Virginia Tech

Anyone who is not living an incredibly secluded life (if you are, can I join you there?) has probably heard about the tragedy at Virginia Tech. where a gunman killed some 33 people, including himself. I've struggled whether to weigh in on this or not, but I felt that I would do so because I feel like a lot of the subtext of what is being said is awful.

First and foremost, as a Christian, I am praying for those actually affected by this. Friends, families and Virginia Tech's students and faculty are hurting right now. God of all comfort, be near to them and somehow work this evil towards good. Christ, have mercy.

I implore people to not use this as a springboard for their agendas. Gun control lobbyists, anti-video game lobbyists and people of this ilk: I'm talking about you. While you may have some valid points, just shut up for a while and grieve with those who are mourning.

I also understand that, in pain, people want someone to blame. Since the killer committed suicide, he does not prevent the convenient target. Please don't turn the school's president and the the chief of campus police into scapegoats to satisfy your pain-fueled desire for justice. Guess what: there won't be any here. The pain won't go away just because you feel like you have someone to blame.

To the news media: you disgust me. Human suffering is not a commodity to be packaged, sensationalized and delivered to consumers. You're a pack of vultures; a bunch of parasites of pain. Stop giving voice to the lobbyists who want to twist this for their own cause. Learn to listen, learn to suffer with those who are suffering. Tell us what's happening, and get the hell out of the way. Please.

To those who will inevitably say, "let's ensure this never happens again," I have news for you: you can't do that. What you can do is learn to live a life that is full of joy and pain amidst many uncertainties. I'm not saying that nothing can be done, but I am saying that fear and pain do not drive anyone to make good decisions about the way things can be.

Every crisis is an opportunity. Let us not miss out, no matter how ugly the package this crisis came in.

Published on April 17th, 2007

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Original Source: mattwiebe.com
<a href="http://mattwiebe.com/2007/04/virginia-tech/">http://mattwiebe.com/2007/04/virginia-tech/</a>

This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ca/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License</a>.

Matt Wiebe

2007-07-16

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License

eng

Bruins gather to grieve

By Carolyn McGough
Friday, April 20, 2007

Tears rolled down many UCLA community members&#39; faces in De Neve Plaza on Thursday night, as hundreds gathered to honor the memory of the victims of the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech.

Following Monday morning&#39;s shootings - in which 33 were killed, including professors and students - a vigil was planned by the Office of Residential Life and the Undergraduate Students Association Council.

Five hundred tea candles were distributed before the somber ceremony began, but there still were not enough for each person in the huge crowd that gathered, said USAC President Marwa Kaisey.

Kaisey was the first to speak, as she strived to bring community members together and encouraged them to share feelings.

"We want to show Virginia Tech support, to show that the Bruins care and have been touched by the tragedy," Kaisey said.

During the ceremony, Kaisey read the names of each of the victims in an effort to "humanize the tragedy."

A quilt will be sent to Virginia Tech to show that UCLA identifies with and cares for the Blacksburg, Va. school, she said.

Students were invited to decorate a patch for the quilt and become a direct part of the support.

Former member of the Peace Corps and UCLA Ombudsperson Donald Hartsock also spoke. He emphasized the close bond UCLA and Virginia Tech have with each other, both great American universities.

"Respectfully, I say &#39;Go Hokies.&#39; And I say to us now, &#39;Go Bruins.&#39; We are family," he said.

This is the largest shooting massacre in the United States that has occurred on another college campus - a campus not too unlike UCLA, she said.

Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old student at Virginia Tech, opened fire Monday morning in two buildings, killing two students in a dorm room and then 30 more in one of the buildings on campus. Afterward, Seung-Hui then proceeded to kill himself.

The gunman had mailed NBC a package containing a 23-page written statement, which exemplified a struggle he had between himself and his surrounding environment. Photos and videos were also sent of himself holding and aiming guns.

Since the event, many universities and students across the country have shown their support for the Virginia Tech community through social-networking Web sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Some students have also changed their profile pictures to Virginia Tech insignias.

