View of English field during Yankees vs. Hokies game. Photo by George Norton.
View of English field during Yankees vs. Hokies baseball game. Photo by George Norton.
Yankee Derek Jeter running bases. Photo by George Norton.
View of the crowd at the Yankees vs. Hokies game. Photo by George Norton.
Players come in from the field after the game. Photo by George Norton.
Toal: Sensible gun laws only way to secure a safe future for US
This is a piece written by Gerard Toal, the NOVA-based Virginia Tech Professor. It was published in the Irish Times 28/04/07. The Irish Times 28/04/2007 Author: Gerard Toal Title: Sensible gun laws only way to secure a safe future for US The majority of students of Virginia Tech are doing something ordinary yet also remarkable this week: they are studying hard for their final exams. Working through the horrific murders of 27 of their fellow students and 5 of their faculty at the hands of a disturbed class mate, Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech community is refusing to be defined by a violent rampage that has shocked the United States and caused sorrow across the world. Virginia Tech is an institution of higher learning, a place where young people can realize their potential and, as the university slogan puts it, 'invent the future.' The return of students in large numbers after such a terrible crime is re-affirming this to the world. The loss of so many young lives on April 16th has shaken us all. A flotilla of media decamped to our main university campus in Blacksburg and recorded our shock and our tears. It has also encountered, in conversations with our students and faculty, our capacity to rally and persevere. As a Virginia Tech faculty member for eighteen years, I was gratified by two aspects of our response. First, Virginia Tech faculty and students correctly challenged the widespread use of the multi-media images produced by Cho Seung-Hui himself which were integral to enacting his fantasy of heroic 're-masculinization' through brutal violence. The complicity of the media in producing murder as fascinating spectacle is widespread across the globe. Second, amidst our pain, there was also human empathy for Cho's family and for those beyond our campus who suffer from structural and direct violence every day. The death toll in Baghdad last week was horrific. The Iraq war continues to claim the lives of young American soldiers, some tragically former Virginia Tech students. The daily death toll from gun violence across the United States is also horrific. In 2004, the New York Times reported this last weekend, an average of about 81 people per day died from gunfire across the United States. Some were suicides, others 'accidents' and the rest classified as homicides. In Washington D.C. in 2005, according to public statistics, there were 195 murders, the lowest number in recent years yet still a grim total for a city of only 550,521 people. Look for a rise in the future if the staunchly conservative US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has its way. Last month, it struck down the District's restrictive handgun law opening the door to a broad roll-back of gun control laws across the United States, especially in its major cities (the decision is on appeal, and may come before the US Supreme Court). Marginalized by last Monday's horror at Virginia Tech was a large demonstration in Washington DC for congressional voting rights. Despite having a population almost as numerous as states like North Dakota (636,677), Alaska (663,661), South Dakota (775,933), and larger than Wyoming (509,294), this overwhelmingly African-American city has no Senators or Representatives with political voting power in the Congress seated within it. This matters significantly when it comes to gun control laws to promote public safety and freedom from random acts of madness. All of the states comparable to DC in population are power centers for those forces glamorizing guns and undermining existing gun control laws. National Rifle Association constructions of 'tradition' and 'rights' (words familiar to Irish ears) are blended with frontier mythology to sell guns, and lots of them, as necessary accessories of a supposedly 'free' lifestyle. Paranoid fantasies revolving around government conspiracies and invading outsiders are used to mobilize gun owners into political projects as single issue voters backing NRA-endorsed candidates. Gun laws are for sissies; real men pack heat. But there is no conspiracy, only the organized effort of the gun lobby, deeply entrenched in Congress, to thwart cities suing gun manufacturers for the devastation caused by their products, and to let the Clinton era assault weapons ban lapse. Under the Bush administration, a plethora of semi-automatic assault weapons are now available for sale to the general public. Last Friday, in the wake of the Virginia Tech rampage, the Democratic controlled House of Representatives passed a bill creating a new Congressional seat for Washington DC and, to attract Republican support, for Republican-leaning Utah also (most Republicans still voted against the measure). The measure was previously stalled by Republican efforts to attach a provision formally overturning the District's 31 year old ban on hand guns. The bill moves forward into the Senate where the over representation of rural states and the under representation of the interests of America's cities is most pronounced. It also faces a potential White House veto. Beyond this modest gesture, the Virginia Tech massacre has generated no serious political response. Politicians have run from the issue rather than face it, blaming university officials and campus security rather than their own complicity with making deadly semi-automatic weapons easily available. The Virginia Tech community reacted strongly against an initial media-driven desire to blame the university and its police force for the absence of a 'lockdown' of campus (as if an open campus should be like a prison). Petitions of support for the university president and police chief made it clear we were not accepting this easy 'blame-the-local-officials' strategy. Contrast this to how the Australian government reacted in 1996 to the massacre of 35 people in Port Arthur Tasmania by a deranged killer using a semi-automatic rifle. Within 12 days, the federal and state government agreed a ban on semi-automatic rifles and placed strict controls on other guns. The government also launched a large gun buy-back program. The result? Suicides and homicides have declined. In the decade before Port Arthur, there were 10 separate mass-shooting incidents; since, zero. The United States faces many difficult challenges today. Can the US state extract itself with dignity from Iraq and rebuild its international standing to more effectively thwart terrorism? Can it meet the challenge of global climate change after ignoring it for so long? Can the federal government create legislative solutions that provide adequate health care for all its citizens, as its population ages? And, while its leading politicians may not want to acknowledge it, the Virginia Tech killings renew the question: can the federal government establish meaningful control on handguns and assault weapons? These are profound challenges for the future. My hope and feeling is that some of those students studying hard at Virginia Tech, in the wake of a horrible tragedy, will be involved in inventing a better future for the United States of America, one where security is grounded in sensible gun laws and Virginia Tech is the name of an excellent university not a citation in a continuing list of murderous rampages. -- Archived with permission of the author.
