What could have been done to prevent to massacre at Virginia Tech?
description: By Arlen Parsa Filed: Thursday April 19th 2007, 9:05 AM In the wake of the tragedy at Virginia Tech on Monday, April 16, many asked how such a thing could have happened. It was the deadliest shooting spree in American history, and already there seems to have been several moments where the incident could have been avoided. The killer, Cho Seung-Hui, himself said in a manifesto mailed to NBC News "You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today." While there probably weren't "a hundred billion chances and ways" to have avoided the massacre that claimed the lives of 33 people including Cho, but there were several common sense things that could have been done. It's important to recognize that this horrific incident didn't happen just anywhere: the shootings happened in Virginia; a state known for having some of the most relaxed firearm regulations in the entire country. In fact, critics and safety advocates had complained for years that VA firearm regulations were wholly inadequate and substandard when compared with the rest of the country. Here are a few ideas that the Virginia state legislature ought to consider implementing. I'm not holding my breath since it's made up of staunch NRA types and has been controlled by Republicans for years. But tragedies like these force everyone to reconsider their ideologies. First, how about a law that says if you've been classified as mentally unstable and an imminent threat to yourself or others by doctors and a court- then you're not allowed to walk into a store and walk out with a gun and enough ammo to kill dozens of students? This might sound like a no-brainer, but there is currently no mechanism in place in Virginia to stop mentally unstable people from buying as many deadly weapons and ammunition as they like. In this case, the shooter Cho Seung-Hui was diagnosed with mental disorders, had been taken antidepressants and been checked into a mental hospital in 2005. But that didn't stop him from buying deadly …
creator: Arlen Parsa
date: 2007-05-26
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 1.0
language: eng

What If It Happened Every Day?
description: By Keith Boykin, in politics Tuesday, April 17 2007, 10:24AM The news was gruesome and alarming. Reuters reported that at least 30 people were shot yesterday in a deadly gun rampage that rocked a city once known for its safety and scholarship. By now, you've heard about the story, and many of us have already stopped paying attention. But I'm not talking about the deadly school shooting in Virginia Monday morning. I'm talking about the deadly violence in Iraq that goes on everyday. While most of the world was understandably horrified by the campus shooting at Virginia Tech yesterday, almost no one paid attention to the 30 people who were shot and killed in Baghdad on the same day. The shock and horror of watching such dramatic violence in Virginia immediately resonated with Americans. But here's something else to ponder. What if it happened every day? What if we saw that kind of carnage in our communities every night on the evening news? It sounds far-fetched, but that's exactly the situation that faces many Iraqis almost every day of the year. If the shooting in Virginia tells us anything about human society, it should tell us that violence is far too common in the world. It's not just an American problem or an Iraqi problem, it is a global problem. What kind of world do we live in where young students have virtually unfettered access to sophisticated deadly weapons that can be used to kill their classmates and teachers? And how did we become desensitized to the tens of thousands of civilian casulaties in a war we're still fighting in Baghdad? I don't think it is possible to stop every murder or every killing that takes place in this country or abroad, but I do believe we have a responsibility to promote the conditions for peace. For all the talk about our Christian values in America, we are an extraordinarily violent society. The FBI reported 1.4 million violent crimes in the U.S. in 2005 and more than 16,000 murders. That's a drop from the record high figures in t…
creator: Keith Boykin
date: 2007-07-17
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 1.0
language: eng