Kristin Gardner, a Virginia Tech alumna from the class of 2003, attended the vigil to thank UCLA for its consideration.

Encouraging all to wear orange and maroon - the colors of Virginia Tech - students and alumni of the university have declared today as "Hokie Hope Day," she said.

Students were encouraged to seek support from friends, family and university resources, said Director of Student Psychological Services Elizabeth Gong-Guy.

"SPS wishes to offer you whatever support you need. But the best support really does come from your peers," she said.

A theme of the night portrayed by speeches and the somber environment was the closeness between UCLA and Virginia Tech students.

"Even though it seems so far away, it&#39;s an American university," said Angie Noffsinger, a fourth-year communication studies student.

"It&#39;s important for us to show that at UCLA we identify with the students at Virginia Tech."

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Original Source:<a href=http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/2007/apr/20/bruins_gather_grieve/>April 20, 2007</a>

Carolyn McGough,

The Daily Bruin

2007-07-15

Sara Hood

Saba Riazati <editor@media.ucla.edu>

eng

Distraught, Duke asks questions

<i>2 days later, campus still rattled by tragedy</i>

By: Kristen Davis
Posted: 4/18/07

More than a hundred students, faculty and administrators bowed their heads in silence at 2 p.m. Tuesday, as the Duke Chapel bell tolled 33 times-once for each casualty of the Virginia Tech shootings.

The interfaith vigil-which was organized by Craig Kocher, assistant dean of the Chapel and director of religious life-was held at the same time as a memorial service in Blacksburg, Va., to display solidarity between Virginia Tech and Duke.

In his reflection, Dean of the Chapel Samuel Wells spoke about the "fragile beauty" of human life and prayed for all those affected by the tragedy.

A Buddhist chant of compassion was offered, and Carlisle Harvard, director of the International House, urged students to be sympathetic to Korean students&#39; possible anxiety over the ethnicity of the shooter, who was identified Tuesday.

Many Duke students-including some of the more than 500 undergraduates and graduates who call Virginia home-said that in the past two days they have felt the effects of the tragedy in a variety of ways.

"Being at Duke, we usually don&#39;t have time to deal with personal issues, so it was good to have time to release and vent and have a moment of silence," said Tiffany Scott, a senior from Virginia who added that she was relieved to learn that none of her friends at Virginia Tech had been hurt.

Alan Combs, a third-year Divinity School student who is also from Virginia, said his brother-in-law, a freshman at Virginia Tech, used his cell phone to take one of the pictures that appeared on CNN.com.

Combs&#39; brother-in-law was not injured in the shootings, but at least one of his friends was killed.

Combs, along with several other students, said the events encouraged deeper self-reflection.

"[The massacre] reminds everyone of the contingency of our lives, which is not necessarily something to be fearful of, but more of a reminder that I don&#39;t control my own life," Combs said.

Many students also said that although they have made an effort to keep updated with news of the incident, they do not approve of the media&#39;s coverage of it.

"I tried to avoid watching the television because instead of acknowledging the tragedy, they spend time specifying motives and who&#39;s to blame," Combs said.

Students have used Internet technology, however, to broadcast their support for their fellow college students at Virginia Tech.

The Facebook group "We Love You, Virginia Tech (Dukies in Support of Techies on a terrible day)" had 144 members as of Tuesday night, and many students have changed their Facebook profile pictures to a black ribbon with the maroon Virginia Tech insignia. "A lot of schools are creating their own logos [with their mascots] for support," junior Nick Pardo said. "&#39;Today we are all Hokies.&#39;"

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Original Source: <a href=http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2007/04/18/News/Distraught.Duke.Asks.Questions-2849464.shtml> Duke Chronicle - April 18, 2007</a>

Kristen Davis

2007-06-24

Sara Hood

David Graham <david.graham@duke.edu>

eng

Put grief on the front page

By: Anthony Galanos
Posted: 4/20/07

The media coverage of the tragedy at Virginia Tech is rewarding insanity and complicating grief. But there are 32 families, and an entire university who are grieving. Not sad, not upset, not disgruntled... but GRIEVING. And how we treat them in this critical period will determine how they cope now and what the legacy of this past week will be for them.

