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STAFF EDITORIAL
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2007-08-19
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By: STAFF EDITORIAL
Posted: 4/17/07
Many news outlets are calling it "the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history." For us, yesterday's shootings at Virginia Tech were a horrible tragedy, and they're also a reminder for all of us to examine our own campuses.
We join college students across the nation in extending our condolences to the families and friends of the Virginia Tech students who died yesterday. Certainly those students were in the forefront of our thoughts and in the background of our actions today.
Shock will diminish and the bleak reality of this heinous event will become clearer in the days to come. It's too early to know many of the important details of the shooting, but we do know that this will have an effect on college campuses across the country for years to come.
Many students watch or read the news and wonder if their own campuses would be able to handle a similar situation. We also wonder if the communication methods in place now are capable of keeping us abreast of developing situations on campus - not all of us have PDAs and BlackBerrys. Certainly, entire university communities are going to be looking for answers from their own administrators about safety measures that are in place and how they'll be augmented to better handle potential future emergency situations.
In the hours after the shootings, it seems as if many are quick to blame Virginia Tech for the shootings. After a thorough investigation into Monday's events is completed, Tech might receive criticism for its handling of the shootings - it might not. But as is the case at most campus, you do the best you can - universities and colleges aren't necessarily responsible for the actions of disturbed people. They certainly can't check every single person at every single door in every single building on their sprawling campus. They have to maintain security on campus while striking a careful balance with civil liberties.
Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg, in a statement to The Pitt News, said "We offer our heartfelt condolences to the friends and families of the victims and stand ready to be of assistance to members of the Virginia Tech community in any way they would find helpful."
And we hope that the college community in Blacksburg will be able to find solace in the offers of condolences from people across the world and be able to recover from an event that has already affected so many, from the victims to their families and to all of us who watch the television and read the stories online and ask: Why?
There has never been an act as violent in college history, and we hope that the future does not hold anything more tragic, but instead a chance to work with members of the community to make sure that we minimize the chances of this ever happening again.
--
Original Source:<a href=http://media.www.pittnews.com/media/storage/paper879/news/2007/04/17/Opinion/Editorial.Va.Shooting.Cause.For.Reflection-2845011.shtml>The Pitt News - April 17, 2007</a>
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Annie Tubbs <annietubbs@gmail.com>
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EDITORIAL - Va. shooting cause for reflection
campus security
pitt university
reflection
student response
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Elizabeth Miller
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2007-08-14
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By: Elizabeth Miller
Posted: 4/20/07
I am rarely at a loss for words. But now, as I approach this column after a week of tragedy - both at Miami University and nationwide - I can hardly form a rational thought. Somehow a 500-word column needs to be written on a topic that I cannot find one suitable word for.
I don't need to recall the events of Saturday night at Miami, or Monday afternoon at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Nothing that I say can express the individual grief, confusion and frustration that we feel. Like you, I've been watching the news and discussing it in class. Sometimes the facts are accurate. Sometimes they're just pieces of rumor that patch together some semblance of truth. I guess when you're desperate for answers, almost anything helps.
But as I'm flipping through the channels of repeated footage, I'm shocked to hear how quickly the actual disaster has been swept aside. The news is flooded with debate about Virginia gun sales and the failure of campus crisis communication. Somehow CNN and ABC find it appropriate to spark these debates right now. Gun control. University communication policy. The horror of this tragedy cannot be simplified into a policy debate. Not yet, anyways. This is about people. People were murdered, first and foremost. The aftermath should be filled with reverence and condolences for the victims. The focus should be for the families left behind, the campus that will be shaken forever and the lives that were taken.
We have to let ourselves grieve. We have to take time to hurt, to sympathize, to feel, to pray. This isn't a time to blame. Yes, there will be a time to discuss methods of prevention. That time is not now.
It is simply disrespectful to ignite any heated policy debate that supersedes the mourning for the lost lives. Of course, it's natural to seek blame and explanation when such an event happens. So, yes, we can point fingers. We can assume things about the school, the policies, the killer, the situation at-large. It's a natural reaction to assign blame at a time like this. But assigning blame won't bring those students and faculty back.