NIU has several examples to follow for Cole’s future
Photo: Photo by ALAN LEON | RRSTAR.COM Six huskies and flowers are set up as a memorial in front of Cole Hall on Feb. 22, 2008, on the campus of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. Story: Geri Nikolai, Isaac Guerrero and Sadie Gurman GateHouse News Service Mon Feb 25, 2008, 02:36 PM EST As officials at Northern Illinois University prepare for the return of 25,000 students this week, they have announced only one decision about the scene of the shootings. The building where a gunman killed five students and then himself on Feb. 14, Cole Hall, will remain closed this semester. Space has been found in other campus buildings to move all classes from the two large lecture halls in Cole. What happens afterward is the subject of speculation. Some students say they could never go back into the building and could not concentrate on academics if they did. Some suggest Cole be turned into a memorial. Others say that despite the tragedy, NIU cannot afford to raze a classroom building in an era of declining state support. Officials say they haven't discussed the future of Cole. Cherilyn Murer, who chairs the NIU board of trustees, said she doesn't know what will be done after this semester. Murer said the options include resuming classes, transforming it for some other use or closing it permanently. But it's too early to say, Murer said. "It's only been a week," she said. "Right now, the emotions are so raw that it would be premature to make a decision about what we'll do with that building." Another trustee, Barbara Giorgi Vella of Rockford, expects there won't be serious discussion of what to do with Cole until summer. At that point, she said, financial constraints have to be taken into consideration, along with the feelings of students and staff. Busy building Cole Hall, where nearly every undergraduate has at least one class, is one of the largest classroom buildings on campus, with two auditoriums seating what students estimate to be 250 people each. The idea of closing the building permanently is circulating on campus but doesn't seem practical to Justin Weaver of Beloit, an NIU sophomore. "Given that NIU already has issues in terms of space, even though it seems appropriate to close it forever given the tragic events that happened there, it still seems foolish," Weaver said. "When I looked at the schedule for reassigning classes, it was staggering how many classes are held in Cole Hall," Weaver said. "You can't duplicate that space." There are labs in the Cole Hall basement and one, for journalism students, is the best-equipped on campus for that kind of work, Weaver said. As for changing the atmosphere inside the building, Weaver also takes a practical approach. "The only thing that can change Cole Hall is time," he said. "As people at NIU graduate, new people will come in. They will know what happened but they weren't there and they won't feel the gravity quite as much." McHenry senior Colin Leicht suggested transforming the front of the building, perhaps using the large walls erected this week for students to express their sorrow. "Don't tear it down," said Leicht. "It's still a good building. NIU has had problems getting money from the state to rebuild other buildings. I don't think we're in a position to tear down a building." Rockford junior Krista Robinson said one professor asked her and other students what they thought about NIU erecting an environmental feature, perhaps a windmill, as a memorial. Robinson wasn't impressed. "I think a windmill is a good idea, but not as a memorial. I can imagine parents wondering what kind of memorial that is. It's not really relevant." Cole Hall was constructed in 1968. The general-education building contains 18,000 square feet of space. Columbine's library Other institutions have faced the question NIU now confronts. At Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., where two students killed 12 others and one teacher in April 1999, the library where most of the killing took place no longer exists. Frank DeAngelis, principal then and now, said the old library would have been forever associated with the April 20 massacre. Students, parents and community members agreed they could no longer enter the room without reliving the pain, he said. Thought was given to demolishing the entire school but that would have been a mistake, DeAngelis said. "If we tore the building down, Harris and Klebold would have won," he said. The solution was to tear out the library, which was above the cafeteria/commons area, and open the commons into a two-story space. A new library was constructed nearby and connected to the school by a hallway. The problem, said DeAngelis, is that spectators still come to the school, sometimes in tour buses, distracting the students. Constructing a memorial on campus is a problem because it becomes an attraction, bringing in people not connected to the school, DeAngelis said. That's why a separate memorial was built at a nearby park, far enough from the school so students don't see people coming and going. The new library cost $3.5 million. DeAngelis said a community fund drive, coupled with donations from building contractors, quickly raised the money. Virginia Tech ponders changes Officials at Virginia Tech are still using buildings that were the scene of the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded many more before committing suicide at the Blacksburg, Va., campus April 15, 2007. Cho shot his first victims in a dorm room in West Ambler Johnston Hall. Two hours later, he opened fire in Norris Hall, which contains the school's Engineering Science and Mechanics program among others. Norris Hall would have cost $30 million to replace, according to university estimates. Instead, officials reopened Norris two months after the shootings and a task force was formed to entertain ideas for its future. In December, Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger announced the school would spend $1 million remodeling about 4,300 square feet of the second floor of the building, which will be home to the new Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention. The dorm room where the initial shootings took place is still closed, but it's not practical to close the entire 800-room residence hall, said University Relations Director Mark Owczarski. Approximately 10,000 of the school's 26,000 students live on campus at Virginia Tech. The school has 14 residence buildings and another under construction. "On-campus housing is a premium here," Owczarski said. "Honestly, students enjoy living in West Ambler Johnston Hall as they do in all of our residence buildings." Memories will remain Changing a building does only so much to relieve the hurt, said Columbine's DeAngelis, adding that he still has flashbacks. DeAngelis said he has spoken with NIU leaders. Given his experience, DeAngelis feels compelled to reach out to schools where shootings have taken place. "People still ask me, 'what was the one day when everything got back to normal?'" he said. "It's never going to come." NIU students seem to understand. Going to class in Cole would never be the same, said Leicht. "The first day, I would be a little anxious, knowing this is where it happened," he said about having class there. "After that, as long as that door stays locked, it would be just another classroom. It could have happened in any classroom. But I think that door (where the gunman entered) should be locked." "It would be difficult" to go back into Cole, said Weaver. But if it's reopened at some point, "it would be something I and everyone else would have to do. "I'll tell you this, though. I have had a lot of classes at Cole and I always sat in the first two or three rows. I will never do that again, not ever." Robinson thinks Cole ought to become part of campus learning again, at some point. "I wouldn't close it down indefinitely but definitely for the rest of the semester. Maybe open it back up next year," she said. "But let Cole Hall be for right now," she said. "Let there be a little bit of rest in Cole Hall." Geri Nikolai can be reached at 815-987-1337 or gnikolai@rrstar.com. Isaac Guerrero can be reached at 815-987-1371 or iguerrero@rrstar.com. Sadie Gurman can be reached at 815-987-1389 or sgurman@rrstar.com. What others have done Here is what other institutions have done after being the scene of multiple deaths from violence: Columbine High School: Two student gunmen, who committed suicide, killed 12 students and a teacher in the April 1999 shooting at Columbine in Littleton, Colo. The library, where most of the shootings took place, was torn out and the cafeteria below it remodeled into a two-story room. A local artist painted a skyline mural with the branches of Aspen trees and 13 clouds — one for each of the victims. A library was built nearby. Virginia Tech: Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people before committing suicide at the Blacksburg, Va., campus April 15, 2007. It is the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. Virginia Tech is still using buildings where the shootings occurred. Norris Hall was reopened in June 2007. The school will spend $1 million remodeling the second floor of the building, which will be home to the newly created Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention. The dorm room where a student was killed is closed, but the rest of the 800-room residence hall is still open. University of Texas: On Aug. 1, 1966, a sniper barricaded himself on the observation deck of the tower on campus and began a shooting spree that killed 14 people and ended when police killed him. It was the worst school shooting until Virginia Tech in 2007. The observation deck was closed until 1968, then opened and closed again in 1975 because of a series of suicide jumps. In 1999, security and safety measures were installed and the deck was reopened. Crandon, Wis.: Six young adults were killed by a 20-year-old off-duty sheriff's deputy Oct. 7 as they relaxed in a home. Plans are to tear the building down and create a memorial garden, but first the mortgage must be paid. A fund drive was started but contributions dwindled when the homeowner, the father of one of the victims, announced plans to sue the county over the shooting. Nickel Mines, Pa.: A gunman burst into an Amish schoolhouse and killed five young girls Oct. 2, 2006, then killed himself. The building was demolished 10 days later and the site is used to graze cattle. About NIU Enrollment: 25,200 Budget: $104 million Founded: 1899 as satellite of Illinois State Normal School Renamed: NIU in 1957 City: DeKalb Main campus: 755 acres Regional sites: Hoffman Estates, Naperville and Rockford Programs of study: Seven degree-granting colleges; 55 undergraduate majors; 75 graduate programs, including 10 Ph.D. programs, doctoral degrees in education and juris doctorate Students: 91 percent from Illinois; 46 percent men, 54 percent women; 26 percent ethnic minorities; 862 international students from 88 nations Faculty: 1,279 Class size: Average is 28 students (18 in senior-level classes) Oldest building: Altgeld Hall, opened in 1899 Newest building: Yordon Center, opened in 2007 Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported -- Original Source: http://www.gatehousenewsservice.com/regional_news/x257795083
Geri Nikolai, Isaac Guerrero and Sadie Gurman
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In honor of Virgina Tech University, Niagara Falls lit both the American Falls and Canadian Horseshoe Falls on 4-22-07 with their school colors of orange and burgandy, in remembrance of those who lost their lives. This was a joint effort on both the American and Canadian side of the Falls. This is the American Falls, taken from the Canadian side facing the USA. Our hearts and prayers are with the families and friends of those who lost their lives.