Almost as sad as the loss of life is that this American culture acts like it knows not what grieving is. You want to see grieving, find any child 10 years of age or younger and watch them after their dog or cat dies. It is not a profound concept; it does not require a degree in philosophy or theological training. It is a natural process, common to all humanity. Why we ignore it or complicate it, I do not know, but to accent anything at this raw moment but the grief of the people involved is to confuse them-no, is to use them and to make their journey more complicated and more traumatic than it already is. If my 18-year-old daughter were shot and killed in her dorm, and the only way it was described by her college president was as a "domestic situation" because they thought she had dated the shooter, I would be outraged. I would wonder why this man or woman was on TV and not acknowledging my loss. I would wonder why a famous news anchor is blaming him for police matters (my assumption is that most college presidents know little, if anything, about police work) when I just lost my daughter. And, if the task of losing my child were not difficult enough, then I would have to cope with the media, stating without any evidence whatsoever, that perhaps my daughter&#39;s life "could have been spared". Now, and forever, that "what if" question would dominate me. It was not random or the product of psychosis. It was someone&#39;s fault, or so say the pundits. What would have been a normal grieving process, is now complicated. I was not afraid to grieve, but my grieving may have no end point.

As a clinician, let me pronounce, just like the talking heads on TV, that you have no right to comment on my loss. Indeed, unless you have every fact available, know without doubt how and why it happened or I abdicate it to you... you have no right to judge or comment on my loss. That right does not belong to Matt Lauer or NBC or my priest. It belongs to me and my family. She was ours, not yours. Neither your camera, your microphone or your best intentions allow you to take this moment from us. We teach doctors in training how to deliver "bad news." We have learned that such moments belong to patients and families, not to us. And that our simple presence there, however silent, is more powerful than our explanations of physiology or what went wrong.

Cannot we just say "let us let the grieving begin" and we can sort out the details when all of the data are in... and the facts are known? Can we not just let the students at Virginia Tech and the families, just tell us about the people they lost. Who were they? What were they like? How do you want us to remember them? This would be the line of questioning that would let any healing have any chance of taking hold. Can we not simply acknowledge that this moment is theirs, not ours or that of the media? Who was not touched by the dad being interviewed who said at the end of the segment that his daughter&#39;s body had not yet been released to him or his family, and that they wanted to see her. The interviewer asked him what he would do if he could see his daughter, almost puzzled by why this guy was asking to "see my daughter." He responded, "so that I can kiss her face." Is that not grieving? Is that not how this man will cope and heal over time? Do we not instinctively know what he is saying? Of course we do, and parents all over America hugged and kissed their children this week. How many phone calls did Duke students receive from parents this week? For some reason, we often wait to express our feelings for one another at the end, on the "death bed," but this man&#39;s open grief spurred us to action in the moment. Indeed, "why wait?"

This should not just be the purview of doctors, chaplains and counselors. This belongs to all of us, all of humankind. Put grief on the front page, and let the culture of blame do its bidding on the back pages, whether it is Virginia Tech or Iraq. Wherever there is loss of life, particularly of the magnitude of this past Monday or every Monday in Iraq, let us learn how to grieve and how to allow the families involved to grieve. Do not ask me who is to blame, or whether my child could have been spared. Ask me who my child was and then just sit there and be quiet. I will share with you that I need to kiss my child one more time. I will grieve.

Do not let the media, however well intentioned, teach you how not to grieve. You already know how.

<i>Anthony Galanos, Trinity &#39;75, works at Duke University Medical Center in the Department of Medicine and the Palliative Care Service.</i>

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Original Source: <a href=http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2007/04/20/Columns/Put-Grief.On.The.Front.Page-2871376.shtml> Duke Chronicle - April 20, 2007</a>

Anthony Galanos

2007-06-24

Sara Hood

David Graham <david.graham@duke.edu>

eng

Finding meaning in tragedy

By Brandon McGinley
Princetonian Columnist

As the epigraph for "The Brothers Karamazov," Fyodor Dostoevsky presented John 12:24:

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit."