What if it happened here?
description: The violence on the campus at Virginia Tech draws attention to the emergency procedures and prevention tactics at the University Matt Dickey and Catherine Conkle, Cavalier Daily Associate Editors Days after students at Virginia Tech struggled to defend themselves in the face of the deadliest shooting spree in U.S. history, students at the University can't help but ask a simple, unanswerable question: what if it happened here? According to University officials, who say they are admittedly shaken by Monday's shootings, procedures are in place to deal with similar situations on Grounds. Yet administrators now take on the difficult task of reevaluating safety measures and finding ways to prevent an event like this from happening at the University. U.Va. responds in the aftermath In addition to helping Virginia Tech by offering security and psychological services to Virginia Tech, the University has also steps taken to ensure security on Grounds. "We have done several things in response to the Tech incident," said Susan Harris, assistant to the executive vice president and chief operating officer. "We yesterday increased the number of police officers patrolling ... Grounds and put police and security on high alert for anything suspicious." Although University administrators did consider canceling classes Monday, the administration decided that security concerns did not call for cancellation. "We did not see any increased security risk at U.Va. that would warrant [cancellation of classes] for security reasons," Harris said. Harris also said administrators felt that classes could provide and outlet for students to deal with emotional reactions to the shootings. "Being in class and discussing this with faculty members was a very effective way of dealing with and processing this kind of incident," she said. University spokesperson Carol Wood echoed this sentiment. "Class offers a safe environment where students could come together to talk if they needed," Wood said, adding t…
creator: Matt Dickey and Catherine Conkle
publisher: The Cavalier Daily
date: 2007-07-31
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Meggie Bonner <meggiebonner@gmail.com>
language: eng

What if it happened here?
description: Virginia Tech tragedy causes campus safety issues to surface at AU By Bethany Kirby Assistant State & Local Editor One question has probably crossed every college student's mind in the last three days. What if it had happened to us? It's a valid question. Virginia Tech, which lies in the heart of the college town of Blacksburg, Va., is similar to Auburn in both size and spirit. Cho Seung-Hui, who was identified as the gunman in Monday's Virginia Tech massacre, took the lives of 32 of his fellow students before taking his own. It has sent universities across the country into a heightened state of awareness about their own preparedness for extreme incidents. "Auburn University has a comprehensive emergency response plan that is practiced frequently," said Christine Eick, director of risk management and safety. "The University has really put a lot of resources into our emergency management and planning," Eick said. "It is something we take very seriously." The University has periodic drills in training for emergency situations. Eick said this develops the communication between the University and the emergency response teams such as the FBI, the Auburn Police Division, the Opelika Police Department, the Lee County Sheriff's Office and the Alabama State Troopers. Eick said the drills include practice in a variety of possible scenarios, so the teams will have a good framework for any type of emergency. "We have actually planned and drilled on persons with weapons," Eick said. Although the most recent drill was different than the situation at Virginia Tech, Eick said it was actually conducted on a larger scale. "It's pretty hard to give out reassurances at this time, because it was a horrific event," Eick said. But she emphasized that for Auburn, emergency management and response is a priority. Capt. Tom Stofer of the Auburn Police Division said there is a school crisis plan for situations like this one in Auburn. "It just basically gives us our protocol to respond to any …
creator: Bethany Kirby
publisher: Auburn Plainsman
date: 2007-09-03
contributor: Sara AA Hood
rights: David Ingram <ingradc@auburn.edu>
language: eng

What May Come: Asian Americans and the Virginia Tech Shootings
description: By Tamara K. Nopper | 04.19.2007 April 17, 2007 Like many, I was glued to the television news yesterday, keeping updated about the horrific shootings at Virginia Tech University. I was trying to deal with my own disgust and sadness, especially since my professional life as a graduate student and college instructor is tied to universities. And then the other shoe dropped. I found out from a friend that the news channel she was watching had reported the shooter as Asian. It has now been reported, after much confusion, that the shooter is Cho Seung-Hui, a South Korean immigrant and Virginia Tech student. As an Asian American woman, I am keenly aware that Asians are about to become a popular media topic if not the victims of physical backlash. Rarely have we gotten as much attention in the past fifteen years, except, perhaps, during the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. Since then Asians are seldom seen in the media except when one of us wins a golfing match, Woody Allen has sex, or Angelina Jolie adopts a kid. I am not looking forward to the onslaught of media attention. If history truly does have clues about what will come, there may be several different ways we as Asian Americans will be talked about. One, we will watch white media pundits and perhaps even sociologists explain what they understand as an "Asian" way of being. They will talk about how Asian males presumably have fragile "egos" and therefore are culturally prone to engage in kamikaze style violence. These statements will be embedded with racist tropes about Japanese military fighters during WWII or the Viet Cong—the crazy, calculating, and hidden Asian man who will fight to the death over presumably nothing. In the process, the white media might actually ask Asian Americans our perspectives for a change. We will probably be expected to apologize in some way for the behavior of another Asian—something whites never have to collectively do when one of theirs engages in (mass) violence, which is often. And then s…
creator: Tamara K. Nopper
date: 2007-06-10
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere.
language: eng