Like I said, I'm at a loss for eloquent words that can articulate the disaster. Words alone will not solve the confusion, they won't mend the grief. I'm at a loss for words, but I'm not at a loss for feeling. And perhaps that's all we can do for now. We can feel. We have to let ourselves grieve. This isn't a time to blame the state of Virginia for gun control policies. This isn't a time to question the administrative communication of the university. We will have months, maybe years, ahead for that. This tragedy isn't about policy. It's about lives. And for now, the respect for those who died and the sympathy for the families left behind should be the forefront of our concern.
--
Original Source:<a href=http://media.www.miamistudent.net/media/storage/paper776/news/2007/04/20/OpedPage/Mourning.Of.Va.Tech.Loss.Not.Over-2870733.shtml>The Miami Student - April 20, 2007</a>
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"Skotzko, Stacey Nicole" <skotzksn@muohio.edu>
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Mourning of Va. Tech loss not over
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miami university
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Ryan MacDonald
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2007-08-14
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By:Ryan MacDonald
Posted: 4/18/07
In the days following a great tragedy, we as human beings collectively exhibit a variety of distinct reactions. Some will experience fear. This response is inevitably redoubled by a media which profits on false dependency -- cable news network owners want Americans to believe that without a constant and unfettered flow of semi-useful detail they will lack the needed information to survive the evening. Others sink deeply into depression. A few bleak hours permanently darken the thousands that they have spent on this planet. A state of war looms on all horizons. A third group will clamor for explanations and solutions. Quick fixes will be enticing and will abound. Pundits and politicians will congest the airwaves and television screens calling for every reform from censorship of music to religious revival. Erroneous causal connections will be purported, and the vulnerable masses will be lost in the sea of competing ideologies.
On Monday, tragedy struck. As news poured in from various outlets we learned the shooting at Virginia Tech was the worst in American history. Reporters interrogated school officials about the identity of the shooter and why he was able to carry out two rounds of mass murder without being caught. People will struggle with causes and effects for weeks; they will pour over preventative solutions; news outlets will inject dramatic twists of plot to increase viewership and revenue. Confusion and disillusionment will not be in short supply.
Amid all of this, though, I urge you to reflect deeply on the events of April 16 and the aftermath. What is your immediate response? How will this affect your perception of the world? What would you do to change things? Preempt the onslaught of ideology before it reaches your ears.
Although I run the risk of being labeled a hypocrite by putting forth a moral position, I'd like to share some of my personal reflections. First of all, the most essential fact of the matter is that an individual was able to acquire fire arms and commit a horrendous act. Immediately I was reminded of my time as an intern in a London law firm where I learned that possession of a firearm carries a five-year sentence there. The rest of Europe views guns as an even darker evil. Mass shootings do not occur in Europe. Although violence certainly exists there, the weapon of choice is a knife. A man with a knife will never kill 32 people by himself.
In the United States, politicians court potential voters by leaking a video of their hunting trips. As John Stewart recently pointed out, Americans do not see the apparent contradiction in being a hunter and standing on a pro-life platform. The possession and ownership of firearms is protected by Constitutional amendment. Guns are entrenched in American politics and culture.
However, many fail to realize that the Constitution is not an infallible document. it had once barred blacks and women from voting, allowed for slavery and banned liquor. When the Constitution is wrong, it can and should be amended. Gun enthusiasts will present the opposite information. In fear of losing their gruesome, death-oriented pastime they will lobby politicians to blame this tragedy on gangsta rap or video games. They want to hide the fact that the domestic arms proliferation for which they are responsible is inextricably linked to the massacre of innocents. Guns kill people. Period. Where no guns exist, violence isn't as rampant.
As I remarked earlier, you may brand these remarks as ideology and apply the above criticism of political opportunism to my own words. I accept this and consider it fair. However, I challenge you to reflect deeply and with self honesty. Consider the sanctity which we afford guns in America. Don't allow yourself to fear entering the classroom or walking the streets. If it is possible, let's grasp this occasion to engender change and put forth well thought out, constructive critiques of our lives and our nation.
