fear of the other, this situation seems to be full of potential for type casting and APIA caricatures. and i think if these kinds of caricatures flourish (as they did with mid-easterners post 9/11), then it's not unreasonable to fear violent reprisal. and so while i certainly hope that people can view the event as isolated, i know that it's very difficult for our culture to separate media representations of people groups from 'reality.'</blockquote> 5 Why are Koreans/Asians afraid of backlash? My hope is that in the midst of this tragedy, a small glimpse will be captured of the Asian-American [immigrant] experience. Asians and particularly, Korean-Americans are xenophobic. Historically, Koreans have been invaded, pillaged, and exploited...one of the foremost Korean historians <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ki-baek_Lee">Ki-Baek Lee</a> refers to Korea as "the prostitute of Asia." From an immigrant experience, two very formative events in modern Asian American history impact our responses as Asian-Americans - particularly those who are older. In my opinion, the most significant event in modern Asian-American history is the story of <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Chin">Vincent Chin</a> - a Chinese American man beaten to death by a baseball bat by two white auto industry workers - outside of a club during his bachelor party. Even worse, the white men were acquitted. For <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_American">Korean Americans</a>, the most significant event in their modern history is the <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_riots">LA riots </a>and specifically, Sai-I-Gu (4/29). The United States is an incredible country and I am a proud citizen of this country; but it's not a perfect country and while I believe there won't be an overt backlash, I do worry how it will impact the individual and larger [White] collective view of Asian-Americans, Korean-Americans, "foreigners," "immigrants" and such. We should agree: if one Asian or Korean is bullied as a result of this, it's one too many. If one woman is bullied because of her gender, it's one too many. If one gay person is bullied because of their orientation, it's one too many. 6 As we mourn for those impacted, we must ask the question, "Why am I mourning?" Are Korean-Americans and Asian-Americans mourning because the perpetrator was Korean [because of shame and/or fear] or because of the larger tragedy? Are we mourning because of the 1 or are we mourning because of the 32? For Koreans, the answer is likely both. We are mourning because of the 33. This is important to understand. To be Korean - culturally - is to be communal. Koreans are interconnected in a communal culture. We rejoice and mourn with the successes and failures of our fellow Koreans or Korean-Americans. We cling and rejoice with individuals like James Sun [The Apprentice], Paul Kim [American Idol], Michelle Wie [LPGA golfer], Yul Kwon [Survivor: Cook's Island], Hines Ward [NFL Football], and Yunjin Kim [ABC's Lost]. And because we are a communal culture - interconnected - not only as Koreans but also within our KA immigrant experience, we mourn and feel deep pain and shame over Seung Hui Cho. For the larger Anglo worldview, the question must also be asked: Is Seung Hui Cho an "Asian Killer" or "the Korean Killer" or is he a Korean-American [emphasis added] or an American that committed an evil crime? What is the demarcation of what it means to be an American? He immigrated at the age of 8; grew up in Detroit; moved to the suburbs of Washington DC; educated in the States; and was an English major in Virginia Tech. A great definition of community (Romans 12:15) is when [or if] we choose to "mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice." As Asian-Americans, we must mourn with those who mourn not simply because an Asian was involved in the crime, but because our larger community - our country - is in mourning. This is also our country, our people, our college community...this can't be their tragedy. this is [must be] our shared tragedy. 7 Why are we so violent as Americans? Should we discuss gun control here? Where do we start? What is our Christian response? Why are so many Christians so adamant about the right to bear arms? Where is that found in the Scriptures? I can cite tons of places about mercy, humility, justice, the oppressed, the poor, the widows...but why such obsession with arms and yet, such silence on the items listed above? How are we as Christians and as consumers feeding the violence acceptance of our culture? Insert pop culture here. 8 The lives of those who have perished must be remembered, cherished and celebrated. Period. But today alone, nearly <a target="_blank" href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article1674607.ece">200 people were killed in Bahgdad</a>. It is estimated that approximately 30,000 children will die today because of poverty [according to UNICEF]. That's 210,000 children this week; a little under 11 million children [five and under] each year. While this is a horrible tragedy, [one life lost - is one too many] we must commit ourselves to the elevation of the sanctity of life. each person - with a name, a story, a family, a dream, a beauty... Let's remain in prayer for those impacted in this shared tragedy; let's mourn with those who mourn; hope together; and work - whatever faith, ethnicity, country, political affiliation - for the shared responsibility of being a good neighbor. _________ One last note. As a Korean-American Male Cho Immigrant Christian Pastor, I do have another response: God is love. Because He is Love, He created order out of chaos. His purpose was love and shalom. We were created for beauty - created in the image of God. Shalom was violated and marred. Our image tainted and cracked. Jesus came to redeem and restore. Invitation is extended to all - including the lonely, the outcast, the marginalized, the rich, the debaucherized, and such. And lest we forget or bathe in our righteousness, we have all fallen short of the glory of God. We are confronted by our depravity. We all need God and thanks be to God, the Lord is not far. He is near. This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 18th, 2007 -- Archived with permission of the author. Original