Glendon Y. McCreary: Discussing a tragedy
By: Glendon Y. McCreary Posted: 4/24/07 It can be difficult to cover politics in the aftermath of a nationally felt tragedy like the one at Virginia Tech last week. And as we all remember the victims and reflect on the events that transpired, we are also on high alert to make sure we don't unduly "politicize" anything, because nobody wants to be seen as politically benefiting from someone else's tragedy. As a result, we often temper any discussions we have on the issues related to such incidents. Case in point, despite the fact that his unbelievably easy access to guns was one of the primary reasons the mentally unstable gunman, Cho Seung-hui, had the means to go on this rampage, our politicians all seem to be scrambling to avoid the issue of gun control. Unfortunately, we seem to be becoming so wary of courting sensitive topics in these situations that we end up not having the thorough debates we need to have in order to prevent a recurrence. As sad as it may be, it often takes a tragedy to grab our attention and put a much-needed spotlight on a particular issue. But that attention is fleeting. Remember Hurricane Katrina? As New Orleans was inundated with water and many thousands of impoverished residents languished in third-world conditions at the Superdome, politicians from Bill Clinton to George Bush told us that now was not the time to blame anybody or anything, and worked to assure us that there would "be a time" for that. We were told that eventually, Hurricane Katrina would open up a dialogue about race and poverty in America that had been long overdue. But that dialogue never materialized, because as time passed our attention focused on more mundane matters. As a result, the lofty goals of readdressing these issues have gone largely unfulfilled. Perhaps, had we gotten some answers sooner, we might have made more progress in rectifying mistakes made. Thus, an event even on the scale of Hurricane Katrina can manage to slip from our collective radar into the abyss that is yesterday's news, as the relevant issues are put on the back burner. But it is more complicated than a matter of trivial issues trumping relevant ones. Sometimes it's a legitimate and important story that draws our limited attention spans away from another important issue. Don Imus' firing, overkill or not, over racist and sexist remarks was welcomed by members of the African American community as a chance to have a broader discussion about race relations and tolerance in America. But then Cho Seung-hui went on a rampage, and suddenly nobody is talking about race relations and Imus anymore. All of this highlights the simple fact that we do not necessarily have the luxury of time when discussing how to best respond to an important news event. In the age of youtube.com, blogs and 24-hour cable news, we simply don't have time to wait for a politically calm moment to discuss important and controversial issues facing our society. So when an issue surfaces to the forefront of people's minds, it should be discussed thoroughly while the public is still focused on it. While we should certainly avoid needlessly aggravating those who have been hurt so badly by the events at Virginia Tech, we shouldn't allow the fear of politicizing an issue to subdue discussion of important issues like gun control. If we don't talk about these issues now, while the events at Virginia Tech are still fresh in our minds, they may never get talked about until the next tragedy. If we wait a month for everything to settle down and for the nation to go back to business as usual, then we will have lost our chance. By then we will have moved on to discuss the next fleeting issue. What will these 32 individuals have died for then? The shock we feel over the 32 lost lives at Virginia Tech will eventually pass for most of the country. But as we mourn the victims, let's not squander this brief moment of collective focus. -- Original Source:The California Aggie - April 24, 2007
The April 16 Archive: A Historiography in the Age of the New
Archives & Social Studies: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Research Vol. 2, no. 1 (March 2008) 253 The April 16 Archive: A Historiography in the Age of the New Media Gooyong Kim Abstract This paper examines how historiography has been changed in the age of the new media. The technological advancement of mass media has influenced the way how ordinary people participate in historiography. Thanks to the new media technologies, the democratization of historiography has ever been possible as with popular practices of cultural production. The gunshot rampage in Virginia polytechnic Institute on April 16, 2007 was an important event for examining the potential of popular historiography through individuals' participation in media production. This paper sheds critical light on the April 16 Archive that is created for preserving the past as "digital memory banks" for an emerging potential of popular historiography. In conclusion, this paper recommends critical pedagogic interventions to promote individuals' counter-hegemonic deployment of the new media technologies in the cultural politics of historiography. -- Original Source: Archives & Social Studies http://socialstudies.cartagena.es/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=79&Itemid=31