Ryan MacDonald is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences.
--
Original Source:<a href=http://media.www.dailyfreepress.com/media/storage/paper87/news/2007/04/18/Opinion/Perspective.Personal.Instinct.Only.Defense.Against.Tragic.News-2849548.shtml>The Daily Free Press - April 18, 2007</a>
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Matt Negrin <editor@dailyfreepress.com>
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PERSPECTIVE: Personal instinct only defense against tragic news
boston university
grief
reflection
response to tragedy
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Ralph Brauer
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2007-06-08
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April 16th, 2007
As one who worked with school districts across the country, I know the issue of school shootings is every school official's nightmare. The apparent random nature of all the shootings only makes the nightmare more fearful, for after dozens of workshops at countless conventions, the only thing anyone can say for sure is that they do not know where the awful sounds of gunfire will next echo down the hallways and in the classrooms.
But no one I knew or any of the workshops ever talked about the possibility of the equivalent of a Columbine occurring at a college. Every school district in the country has detailed policies in place if it ever happened to them. Their teachers, administrators and staff are trained in what to do and local law enforcement officials participate in the planning and the drills.
Now that it has happened at a college they, too, will have to undergo similar training and create similar plans. Campuses will seem less safe, new rules and drills will need to be implemented and college officials and teachers will now understand the nightmares of their secondary colleagues.
At the center of that nightmare lies a dark, bottomless pool. As with the Columbines of this country, people will stare into the pool seeking answers. Some will see reflections and try to generalize from them about the nature of the shooter and the victims, but the reflections they see will only be their own. Interest groups will look into the pool and see their causes, filling the talk shows with spokespersons who will say that if we had only done "x" the event would have never happened. Others will take a longer view trying to peer into the depths of the pool seeking confirmation of trends historical, social and psychological. They too will see only their own reflections.
For those at the center of it all, the parents, relatives and friends of the victims and the shooter, those who witnessed it and lived, and those who somehow made a decision to not go to those places at that time the pool will seem more like a maelstrom in which they are caught and cannot get out. Spinning helplessly they will try to maintain some sort of equilibrium, some rationality to keep from drowning in it all. For some this may mean just focusing on the immediate, the details of that which has to be done and it is only days, weeks, even months after that a delayed reaction will overcome them.
To help them survive the maelstrom the college will bring in the teams of counselors whose jobs are to somehow get everyone through this. Going in they know theirs represents a task akin to diving into that bottomless pool and seeking to build something solid. They will work miracles with some and experience heartache with others. Each case will be different, but will they will also hear the echoes of past times like this and try to somehow connect them with what now faces them.
Our country will experience yet another crack in its marble-like structure. And it too will become part of that pool if we let it. But staring into the pool accomplishes nothing, breeding only frustration, despair and even anger. The dark pool will beckon us with its siren songs to stare into its depths or even dive in.
Instead we need to turn away from the pool and remember that at least for a brief tick in time all of us will be as one, united with those Hokies at Virginia Tech into a collective version of Hokie Nation. For now is not a time for politics or debates or even business as usual. Instead families and communities need to realize how fleeting order and life can be and hug one another because that is all they can do. This time as with all those other times we will pledge to love one another a little more and show it. We will swear not to hate and to watch out for those stray souls who slip between the cracks only to emerge from those dark places with guns in their hands. Perhaps this time we can make that oneness last longer.
Perhaps we can remember that kind words can conquer hate and vitriol. Perhaps we can remember to succor the meek, the powerless, the people who have been dealt a bum hand through no fault of their own. Perhaps we can remember that in situations like the Virginia Tech shootings that we are in fact all equal, that it could have been any one of us who died or knew someone who died and yes who knew the shooter, for death recognizes no classes, no races, no languages or cultures as superior. Most of all we can try to nurture that feeling that all of us struggle to feel right now, that feeling of empathy with other human beings we did not know before and whose friends and family we somehow each wish we could help.