what now
description: As the days go on and we go on with them we recollect what we try in ways to forget that what happened was anger within one that killed a son with no battle won. A daughter that died that is remembered by parents that cried. A nation that sighed that realized it could happen anywhere as much as we try not to touch, the rationality of such a act that is now a fact. We can not understand what this man could not stand and thus many fell and this man's story was told by his bold actions of maddness in rage and broken out in a fury from his cage. Now we all must pray for those that our lost, and with each tear we feel the cost for a single man's fury being tossed over a day that will stay with us forever....As do the memories of those who look down from above at us below and echo their face..that we will never erase. We are all the same. Let love live. CMD.
creator: casey dicken
date: 2007-05-28
contributor: casey dicken
language: eng

What We Can Learn From Virginia Tech
description: By Dr. Thomas Parham In the wake of the tragic events that occurred at Virginia Tech University, many in our community will be forced to wrestle with and confront some tough questions and concerns. Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims and families, as well as the broader campus community. No amount of planning and preparation can ever truly prepare one for the events that unfolded on April 16, and yet our thoughts cannot resist the tendency to delve into spaces that invite critical reflection and analysis about our own vulnerability to such a tragedy within the borders of this campus. Times like these challenge our individual and collective sensibilities as we seek to desperately cling to notions of life that are far more predictable, less scary and less unsettling. Our designs for living and patterns for interpreting reality have been shaken by this single act of horrific proportion, which dislodges us from our comfortable spaces of intellectual, emotional, behavioral and even spiritual comfort. As people struggle to cope with this horrific tragedy, it is likely that some will experience a broad range of emotional reactions, including anxiety, confusion, depression, insecurity, anger, resentment, sadness, vulnerability and fear. Some may experience difficulty sleeping, eating or concentrating on their studies. These feelings are normal and reasonable, and consistent with what mental health professionals predict. Over time, these feelings will diminish for most people. We want each member of our community to know that we are here for you in ways that ensure, to the best of our ability, your safety, as well as address your emotional and psychological well-being in this time of extreme distress. In recalling the incidents of last week, I want to invite each of you to resist the temptation to espouse what could or should have been done. Hindsight is always 20/20, and none of us really knows what it was like in the moments surrounding the tragedy. What I do want…
creator: Thomas A. Parham
publisher: New University
date: 2007-08-19
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Zachary Gale <newueic@gmail.com>
language: eng

What went wrong at Blacksburg?
description: By: Jason Javie Posted: 4/20/07 The Virginia Tech tragedy will continue to resonate for some time to come, and rightly so. Many questions surrounding last Monday's events are yet to be answered, and must be in order for the grieving victims and families to move on from the horror that was April 16th, 2007. To be fair, there has been no official statement concretely outlining the events of that fateful Monday morning, although what has been pieced together speaks to a rather shabbily-handled situation. Why was there a delay in the excess of two hours following the first incident before students were notified? Why had President Charles Stegler not declared a campus-wide emergency and locked the school down? Why were students in the classrooms at Norris Hall at 9:10 a.m. trying to make sense of a vague e-mail informing them of the shooting? The only precautionary measure taken by the campus security apparatus prior to 9 a.m. was to lock down the site of the first incident. Shortly after, an e-mail was sent advising the University community of the incident, recommending caution, and instructing them to contact police with any information. Less than one hour later, the gunman reemerged to massacre 30 people in a nearby classroom. One cannot help but ponder if, had more decisive initiatives been taken, many of the deaths and injuries could have been preventable. Freak tragedy, yes-unmanageable, no. As the president of Virginia Tech, Mr. Stegler is responsible for the safety of students during emergencies. In the words of Dr. Sharon Javie, former professor of Marketing at LaSalle University, "It is unconscionable that [Stegler] did not lock the campus down after the first two students were shot. You either apprehend the suspect, or you shut the campus down." I can't say I disagree. While impossible to predict the first shootings, Mr. Stegler has indicated that he thought the first killings were simply the result of a domestic dispute and that the gunman had fled campus. Ev…
creator: Jason Javie
publisher: The Miami Hurricane
date: 2007-08-09
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Dominick Tao <dtao@alligator.org>
language: eng