Penn St held their Spring Game and sold thousands of Orange and Maroon t-shirts to include a student section of 800 t-shirts that spelled out the VT logo. Some stores reported 2000 shirts selling out in 30 minutes. A record crowd of 81,000 were on hand to attend the annual scrimage. The support for Virginia Tech from powerhouse football schools to include Penn St, Ohio St (VT logo on thier helmets during spring game), Nebraska (color ad of support placed in the Collegiate Times) is amazing. http://www.gopsusports.com/pressreleases/pressrelease.cfm?anncid=12399
Chancellor responds to Virginia Tech tragedy
Message to the Vanderbilt community from Chancellor Gordon Gee regarding the April 16 tragedy at Virginia Tech Dear Members of the Vanderbilt Community, Today our support goes out to our colleagues, our peers, our brothers and sisters at Virginia Tech. Words fail to encompass a calamity of such magnitude. At this raw stage, we can offer our attention, our consideration, and our sympathy. We respond with the best part of ourselves. At a moment like this, we want you to know that the Vanderbilt community stands ready to offer help and guidance to all who seek it through the Psychological and Counseling Center (2-2571), the Office of Religious Life and Affiliated Ministries (2-2457), and, for students, your resident adviser, head resident, or assistant director. In addition, All Faiths Chapel on the first floor of the divinity school (below Benton Chapel) will be open Tuesday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. for personal reflection, meditation, and prayer. In light of this incident, we are also evaluating Vanderbilt's safety and emergency preparedness procedures. Please feel free to share this information with your parents and colleagues as well. Universities empower humans to understand the world by gathering us together in an atmosphere of implicit trust, mature safety, and mutual discussion and exchange. May that power not be shattered or compromised by the horrible and aberrant events of this day. May we, as a community and as individuals, continue to create and support conditions in which acts of violence like these are less likely to arise. Universities are strong of themselves, but we are stronger together. Individuals are strong of themselves, but we are stronger together. Please keep the people of Virginia Tech, and their families, and their friends and all who depend on them and know them, at the front of your minds and your hearts. Cordially, Gordon Gee -- Original Source: Vanderbilt Daily Register - April 17, 2007
Joan Brasher <joan.brasher@vanderbilt.edu>
Dr. John MacArthur discusses Virginia Tech Shootings (April 20, 2007)
64Kbps MP3 13.6M Executive Director of GTY [Grace to You] Phil Johnson has an open conversation with Dr. John MacArthur about the shootings at Blacksburg, VA. Does the Christian faith offer a viable answer to the question of why things like this happen without God's immediate intervention? This item is part of the collection: Open Source Audio Author: Grace to You http://www.gty.org Date: 2007-04-20 -- Original Source: http://www.archive.org/details/MacArthur_on_Disaster Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0.
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By: Greg Linch // News Editor Issue date: 4/20/07 A light, somber wind blew through campus Wednesday evening as the University of Miami paid tribute to the 33 students and staff who lost their lives Monday at Virginia Tech. The gentle breeze ever so slightly rustled the branches that hang over the University Center Rock as Shajena Erazo, the Student Government executive secretary, read the names of the fallen. A line of 33 student leaders clutched candles lit to memorialize each of the victims, in addition to the gunman. They faced hundreds of their peers, who packed the area between The Rock and the UC to pay their respects, also holding candles. UM President Donna E. Shalala offered her sympathies and repeatedly emphasized the two ACC universities were very much the same. "Tonight we are Virginia Tech. We share their horror and their grief," she said. "Tonight we are Virginia Tech. We are their brother and their sisters." At the end of her remarks, Shalala let out three words that reverberated in Blacksburg a day earlier as thousands chanted: "Let's go Hokies." Akin to how she began the chant earlier in the day at the Hug the Lake event, Shalala slowly enlivened the crowd to speak in unison as candles glimmered and wax dripped onto cut up paper cups. SG President Danny Carvajal spoke prior to Shalala, saying the university was there for Virginia Tech-a sister school. "We are confident Virginia Tech will heal and prevail," he said. Carvajal also asked students to sign a banner and a scrapbook to be sent to Va. Tech with the baseball team this weekend (please see pg. 19). -- Original Source:The Miami Hurricane - April 20, 2007