Posted by liberalamerican
--
Original Source: <a href="http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/2007/04/16/in-memoriam-virginia-tech-april-16-2007/">http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/2007/04/16/in-memoriam-virginia-tech-april-16-2007/</a>
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In Memoriam: Virginia Tech, April 16, 2007
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Shreya Mandal
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2007-05-26
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Submitted by <a href="http://www.culturekitchen.com/user/shreya_mandal">Shreya Mandal</a> on 17 April 2007 - 2:34pm.
Yesterday, as I sat in the lobby of the Elizabeth Detention Center waiting to testify at a hearing, I learned about the violent incident that took place in Virginia. A small flat-screen television hangs on a wall in the detention center's lobby. I sat there for almost six hours, each hour getting more and more agitated at the cell phone and video coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings. Normally in these situations, I get up and turn the television off. But I was in a situation where I could not get away from the images bombarded at me. CNN shot the ongoing campus scenes throughout the whole day, reiterating over and over again that this was the biggest shooting ever to take place in American history. At first while I listened to the news reporters, I masked my fears, needing to act like I was in control, that everything was okay, and that I was strong enough to stomach the events they televised.
I distracted myself from the flat-screen television and tried to focus on preparing for my testimony. But as the hours went by, officers at the detention center passed by me, shouting out the latest death toll. First 21, then 22, then 29, then 31, then 32, and finally 33. It was impossible to tune out. I felt my mind and my heart drift back to when I was 16 years-old, when I was also on campus during a college shooting rampage. That was almost 15 years ago.
At various times yesterday, CNN provided history and statistical information of previous school shootings like Columbine and The University of Texas massacres. I waited for them to list my alma mater. But one school they didn't list was a small early undergraduate program called Simon's Rock College, tucked away in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. This is where a college campus shooting occurred on December 14, 1992, the first shooting to occur in the United States in the 1990s.
Each moment I looked up at the television screen, heard the ringing of gunshots, or saw limp bodies being taken away by police officers, I went further and further back to that cold evening in 1992. A tightness settled into my chest and fear steadily grew in the pit of my stomach.
It was the end of my very first semester of college and winter break was on the horizon. While most others were studying for final exams, I was involved in my usual course of procrastination and found ways not to study. It turned out that procrastinating saved my life that night. Rather than studying for exams, I attended a dance performance that took place on the other side of campus, away from my college dormitory on the main Simon's Rock campus. A friend and I went to the performance together for a little while before we began studying for the next exam. Little did we know about the murder and mayhem that occurred a few yards away from the building.
A couple of hours passed and the friend decided to head back to the dorm so she could go back to studying. Enamored by the performance, I decided that pre-calculus could wait a little more and stayed behind. We said our goodbyes and told each other that we would see each other later. I went back to enjoying the performance. Ten minutes later, the friend returned very agitated and said, "There's something going on out there, I heard gunshots." Within minutes, the performance stopped.
Fifteen years later, the exact sequence of that night's events seem blurry to me. But I remember someone announced that a shooter was going around campus shooting at people, and that the best way to ensure our safety was to stay calm and stay in the building. We did not know who it was. We did not know that it was a student. And most of all, we did not know if we were safe for sure. I remember staying in the building for a few hours with other classmates, wondering if someone was going to come in and shoot at us. Would I ever see my family again? Waiting quietly for answers and relief was a challenge. Listening to everyone's speculation and witnessing panic around me was even more difficult. We had no way of knowing what would happen next.
That night, four people were wounded. Two people were shot dead. One of them was my professor, Nacunan Saez, and the other was a beloved student, Galen Gibson. They were both very bright, creative, and vibrant people that were loved by the entire Simon's Rock College community. But we were all victims that day�all 350 students, faculty members, staff, and college administrators. And because Simon's Rock is such a small tight-knit liberal arts school, the pain of what happened hit us hard. We all went through a terrible and traumatic event that I will never forget. I know that the entire Simon's Rock community is holding a vigil to honor the tragedies that occurred at Virginia Tech and on their own campus so many years ago.