What's "Korean" got to do with it?
description: by J Lee | April 19, 2007 When I was growing up in the 80s, it often seemed that the world was holding its breath, keeping its fingers crossed to prevent some sort of nuclear disaster. The apocalypse that I imagined then had to do with the world going up in a mushroom cloud, because of polarization along national and political lines. But this next generation's experiences (as E Wesp pointed out in his comment) have been punctuated by violence of a different type, enacted by one or a few individuals and relatively low technology. I want to pick up a few threads of conversation, starting with the comment by ms which addresses the idea of narrative and also points out that we have started this conversation with race. In our discussion and in many of the blog comments I have been reading on this side of the world, the use of the label "Korean" has been hotly debated, some arguing that the shooter's ethnicity may offer clues to his motivations, others charging that to invoke the term is racist. I am curious about how this label "Korean" gets deployed and what meaning it has. In other words, does it matter that he was Korean? What are the conditions under which someone's ethnicity becomes "visible" and how it gets worked into the stories we tell about why something happened, about who is responsible, and about our emotional relationships to the subject? In a basic way, the label "Korean" subverts the popular stereotype of the angry white middle class male shooter. It provides a potentially different kind of explanatory factor, complicating questions about Cho's mental health, his upbringing, ideas about the expression of masculine anger, etc. What I find interesting from our own discussion as well as other articles is how minorities have reacted. Personally, I heard "Korean," "parents own a dry-cleaning business," "sister at Princeton," and "Centreville, VA" and unconsciously began constructing my own narrative of Cho's life, filling in the blanks with my own experiences …
creator: J Lee
date: 2007-05-26
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0
language: eng

When massacres are normal: guns and Virginia Tech
creator: Binoy Kampmark
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: You are contributing your stories and/or files to The April 16 Archive, which is developing a permanent digital record of the events surrounding the tragedy on the Virginia Tech campus on April 16, 2007. Your participation in this project will allow future researchers, and people such as yourself, to gain a greater understanding of these events and the responses to them.
language: eng

When tragedy is for sale, it isn’t tragic enough
description: Issue Date:Tuesday April 17, 2007 Section: Editorial Section Ry Rivard, City Editor By the end of the Monday it was obvious that the media had begun selling the day's horrors at Virginia Tech. No matter the gravity or magnitude of a tragedy, this country's commentators veer from events as they are, in and of themselves horrible, to a decontextualized, surreal account of things so they can be sold to and consumed by us. The shooting - the deadliest shooting in American history - quickly became, for some people, another chance to make various political points. It became, by the time Wolf Blitzer's show aired, a sort of tragic-porn, a way for the media to provoke rather than inform. Commentators tried to politicize it, politicians tried to comment on it, the news channels tried to heighten the drama with their usual parade of loud music and epic comparisons, "This is worse than ... " or "This is the biggest ... " Was what happened not enough in and of itself? Glenn Reynolds, law professor at University of Tennessee, quickly posted a 52-page paper on his popular Weblog arguing that the best way to prevent shootings like Monday's is to permit concealed handguns. It was the day's most academic approach to the event, but it was also one of the most callous. Written by two economists, the paper concluded that "the only policy factor to influence multiple victim public shootings is the passage of concealed handgun laws." Reynolds and several others who followed his lead took the deaths of 33 students to advance an agenda which, although done in an attempt to stop such events in the future, made them into a policy argument. Similarly, the Drudge Report, a conservative news site, dragged out a fourth-month old story from Roanoke Times about failed piece of legislation that would have permitted concealed handguns. It reported, "Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. 'I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembl…
creator: Ry Rivard
date: 2008-02-18
contributor: Kacey Beddoes
rights: Leann Ray <Leann.Ray@mail.wvu.edu>
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