I'd been thinking about starting this blog up again for a few weeks now. I didn't think I'd have something so tragic to write about. Probably it goes without saying that my thoughts and best wishes go out to the students, faculty, and staff at my alma mater, Virginia Tech, and especially to the families and friends of the victims. I was working from home today, heads down with all my external inputs (radio, TV, email, IRC, RSS feeds, etc.) turned off, so it wasn't until mid-afternoon that I became aware of what had happened. It has shaken me up, more than I would have expected it would. It's disconcerting to see a community that you've been part of suffer an event like this, especially when you see so many images on the news of places you're quite familiar with. When I was a student at Virginia Tech, I had friends who lived on the 4th floor Ambler-Johnston Hall, where the first shooting took place. I had classes in Norris Hall, where the second shooting occurred. I know these places. They were my places. It was my community. Even though I've been gone from Tech for a long time, it still hits close to home. Back in '88-'89 I was one of the editors of the Collegiate Times, Virginia Tech's student newspaper. I've thought a lot about the students working at the Collegiate Times today. What was the biggest story we dealt with back in '88-'89? I think a steroids scandal on one of the sports teams. Nothing to compare to what happened today. What a time it must be for those young, aspiring journalists. How difficult it must be to cover what will probably be the biggest story of your life when you are just twenty or twenty-one. Doubly difficult since it is the slaughter of your classmates that you have to cover. As young journalists they must feel a great deal of excitement at The Big Story . . . and, at the same time, a great deal of guilt and dread for being excited while their friends lay dead. I hope they sense the importance of their role of as the student voice of the Virginia Tech campus more than ever. (CollegiateTimes.com is down, and the server is re-directing to CollegeMedia.com, the parent site for the student media outlets at Tech. And I just noticed that the Collegiate Times Online Editor, who has been posting to http://www.collegemedia.com all afternoon is named Christopher Ritter. No relation, if you were wondering.) Besides my former professors, I only know a couple of people still at Virginia Tech. None of them were likely to have been in either of the buildings where the shootings took place, but I've dropped them emails anyway. And I've been contacted today by former classmates who I haven't heard from in years. When something like this happens, you start thinking about the people who shared your life then and you want to reach out to them, even if you've been silent for years, because their the only ones who are going to understand your loss in the same way. The news reports are saying that this is the worst shooting on a college campus in American history. Oddly, one of the other campus massacres that has been mentioned repeatedly was a 1991 shooting rampage by a physics grad student (who also killed himself) at the University of Iowa, where I went to graduate school. My other alma mater. That took place just three months after I left Iowa City, and, unlike today's tragedy at VT, I knew many people who were on campus at that time. Then a few years back, in the fall of 2000, a student murdered one of his classmates at Gallaudet University, and went un-apprehended for months until he killed again in February. I had worked at Gallaudet for three years and left just a bit more than a year before the murders there. Again, I was gone, but, again, I knew many people affected by this. It wasn't the kind of rampage like at Iowa or Virginia Tech, but it held the campus hostage to fear nonetheless. So this is the third time I've watched a campus where I have lived, studied, or worked be victimized by a murderer. It sucks. It sucks for me, it makes me cry to see a community -- my community -- ravaged, even after I've been absent from it for years And as miserable and helpless as I feel, I can't imagine how horrible it is for those living through it. Posted by Greg on April 16, 2007 10:48 PM -- Original Source: http://www.tenreasonswhy.com/weblog/archives/2007/04/thinking_about_1.html Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial 1.0.
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Gregor Hens 20.04.2007 00:00 Uhr Anzeige Während der Übung piepst ein Telefon. Ich werfe einen genervten Blick in die Richtung, aus der der Ton gekommen ist. Es piepst noch einmal - derselbe Student. Ich sehe jetzt, wie er seine SMS liest, und bitte ihn, das Handy auszuschalten. Er sagt, es ist etwas Schreckliches passiert. Er geht raus. Ich mache mit dem Unterricht weiter. In der Pause dann die Nachricht, auf die wir alle irgendwie längst gewartet haben. Dass ein Massaker an einer Universität verübt worden ist, die Rede ist von 28 Toten. Später erfahren wir, dass es mehr sind. Es war nur eine Frage der Zeit, sagt jemand. So etwas musste ja mal passieren. Stille. Irgendwie scheinen wir sehr gefasst. Keiner rührt sich. Aber nein, sagt eine junge Frau in die Stille hinein, diese Amokläufe in den Highschools hatten etwas mit dem Alter zu tun. Mit fünfzehn, sechzehn, da kommt man vielleicht auf solche Ideen. Wegen der Pubertät und so, den Ängsten und Obsessionen der Jugend. Aber an einer Universität, damit konnte niemand rechnen. Ich möchte einwenden: Ihr seid ja selbst noch so jung. Ihr wirkt wie Jugendliche auf mich. Was weiß ich, was in euren Köpfen vorgeht, worüber ihr redet, was ihr für Filme schaut, wie es um eure Hormone steht. Eure Welt ist mir sehr fremd. Ihr riecht wie Kinder. Diesen Gedanken behalte ich lieber für mich. Vielleicht, schlägt jemand vor, sind die Schüler, die vor ein paar Jahren in den Highschools gewesen sind, jetzt einfach im Studium angekommen. Und bringen die Gewalt mit. Eine Art Generation Columbine, die erwachsen geworden ist. Es hat schon mal sowas gegeben, in