Ironically similar to yesterday's incident, the shooter at Simons' Rock was also a young Asian student. He was born in Taiwan. His name is Wayne Lo. During trial, Lo's psychiatrist testified that he had Schizophrenia, while the prosecution argued that he had Narcissistic Personality Disorder. The prosecution "won" at trial and Wayne was found guilty of all 17 counts he was charged with. He was sentenced to two consecutive terms to Life without the possibility of parole. I did not know Wayne directly, but had friends who knew him. Even though I had been traumatized by the events back then, I felt that I was not in the position to judge what really happened to him or understand why he committed such a heinous crime. I was only 16. At the time, I also did not feel I was entitled to expressing the deep fear I felt since I had not been shot during the rampage at Simon's Rock. I rarely spoke about the incident that took place, until now.
It seems not much has changed between then and now, except that more and more senseless acts of violence are occurring in our schools across America. The scared young faces of dismayed students, the attempts to make sense of the situation, the desperate need for answers, make the rampant violence and victimization even more palpable. Here we go again. And as time goes on, the violence is getting more and more intense, each ordeal is of greater magnitude.
Another bit of irony rests in my career choice as a mitigation specialist. Often times my job is to assess mitigating factors that explain away crimes like murder. But yesterday's crisis demonstrates that we also need to look and understand the complete cycle of violence, the significant trauma that victims experience, and the insurmountable pain and torment that victims' families feel. To me the nature of violence is never a black and white issue. In my experience, the answers we look for are usually in the gray area. But today my heart is with the victims I knew fifteen years ago, and the 33 killed yesterday at Virginia Tech.
--
Original Source: <a href="http://www.culturekitchen.com/shreya_mandal/story/university_homicide_trauma_revisited_0">http://www.culturekitchen.com/shreya_mandal/story/university_homicide_trauma_revisited_0</a>
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University Homicide: Trauma Revisited
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Gary Downey
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2007-05-04
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Friends, Since a number of you asked to receive further installments, I decided to send this out to everyone who wrote to offer support. I have greatly appreciated it, profoundly so. Yesterday I used the basketball court for stress relief and to connect with another group of friends. One friend, a productive scholar, said he had just arrived at the point of beginning to plan what he might try to accomplish next week. That pretty much described my head as well. I may add entries in coming weeks as thoughts and feelings spiral, but I don't know. For now I'm done. I look forward to following up individually with each of you. Warmly, Gary
Friends, I'm getting too many messages to respond individually. I'm grateful for your concern. Below is a series of messages I've been sending out to those who have contacted me.
Monday afternoon
I and my family are ok. I was in my office 3 buildings away when the mass shootings took place, about 9:45. I didn't hear the shots. I learned of the lockdown from a loudspeaker announcing an emergency.
The 2nd floor of Norris Hall is home to the engineering science and mechanics dept, as well as the dean's office for the college of engineering. I have many friends in both. I don't believe anyone in STS teaches in that building. No names have been released. I'm holding my breath.
This is beyond comprehension.
Love, gary
[Note: much later I was reminded that I have taught in Norris Hall many times, in the big lecture hall, on the other end of the building from the shootings. I know the building well.]
Tuesday AM:
One of the professors killed was my friend, G.V. Loganathan, an Indian man from civil engineering. Last year he won the University's top award for teaching. His students had written passionately about the lengths he had gone to help them, both in the classroom and beyond. He was in his classroom.
I also knew the German instructor, Jamie Bishop, a delightful, unassuming young man. He also taught courses in web design. I was enrolled in one last year as part of what is called here the Faculty Development Institute.
Dr. Librescu held the door shut in his classroom to give his students time to jump out of the window.
The loss is devastating.
Tuesday PM:
At the convocation today, a father nearly collapsed and the proceeding stopped while he received care and was helped out of the Coliseum along with his family. Nikki Giovanni, the poet, concluded the event with a wonderfully stirring call for persistence and community--but to me it's not time yet. All those families.