Where Is God When It Hurts?
description: A sermon given on the Virginia Tech campus two weeks after the shootings. Philip Yancey | posted 6/06/2007 05:31PM We gather here still trying to make sense of what happened in Blacksburg, still trying to process the unprocessable. We come together in this place, as a Christian community, partly because we know of no better place to bring our questions and our grief and partly because we don't know where else to turn. As the apostle Peter once said to Jesus, at a moment of confusion and doubt, "Lord, to whom else can we go?" In considering how to begin today, I found myself following two different threads. The first thread is what I would like to say, the words I wish I could say. The second thread is the truth. I wish I could say that the pain you feel will disappear, vanish, never to return. I'm sure you've heard comments like these from parents and others: "Things will get better." "You'll get past this." "This too shall pass." Those who offer such comfort mean well, and it's true that what you feel now you will not always feel. Yet it's also true that what happened on April 16, 2007, will stay with you forever. You are a different person because of that day, because of one troubled young man's actions. I remember one year when three of my friends died. In my thirties then, I had little experience with death. In the midst of my grief, I came across these lines from George Herbert that gave me solace: "Grief melts away / Like snow in May / As if there were no such cold thing." I clung to that hope even as grief smothered me like an avalanche. Indeed, the grief did melt away, but like snow it also came back, in fierce and unexpected ways, triggered by a sound, a smell, some fragment of memory of my friends. So I cannot say what I want to say, that this too shall pass. Instead, I point to the pain you feel, and will continue to feel, as a sign of life and love. I'm wearing a neck brace because I broke my neck in an auto accident. For the first few hours as I lay str…
creator: Philip Yancey
date: 2007-06-18
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Becky Custer, Editorial Coordinator (bcuster@christianitytoday.com)
language: eng

White Balloons for Each Victim
description: A ceremony held on the first day of class after the tragedy in which one balloon is released for each victim. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevincupp/470150265/in/photostream/ Photo Courtesy of Kevin Cupp
creator: Kevin Cupp
date: 2007-06-07
contributor: Chad Newswander
rights: Permission: Kevin Cupp http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevincupp/470150265/in/photostream/
language: eng

White memorial
description: Memorial stone of Nicole Regina White taken on 4/16/08. Photo by Brian Sewell. -- Original Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/briansewell/2419169347/in/set-72157604577382666/
creator: Brian Sewell
date: 2008-05-02
contributor: Kacey Beddoes
rights: Brian Sewell <bwsewell@vt.edu>
language: eng

Why I Participated in the One Day Blog Silence
description: I chose to participate in the One Day Blog Silence. There are much worse, but less publicized violence and prejudice daily, so I have spent the one day blog silence in honor of all victims of injustice around the world. The silence day was started to honor those who died at the Virginia Tech Massacre. Sadly, it has been the most controversial issue I have seen within the blogosphere. Why do we argue whether or not to participate? First of all, we all intend to honor those who were killed. Is it not possible to do so in our own ways, without having to argue what the best way is? I don't care in what way you do it, as long as you stand against injustice, I definitely agree with you. Further, some say that silence isn't the best way to honor the dead. First of all, what do you do at funerals? Your mourn, then you move on. Moreover, what action do you plan on taking? We can speak out; I've already posted about abolishing animosity. But further than that, we have little power to change much of the law, let alone drastically change other countries. So if you think of an alternative, that isn't too idealistic, I wish to take part. For the meantime do what you gotta do. In my case, I chose to share my thoughts and spend a day in silence. Man’s inability to live God’s words makes the Avatar’s teaching a mockery. Instead of practicing the compassion he taught, man has waged wars in his name. Instead of living the humility, purity, and truth of his words, man has given way to hatred, greed, and violence. Because man has been deaf to the principles and precepts laid down by God in the past, in this present Avataric form, I observe silence. - Silence Day Please understand my reasons for not speaking today. I am participating in the Day of Silence, a national youth movement protesting the silence faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their allies in schools. My deliberate silence echoes that silence, which is caused by harassment, prejudice, and discriminatio…
creator: 2Perfect / BJ Nodora
date: 2007-06-03
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada
language: eng