Source: Beauty and Depravity | eugene cho's blog [eugenecho.com] <a href="http://eugenecho.wordpress.com/2007/04/18/making-sense-of-virginia-tech/">http://eugenecho.wordpress.com/2007/04/18/making-sense-of-virginia-tech/</a> Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Eugene Cho (eugene@seattlequest.org) Title A name given to the resource making sense of virginia tech asian american blog cho christian community identity korean american seattle spirituality violence Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Brent Jesiek Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Dale Peskin Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-06-15 Description An account of the resource Posted by <a href="http://ifocos.org/author/dale-peskin/">Dale Peskin</a> | April 23rd, 2007 Unaware of a shooting in a dormitory that left two people dead, Virginia Tech graduate student Jamal al Barghouti headed across campus to meet with his advisor. Nearing Norris Hall he ran into police, guns drawn, rushing inside. As al Barghouti took cover, he pulled out his Nokia camera-phone and started recording. Then came the haunting sound of 26 gunshots. As the volley increased in intensity he unexpectedly recorded his own startled voice: "Wow," he said. Across campus, freshman Bryce Carter was hiding in his dorm room. When word reached him that fellow students had been shot, he went online. After assuring friends that he was alive, he wrote these works on Bryce's Journal, his blog: "My friends could be dead." Over at the business school, computer science-business technology major Kevin Cupp was locked down, distanced from the computer servers he manages as webmaster of Planet Blacksburg. So he sent an instant message on his cell phone to Twitter, the new digital network where people describe what they are doing at the moment. His first of many posts that day: "Trapped inside of Pamplin, shooter on campus, they won't let us leave. What we experienced about the horrific events on a black day in Blacksburg owes to a savvy, social generation connected emotionally and technologically to its media. Their eyewitness descriptions, photos, video and reporting from a remote, rural Virignia town - one of the world's first connected communities â€” made a story visceral to the world. The ability to instantly capture and disseminate information at a time when it was most needed, as well as to communicate with each other across time and geography, has not only helped unite a community but has become a real-time example of how personal media empowers and defines communication in today's connected society. Watching events unfold, the shift in the power of media was perceptible. Traditional broadcasters and publishers competently covered the tragic events in Blacksburg. But the story belongs to Virginia Tech students. They were at once reporters, witnesses and subjects of the deadliest shooting in U.S. history. It was like watching a new kind of reality show where the stars used their devices, their social networks, and their wits to survive and to cope. News organizations responded by plundering material posted on the web and pumping their own content into the online ether. The Internet encouraged a collective expression of emotion that was faithfully reported by traditional media outlets. As if the world outside newsrooms didn't already know, CBS News ran this story a day after the shootings: <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/17/the_skinny/main2693331.shtml">Students turn to web in time of tragedy</a>. The Los Angeles Times went with: <a href="http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-web17apr17,0,5808497.story?coll=la-home-headlines">Students Trace a Tragedy Online</a>. So, too, did adults. While social networking sites such as Facebook and My Space became an integral part of the story, millions turned to the sites produced by mainstream news outlets for the latest from Blacksburg. But the Internet had done more than create a distribution center for news and information; it became a place for news to happen. An online community emerged around the story. The immediacy of the medium helped to relay both the scope of news as well as the full emotion of the event. Once again, citizen journalists armed with mobile phones supplied invaluable material, including pictures and video footage of the shootings, to established news organizations. Newspapers lost more hallowed ground in the media war for immediate attention and influence. An editor for The Washington Post lamented the "dead-tree" limitations of covering a breaking story that made newspaper editions the harbingers of yesterday's news tomorrow. A day late and many breaking developments short, the mighty Post was relegated to this headline on Tuesday, April 17, a full day after the shootings: "<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041600533.html">Gunman Kills 32 at Virginia Tech In Deadliest Shooting in U.S. History</a>." There can be no denying now that We Media - the ecosystem in which everyone is media - is the dominant force of communication in our culture. The digital network has changed the way we create, access and distribute news and information. Virginia Tech's students shined even as it they were portrayed as victims. One articulate student-witness set the record straight while being interviewed by a testy CNN reporter. "Don't you get it?" he asked the reporter. "Its our story, not yours." As the student went off to awaiting cameras for a series of interviews and special reports with the other television networks, a CNN producer channeled the network's coverage to a report on counseling services on campus. The TV moment recalled the recent complaint by NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams that the had spent a career as a journalist only to compete now with "some guy named Vinny." But it was not Vinny with whom Williams had to compete in Blacksburg. It was Jamal, Bryce and Kevin. They are, for the moment, the celebrated journalists of their generation, embedded correspondents reporting from a war zone with all the courage and authenticity that radio reporter Edward R. Murrow famously exhibited covering the bombing of London during World War II. Undeniably less sophisticated than Morrow's reporting, their citizen journalism