Wednesday AM:
I awoke thinking about how what happened here on Monday happens every day in Iraq.
The sensationalism in U.S. news coverage is becoming the story. This country seems to know what it is only when it has an enemy. Virginia Tech has lost its innocence. It's now the object of a broader search for self-definition. Today the word Columbine means one thing. Is that what's happening to Virginia Tech?
Wednesday PM:
I'm watching two things, both in others and in myself.
On the one hand, a genuine sense of questioning about the decision not to announce that a gunman was at large. I'm glad President Steger asked the governor to appoint a commission to investigate what took place. That strikes me as the right course of action.
On the other hand, a sense of being attacked by the deluge of coverage and an urge to join together to fight it off. The intrusion makes it difficult to conceptualize a new sense of community, let alone build it.
Thursday AM:
My resistance to intrusion has grown. The relentless demands for clarity in the national media have become overwhelming to me. A nation uncertain about its identity lusts for the clarity of evil, identified and exorcised. Those who were complicit must be punished. But for the nation to gain its clarity and regain its self-assurance, we have to be torn apart. I'm watching decent people being challenged to admit fundamental failure, so others elsewhere can relax and resume. For me, the only way out is to accept the ambiguity. I'm just not sure how.
Note: Yesterday I deleted an expression of anguish from Monday about the 2 hour delay. At the time, the anguish was my own. But by Wednesday, it had been appropriated by the machinery of external demands for clarity. I had lost possession of it. It no longer said what I meant. It took me till today to understand that.
I sent a letter to the Roanoke Times affirming that Virginia Tech is part Korean. Many people feel similarly. Race may not become an issue.
Thursday PM:
I didn't want to go to a Department gathering at noon. I thought we might have difficulty coming together. We didn't. It was a meaningful experience. We helped one another. They are my people. We're going to gather again on Saturday.
I was wrong when I said STS teaches no classes in Norris. One of my graduate students, an international student, teaches a Friday discussion section of Engineering Cultures in 206. That was G.V.'s room.
Friday PM:
Yesterday I gave a long interview to the Toronto Star. He wanted to discuss the increase in mass shootings. I said it was about increased audience. In part because of the expansion of communications technologies. But mainly because of the dependence of national renewal on finding an enemy we can all share. Doesn't happen in Canada. I think Montreal was different. They were all women.
Today I am at UVA with my son, Michael, hosted by Admissions. Having two kids go here split my identity between my institution and its rival. Today is different. Orange and maroon everywhere. A memorial site where many students are writing letters to Tech students. All stop at noon as the Chapel bell slowly tolls 33 times. I read that many of the candles at Tuesday's vigil came from UVA. Every time I see the Hoos for Hokies sign, I cry. And I've never considered myself a Hokie. I've learned this week that I am indeed Virginia Tech.
Higher education can no longer be called sanctuary. Virginia Tech is of the world. Our theory must catch up.
Saturday
One of my daughters, Megan, has flown in. Telephone, email, and obsessive reading had not been enough. She needed to be here. The father of the Blacksburg girl who died wrote an open letter to the community inviting us to cherish the memories we're creating with our loved ones, for one day that's all we might have.
I bought a Virginia Tech tshirt for the first time.
Marta and I hosted a gathering for STS families. Megan, Leah, and Michael did all the work while Marta and I attended the memorial service for G.V. His graduate students called him Gobichettypalayam Vasudevan, his name. We shared the food all had brought. The youngest kids chased our cats. We talked. We laughed. We discussed what to do in class the first day back.
Sunday
Last night I was told that after killing G.V. and the woman sitting closest to the door, the shooter ordered the civil engineering grad students to put their heads down on their desks. He then put three bullets into each head. In the French class, the shooter left and came back. The wounded teacher tried to hold the door shut with a table, unsuccessfully.
I signed the petition supporting Charles Steger and Wendell Flinchum.