Why Virginia Tech killings happened
description: EDITORIAL Published Apr 17, 2007 11:36 PM Yet another rampage has occurred at a school, this time leaving 33 people dead at Virginia Tech—the worst such incident ever at a U.S. college campus. The news media seem stunned and surprised, yet their coverage sounds so similar to the stories about Columbine eight years ago. They dwell on the personality of the young man the police say did the shooting, before killing himself. They talk about him being a "loner," depressed, perhaps angry at women. But aren't there lonely and depressed people all over the world? Many countries have high suicide rates. Why is it that here some become mass murderers? The U.S. is the world leader in seemingly random acts of violence by individuals. Why? President George W. Bush rushed to Virginia to speak at a large convocation the day after the killings and tried to set the tone for what could be said about them. "It's impossible to make sense of such violence and suffering," he said. Don't ask why, don't try to understand. It makes no sense. "Have faith" instead, was Bush's message. But there ARE reasons these things happen here, and they are pretty clear to the rest of the world. It's just in the United States that no one is supposed to talk about the reasons. What distinguishes this country from the rest of the world? It is neither the most affluent nor the poorest. It is neither the most secular nor the most religious. It is not the most culturally homogeneous nor is it the most diverse. But in one area, it stands virtually alone. It has the biggest arsenal of high-tech weaponry in the world, way surpassing every other country. It has military bases spread all over; most countries have no troops outside their borders. It is conducting two hot wars at the moment, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has sent hundreds of thousands of troops abroad over the last few years. Every day, the public here is supposed to identify with soldiers who burst into homes in Baghdad, round up the people and tak…
creator: Workers World
date: 2007-06-10
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Copyright 1995-2007 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
language: eng

Why Virginia Tech Shootings Happened
description: A Statement from the International Action Center Yet another rampage has occurred at a school, this time leaving 33 people dead at Virginia Tech-the worst such incident ever at a U.S. college campus. The news media seem stunned and surprised, yet their coverage sounds so similar to the stories about Columbine eight years ago. They dwell on the personality of the young man the police say did the shooting, before killing himself. They talk about him being a "loner," depressed, perhaps angry at women. But aren't there lonely and depressed people all over the world? Many countries have high suicide rates. Why is it that here some become mass murderers? The U.S. is the world leader in seemingly random acts of violence by individuals. Why? President George W. Bush rushed to Virginia to speak at a large convocation the day after the killings and tried to set the tone for what could be said about them. "It's impossible to make sense of such violence and suffering," he said. Don't ask why, don't try to understand. It makes no sense. "Have faith" instead, was Bush's message. But there ARE reasons these things happen here, and they are pretty clear to the rest of the world. It's just in the United States that no one is supposed to talk about the reasons. What distinguishes this country from the rest of the world? It is neither the most affluent nor the poorest. It is neither the most secular nor the most religious. It is not the most culturally homogeneous nor is it the most diverse. But in one area, it stands virtually alone. It has the biggest arsenal of high-tech weaponry in the world, way surpassing every other country. It has military bases spread all over; most countries have no troops outside their borders. It is conducting two hot wars at the moment, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has sent hundreds of thousands of troops abroad over the last few years. Every day, the public here is supposed to identify with soldiers who burst into homes in Baghdad, round up the people an…
creator: International Action Center of Tucson
date: 2007-08-04
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5
language: eng

Wide View of Dedication Ceremony
description: Wide view of crowd, tent, and speakers' stage at the dedication ceremony for the intermediate memorial. The War Memorial, which was another popular spot for spectators, is on the far left. Photo taken August 19, 2007. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0.
creator: Brent Jesiek
date: 2007-08-19
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
language: eng

Wide View of Intermediate Memorial Construction
description: View of the drillfield, intermediate memorial construction, and Burruss Hall from the War Memorial. Photo taken July 6, 2007. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0.
creator: Brent Jesiek
date: 2007-08-10
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
language: eng