Texas, sagt einer, der sonst nie etwas sagt. Nichts Vergleichbares allerdings. Ein Typ klettert auf einen Glockenturm, legt an und spielt den Scharfschützen. Fünfzehn Tote. Aber das ist schon lange her. Langsam entsteht so etwas wie ein Gespräch. Der Student mit dem Handy ist wieder da, er hat Freunde an dieser Uni, sagt er. Niemandem scheint etwas passiert zu sein. Der Schütze in Texas damals, er hieß Whitman, höre ich, Charles Whitman. Meint ihr nicht, dass es mit den Waffengesetzen zusammenhängt? Es ist so einfach in diesem Land, an Waffen zu kommen. Du gehst in einen Laden und zeigst deinen Führerschein her und kaufst dir ein Arsenal zusammen für deinen privaten kleinen Krieg. Eine Studentin in der ersten Reihe sieht das anders. Sie meint, das Schlimme sei, dass jetzt die Europäer wieder einen Anlass hätten, den Amerikanern ihre Waffengesetze vorzuhalten. Jetzt können die sich wieder über uns lustig machen, sagt sie, weil wir so dumm sind, unsere Verfassung zu ehren, unsere Traditionen. Dabei geht es um etwas ganz anderes. Sie nimmt diesen Einwand vorweg, denke ich. Meinen Einwand. Ich bin der Europäer. Ich bin gemeint. Wir spielen ein Spiel, wie eine Schacheröffnung: Beide Seiten wissen längst, welche Möglichkeiten der Fortsetzung es gibt. Also lassen wir das. Mir geht es im Moment nicht darum, diese Leute von irgendetwas zu überzeugen. Worum geht es denn? Sollen wir uns auch bewaffnen? Sollen wir uns rund um die Uhr bewachen lassen? Metalldetektoren ... das funktioniert alles gar nicht, das stört den ganzen Betrieb, die Abläufe hier, schau dir den Campus doch an. Dieser Amokläufer hatte offenbar ein psychisches Problem. Und ...? Natürlich hatte er das, wirft jemand ein. Wie so viele andere Studenten auch. Jeder von uns kennt doch jemanden, der Antidepressiva nimmt. Sind nicht alle Mörder, oder? Potenzielle Mörder? Vielleicht sollte man jeden Studienbewerber erst psychologisch untersuchen lassen. War das jetzt Sarkasmus?, frage ich mich. Das wäre allerdings etwas ganz Neues. Die meisten der Opfer, lese ich später, saßen in einem Deutschkurs, zweites Semester. Der Dozent, Jamie Bishop, wurde auch erschossen. Aber eigentlich ist es ein Angriff eines Studenten auf seine Kommilitonen - eine Strafaktion, eine Exekution. Ich behaupte, weil jemand das Thema anspricht, Videospiele funktionieren doch anders: Da wird gekämpft, es geht um bestimmte Fertigkeiten, um Strategien, da kann man nicht einfach Leute an die Wand stellen und niedermähen. (Das Vokabular, das wir für diese Dinge haben.) Haben Sie eine Ahnung, sagt einer. An seiner Halskette baumelt ein silbernes Kreuz. Ich weiß es nicht. Ich habe keine Erklärungen, nichts, das hilft. Ich höre einfach zu. Morgen um 15 Uhr ist für den gesamten Campus eine Schweigeminute angeordnet, heißt es in einer E-Mail aus dem Büro des Universitätspräsidenten. Im Land fliegen die Flaggen auf Halbmast. Es gibt im Amerikanischen diesen Ausdruck: going postal. Weil ziemlich viele Amokläufer etwas mit der Post zu tun hatten. Es gab einige spektakuläre Fälle - gefeuerte Briefträger, die mit halbautomatischen Waffen auf ehemalige Kollegen und Vorgesetzte losgegangen sind. In dem Ausdruck offenbart sich unsere ganze Hilflosigkeit, denn er liefert eine Scheinerklärung, ein vermeintliches Muster. Er verhöhnt jeden, der wirklich wissen will, wieso es immer wieder passiert. Vielleicht trifft es uns so, weil die Ohio State University, an der ich seit vielen Jahren unterrichte, einige Ähnlichkeit mit der Uni in Virginia hat. Die Studenten entstammen größtenteils der Mittelschicht. Der Campus ist riesig und offen. Man kann durchfahren. Es gibt Stellen, an denen man kaum weiß: Bin ich schon drinnen oder nicht? Kein Tor, an dem man kontrolliert wird. Jeder kann hier rumlaufen. Kaum eine Tür ist abgeschlossen. Ganz sicher habe ich mich nie gefühlt, dabei bin ich kein ängstlicher Mensch. Pro Jahr werden in der Stadt - sie hat etwa siebenhunderttausend Einwohner - um die hundert Morde verübt. Auch auf dem Campus gibt es immer wieder Übergriffe: Mord, Raubüberfall, Vergewaltigung. Letztes Jahr ist einer spurlos verschwunden, unter mysteriösen Umständen. An allen Ecken stehen beleuchtete Notrufboxen. Es gibt eine Dienststelle, die man anrufen kann, um sich nach Einbruch der Dunkelheit eine bewaffnete Eskorte zu bestellen. Wenn man etwa vom Sportzentrum, das bis Mitternacht geöffnet hat, zur Bushaltestelle kommen will. Ich habe immer geglaubt, dass es zuerst die Lehrenden treffen wird. Dass ein Student, der bei einer Prüfung durchgefallen ist, durch ein Bürogebäude geht, von Tür zu Tür, und uns alle abknallt. Wir sind vollkommen wehrlos - sitting ducks. Noch so ein Ausdruck aus der amerikanischen Waffenkultur. Nichts ist einfacher, als eine brütende Ente abzuschießen, weil sie sich nicht vom Fleck bewegt, egal, wie groß die Gefahr ist. Vielleicht fahre ich deshalb dann und wann zu der Schießanlage in New Albany, miete mir eine Glock 17, setze mir den Ohrenschutz auf und verschieße eine Packung Patronen. Neun Millimeter. Es ist eigentlich gar nichts dabei. Was immer wieder hochkommt, ist Kent State, eine kleine Uni ganz in der Nähe. Am 4. Mai 1970 erschossen Nationalgardisten vier Studenten, die gegen den Einmarsch in Kambodscha demonstriert hatten. Es war der Anfang vom Ende des Vietnamkriegs. Wir sind ein bisschen stolz darauf, dass es in Ohio passiert ist. Gerade kommt das nächste Bulletin übers Netz: Die städtische Polizei und die Universitätspolizei - wie