Tomorrow is the oral defense of a Ph.D. qualifying exam. I'm on the committee.
Thursday
My biggest difficulty has been accepting the ambiguity. My career is about pursuing ambiguity, confronting ambiguity, wrestling with ambiguity, interpreting ambiguity, constructing narratives about ambiguity. But always ambiguity as object, external challenge, something to figure out. The deep, abiding acceptance of ambiguity is another thing altogether. I'm not so good at that. It came to a head for me yesterday at the crowded memorial gathering for the two faculty and fifteen students in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. Fifteen kids extending themselves past their boundaries, learning another language, led forward by teachers with relentless, sometimes infuriating, enthusiasm.
Yet the acceptance of ambiguity just may be serving as the vehicle of new community around here. I've always defined community as sharedness that is the product of work, sharedness that assumes initial difference. This week the regular boundaries among us have blurred, if only temporarily, and everyone everywhere seems to be reveling in the joys of simple encounters, recognizing and acknowledging their privilege. A staff member brings her toddler and her dog to the office, to the celebration of all. A dean and a provost feel liberated to openly express and share emotion. The horror is starting to become a thing. It's not going away, nor will it be explained. Sharedness seems to lie in our diverse struggles to accept.
Friday
I played basketball today. Lost all three games. It was wonderful.
Language
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eng
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some thoughts (April 16-27, 2007)
account
faculty
journal
reflection
story
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Kim Norris
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Kim Norris
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2007-05-03
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So this is how it feels...Thoughts on April 16, 2007
Thank you for this archive. My world view changed on this day, and I appreciate having a place to store my memories. I'm not writing this as one who was there first hand. I am writing as a VT alumnus (B.A. Theater Arts and M.A. English) and a resident of the community, to share with others who weren't there first hand either, to witness how much it still hurt for this to happen to Virginia Tech, to Blacksburg.
That Monday morning, I was at work at my former job in Salem, VA (I work in Blacksburg now) when the plant manager, whose wife works on campus, got a call from a friend. "Wife is fine...in lock down, and can't call." The call was another friend who had heard from her sister, who works in Norris Hall. Her sister had managed to get a cellphone call out from the cleaning supply closet she and a co-worker locked themselves in after the shooting started.
I logged onto the web. The news headline read "Shooting at VT. 1 dead, 1 injured." I called my husband, who works second shift, woke him up, and told him to see if he could get some current news. He said he'd call right back. In the meantime...
My friend and co-worker, got a call from her little sister, an EMT for Christiansburg/ Montgomery County. She was on the scene, and her casualty numbers were much higher. She'd heard emergency radio reports of 30 dead or injured already...she said the first response workers were going room to room in Norris Hall, and reporting in what they found.
The news on the web went up to 22 dead. My husband called with the confirmed count: 33 dead including the shooter; injury reports still coming in. Suddenly, we knew how it felt to be members of the community that is the site of the "worst mass shooting in U.S. history." I had the sensation of the ground falling out from under me. So that's how it feels...
I immediately tried to call a close friend who is an English instructor at Va Tech. (This is well before Cho is identified as an English major.) I couln't get through. I sent an email, Let me hear from you soonest...". (It would be Tuesday morning before I would hear she was okay - as okay as any of us were at that point.) My husband called back to say he'd gotten in touch with another friend whose wife teaches in Norris Hall. She didn't teach on Monday...thank Heaven. But how many co-workers or students did she know?
I got through the work day, survived the I-81 commute home, and checked messages. There were two: my sister, also a VT graduate, and my mom. Both said the same thing. "This is awful. Call me and tell me how you are." I wept, appreciating the long distance hugs. Who was I to need a hug though? It hadn't happened to me. So I thought. Then I turned on the local TV news.
Probably nothing could bring it harder home to me, just how messed up the day had been, than to see every major news channel reporting live from what I still consider my town (although I live in the next town over now). My sweet, small, safe town. I knew then that everything had changed. Blacksburg and VT had lost something that could never be regained, that sense of, "that could never happen here." We all had to grow up that day. Students, Alumni, and residents alike. Time to shed those wonderful rose-colored blinders that life in a sweet, small, safe town can afford you, and see the world, and know that there was never any protecting ourselves from this. We still aren't safe. How do you shield against madness?