is shown, replayed, recast, remixed and referenced over-and-over again on the Internet as well as on traditional newscasts. The unfettered, unfiltered coverage of the shootings is accepted for what it is, unapologetic for its lack of cohesiveness or for its personal perspective. The audience understands the story is personal and incomplete, a work in progress that continues long after the network camera crews and out-of-town reporters leave Blacksburg. Suddenly, the Internet looks less like a threat to 'old media', and more like a resource it can easily exploit. The We Media Generation now looks to pick up the pieces, to remember their friends, their community, and to share their stories of survival with the rest of the world. It is the informing story of their lives. No wonder they asked NBC and the outside media to leave for violating their fragile community by repeatedly overplaying, then replaying over and over, the grotesque rants of a killer, once a disturbed fellow student. The story of a generation turned quickly to coping with unimaginable tragedy, a cruel and unforeseen twist for college students living in the sanctuary of a college campus. Amid tragedy there was pathos and authenticity in the way they mourned, grieved and supported one another through public acts of catharsis. At the Tuesday night vigil for their slain comrades Virginia Tech students lit "The Drill" with candles and the glow of screens on their cell phones. Virtual vigils emerged across the web. Happy Slip, a vlogger in New York City, posted a photo sent via a cell phone from the vigil. These words accompanied the photo: "Know that a community here in New York was on their knees praying for you tonight." Thousands of bloggers shared similar sentiments. Technorati, a web site that indexes blogs, tracked nearly 30,000 posts about Virginia Tech the following day. As expressions of sorrow and support, memorials proliferated on the web. West Virginia Blogger collected links to the personal web sites of victims, many on My Space or Facebook, as a way of paying tribute. "It's one thing to hear a list of names on TV, or read them online," she wrote, "but if you take a second to view a bit of the person's personal life it will give you a deeper understanding of that person." Forums were established on sites such as VTtragedy.com and VTincident.com for students to express their condolences and grief. The creators of OneDayBlogSilence.com proposed a day of silence in the blogosphere to pay tribute to the victims. Citizens of the virtual world Second Life established a memorial for visitors to leave virtual notes and flowers. The big news organizations did their best to compete with the raw elegance of user-generated tributes, but their stories seemed trite amid the outpouring of personal expression. As the world tries to understand what happened in Blacksburg, the conversation should once and for all dispel the "derivative myth" spun by newspapers and news broadcasters. The myth holds that most news of value is created and owned by the newspapers who publish it or by the broadcasters who air it. While there is no denying that news organizations may add value to news by employing large numbers of specialists to gather, create, edit, produce and distribute it, the notion that they either "own' the news or that they are the original source for it becomes irrelevant, if not absurd, when everyone is media. Today's news tumbles through a connected society, spiraling through media, changing as it goes, an organic story with no beginning, middle or end. What seems chaotic is actually a story arc that assumes clarity, context and meaning as it unfolds through a proliferation of sources, many accessible to anyone. The days of once-a-day publishing cycles and scheduled news broadcasts are mere supplements to a continuous stream of news and information available any time through a variety of sources and ubiquitous devices. With their cell phones, networks and knowledge of place, Virginia Tech students were better prepared to report the events overtaking them than the swarm of professional reporters who descended upon Blacksburg following the shootings. On camera the students appeared more composed, informed and sure-footed than the confused reporters from the big cities. Community - a word that is now used to describe the digital connections among people, as well as the social and emotional ones - was the word heard time-and-time again from Blacksburg. Extended by personal media, the Blacksburg community quickly expanded to include students on campuses everywhere, as well as a diverse, caring generation connected to each other through digital media. "Today we are all Hokies," student leaders proclaimed when asked by reporters how the tragic events would impact Virginia Tech. In a show of support, fellow students at universities across the U.S. created video tributes and memorials on You Tube, some remixing an audio track of Avril Lavigne's "Keep Holding On" with slideshows of photos grabbed from Flickr. Many of the videos ended with a slide displaying the logo of their universities next to the words "today we are all Hokies." Powerful forces were in play in Blacksburg that week. One was the invisible infrastructure of digital networks, wired and wireless, connecting a geographically isolated community to itself and to the world. Another was the connected culture of young adults, savvy content creators and communicators who instinctively use social media as integral parts of their life. When shots rang out, the story unfolded through their devices and their networks. A new generation of media experts provided an indelible record of what happened on a terrible day in Blacksburg. They have created a lasting tribute to and by its community. The way we are informed will never be the same. -- Original Source: ifocos - institute for the connected society <a href="http://ifocos.org/2007/04/23/connected-to-the-news-by-a-generation-of-wired-witnesses/">http://ifocos.org/2007/04/23/connected-to-the-news-by-a-generation-of-wired-witnesses/</a> Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5</a>. Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Title A name given to the resource Connected to the news by a generation of wired witnesses citizen journalism common good community media