die meisten amerikanischen Unis haben auch wir eine eigene Einheit, mit eigenen Wagen, einem Logo und einer Website - versichern in einer Erklärung, dass sie auf eine Situation wie die an der Virginia Tech vorbereitet sind. „Unser Einsatzteam würde sofort stürmen und den Amokläufer außer Gefecht setzen", wird ein Sergeant zitiert. Die Studenten reden. Endlich einmal. Sie diskutieren sonst zu wenig, streiten sich nie. Über Kontroverses spricht man nicht. Ich finde sie immer etwas apathisch. Heute hat jeder eine Meinung. Es geht um ihr Leben. Sie sind es, die zurück in diese zwölfstöckigen Wohnheime auf der Südseite müssen. Ich setze mich am Abend ins Auto und fahre nach Hause. Der Schriftsteller Gregor Hens ist Professor für Germanistik an der Ohio State University in Columbus. Zuletzt erschien von ihm im S. Fischer Verlag der Roman „In diesem neuen Licht" . -- Ursprüngliche Quelle: Der Tagesspiegel http://www.tagesspiegel.de/kultur/;art772,2141887
Letters Wednesday April 18, 2007 The Guardian We have heard the arguments for years regarding the modern-day relevance or not of the second amendment, which engrains the right to bears arms into the American constitution and psyche, and they need not be rehashed now. I am sure all readers are intelligent and well-informed enough to realise and accept that although they may have strong views on the rights of people to own guns, many others do not share that view. But this argument should not be the focus of today's editorials, columns and letters. Nathaniel Hawthorne said that "A hero cannot be a hero unless in a heroic world", so let us today for once become a world that celebrates heroism rather than focusing on the acts of the wicked few. The bravery of students to carry their friends, their classmates and people they didn't even know to safety and help while under fire shows the acts of heroism that are still required in our world. Today it is them and their fallen colleagues that we should be focusing on, not the evil act of one person. We will focus on how to turn heroic acts into unnecessary acts tomorrow, but for today let's celebrate the lives of those who have once again been taken by the winds of fate and those who were willing to risk their lives simply because it was the right thing to do. Let us tomorrow reignite the debate over gun ownership, and this time have a full and frank debate rather than the shouting match that has developed in past decades and led to a stalemate which only allows further acts of terror to plague our society, but just for one day we can put our differences aside and immortalise the all too soon forgotten heroes of our world. Michael Hunter Glasgow It's really very simple. If you permit people to buy firearms they will buy firearms. If a person owns any kind of tool they are likely to use that tool for the purpose intended. Firearms have only one use: they are designed to shoot and to kill. Don't quote in defence "the constitutional right to bear arms"; the constitution was written centuries ago, in a different world with different values. What about the constitutional right not to be murdered? If an individual has a breakdown in response to the pressures they find themselves under, they could kill themselves. Give that person a gun and time after time we see a trail of corpses - Dunblane, Columbine, Hungerford, Pennsylvania, etc, and now Virginia Tech. Personal ownership of lethal weapons has no place in a civilised society. Andrew Harris Hitchin, Hertfordshire The second amendment reads: "Congress must not deny the states a militia. A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." The context was the "critical period" when the states were concerned over the possible tyranny of the federal government. Eric Liggett Carnforth, Lancashire Neither the president of Virginia Tech nor President Bush even mentioned unrestricted gun ownership as a factor in this carnage in their public statements. The latter suggested prayer as a remedy instead. Maybe there is no connection between the availability and the use of weapons in Virginia. Laurence Mann London Jackie Ashley would not have wanted her thesis on the media numbing-down of the daily carnage in Iraq (What matters is the blood in the sand, not Des Browne, April 16) to have been instantly proved in such a stark fashion. But the blanket media coverage of the killing of 32 students on a Virginia university campus does, by contrast, demonstrate perfectly her cry of pain for Iraq, where the daily death toll surpasses that of the American tragedy. What is, in the 21st century, the insane pioneer attitude to carrying and using guns - to protect yourself in a wild, unknown world - has also been translated to Iraq, where young, frightened American soldiers have been, on average, responsible for up to a third of Iraqi civilian deaths daily, according to Iraq's ministry of health. Dr David Lowry Stoneleigh, Surrey Special report United States Related articles 25.10.2002: Captured in their sniper's nest 25.10.2002: Dropped clues that led police to sniper 25.10.2002: Rifle costs just $800 Useful links National Rifle Association Violence Policy Centre Brady Campaign Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Copyright Guardian News & Media Ltd 2007. -- Original Source: Guardian Unlimited http://www.guardian.co.uk/usguns/Story/0,,2059479,00.html
Eve Thompson-Acting Permissions Executive Syndication;permissions.syndication@guardian.co.uk