At first glance, the verse is difficult to decipher due to the vexing translation. The novel that follows, however, allows for a better understanding of this significant statement, which is particularly powerful in this time of national mourning.

Faced with such senseless suffering, it is natural to recoil from any faith in divine harmony, for no amount of retribution, whether in this life or the next, can return the smiling faces of the lost to their friends and family. It is precisely at this moment, though, when that faith is being fired in the crucible of anger, grief and doubt, when it proves to be most comforting and, perhaps, most true.

One of the most profound truths presented by Dostoevsky in his last novel is often simply accepted in contemporary society, without exploring its ramifications: We are all connected. It is a statement short on words but long on meaning. In "The Brothers Karamazov," the reader is blessed with the omniscience to understand that the entire cast of characters is hurtling toward tragedy, while each individual within the plot, particularly the three brothers, do not conceive the ultimate consequences of their actions or inactions.

Though we strive, and rightfully so, for that connectedness in our lives — through friendships, community service, religious services, etc. — it is too often convenient to think of oneself as insulated from the rest of the community. At times of moral crisis, it is so much easier to disregard, either through true ignorance or active self-delusion, the propagation of ramifications throughout this tightly woven human network. When one decides to have sex without protection, proceed with an abortion procedure or take the life (or allow the taking of the life) of another human being, the consequences are never simply personal.

When we either temporarily overlook that connectedness or are so selfish that we ignore the implications for countless others of our own flawed decision-making, we commit a transgression against the entire human network and, if you wish, against the God who lovingly created each of us equally in his image. And so, in this manner, we can see the killer in Blacksburg, Va., often described as an outsider or loner, as someone who, feeling disconnected from the community by cultural issues or other mental strife, could claim no stake in the community and felt no moral obligation to it.

It is interesting, but ultimately unrewarding to examine in hindsight the psychology of the killer. What is most important to those affected by this tragedy is a fuller understanding of the meaning of their monumental loss. For if all of humanity is connected through this interwoven web, certainly the impact of death can be felt far beyond the individual.

This brings us to the Biblical verse which opened this column and to the powerful conclusion of "The Brothers Karamazov." A clearer translation of it is as follows: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." But what is the "fruit" that results from the tragic loss of innocent life?

In "The Brothers Karamazov," the answer is memories — fond remembrances of times spent together, of goodness, of love. Near the end of the plot, the young boy Ilyushechka, after several days of visits from his school friends, dies from a painful disease. After the funeral, the young monk Alyosha gathers the children together in the center of their somber Russian village.

He says to them, "You must know that there is nothing higher and stronger and more wholesome and good for life in the future than some good memory, especially a memory of childhood, of home." But how can we compare the death of a young character in a nineteenth century Russian novel to the loss of 32 innocent lives on the campus of Virginia Tech?

To use the old adage, no man is an island. Each lost individual leaves behind hundreds if not thousands of others who have been touched by his or her life, and now untimely death. And those thousands of souls have been blessed with millions of memories of goodness and love. Across this nation and this globe, the tragedy has affected millions more who have no personal attachment to Virginia Tech, but who cannot help but reexamine their own values and priorities in the face of such destruction and who cannot help but be encouraged about the state of the human condition after viewing the solidarity of the Virginia Tech community.

This is not to glorify death, but to grasp meaning from the flames of despair, for no man dies in vain.

As the book ends, the boys come together to say, "We will remember, we will remember!"

At the Cassell Coliseum on the campus of Virginia Tech, the students raised their voiced to the rafters and exclaimed, through the grief, the mourning and the sadness that "We are Virginia Tech!"

<i>Brandon McGinley is a freshman from Pittsburgh, Pa. He may be reached at bmcginle@princeton.edu. </i>

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Original Source: <a href=http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2007/04/19/opinion/18137.shtml> Daily Princetonian - April 19, 2007</a>

Brandon McGinley

2007-06-22

Sara Hood

Kavita Saini <ksaini@Princeton.EDU>

eng