My phone rang all night that April 16. College friends I hadn't heard from in years called to share their horror and sadness. (The next day I got a card from my ill-tempered and often-estranged mother-in-law, "Hope your friends are all right...")
My husband got home from work Monday night around 11:45 pm and handed me a small ribbon, orange and maroon layered on black. A co-worker of his had spent the day making 100 of them to hand out at work. I pinned mine to my lapel with a VT logo earring (one of a pair I bought to wear at the 2000 Sugar Bowl in New Orleans). For a few moments I had the only ribbon like it...
Nikki Giovanni got it right at the convocation. We will prevail. Whether the media moves on or not. That Wednsday, a Virginia-based newspaper reporter called our house, and my husband answered. Our last name is Norris. Were we any relation to the namesake of Norris Hall, and if so how did we feel about this tragedy happening in that particular building? (We aren't related.)
Here on May 3, the funerals are over, the tears are still flowing, but now the media is backing off, at least on a national level. The scab isn't being ripped off as frequently, and maybe some true healing can begin. But there's no going back to who we were. Only moving forward. Let's go Hokies!
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eng
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So This is How it Feels...
account
reflection
story
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Bryan McDonald
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Bryan McDonald
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2007-05-02
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There are times when the three hour time difference between the East and West coasts is significant in ways one could never imagine. On April 16, this time difference meant that when I arrived at work at 8:00 am the events at Virginia Tech had already occurred, although it would be some hours until a more complete picture about the magnitude of the tragedy became clear. In the days since I have again felt myself to be part of that unique family that is Hokie nation. I have been in contact with roommates, friends, and teachers that I had not spoken with in years. And I have thought a great deal about the meaning and implications of the shootings.
In many ways, this is just part of my normal activities. I work for a research center that examines how forces of global change are transforming security threats that confront states and their citizens. I often spend much of my day thinking about threats and vulnerabilities from terrorism, crime, and infectious disease. But the events of April 16 have presented me with a challenge as I consider the events not only from a security studies perspective, but also as someone who lived in Blacksburg for five years and earned two degrees from Virginia Tech.
A few years ago, the center I work for conducted a project on school safety and emergency preparedness. One of the lessons I came away from the project with was an understanding that school shootings occur in places that seem unlikely, most often suburban and rural areas. In this way, Virginia Tech is like many of the other campuses - California State University at Fullerton, the University of Iowa, San Diego State University, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Virginia Appalachian School of Law, the University of Arizona Nursing College, and West Virginia Shepherd University�that have been victims of shooting incidents. None of these schools are located in areas that spring to mind as particularly dangerous or crime ridden.
Another lesson I came away from our project with is the understanding that school shootings are like many other forms of modern crisis in that they are often over before first responders arrive. In such instances, the real first responders to incidents are whoever happens to be at the location of an incident. The stories that have emerged about April 16 show a remarkable amount of heroism and selflessness. When faced with an unexpected danger, teachers and students responded, often with very little time to consider their situation, to help others and try and reduce the danger they faced.
In the aftermath of the events of April 16, 2007, many people have been trying to make sense of what occurred and asking about the lessons that can be learned from the events. One lesson that seems clear is that geography is no real protection from these sorts of tragedies. As someone who studies security threats, I can see that the events at Virginia Tech make it clearer that on the changing security landscape on which we now find ourselves, people and organizations at all levels of society must ask what they can do to prevent and prepare for events like these. But as someone who spent an important and formative part of my life at Virginia Tech, I am deeply saddened that Virginia Tech will now be among the events we discuss, and that many people's memories of Blacksburg will be of the scenes of tragedy they saw unfold on April 16.
Bryan McDonald
B.A. English (1997)
M.A. Political Science (1999)
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eng
alumni
reflection
safety
security
threats