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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
Adair: Taking the VT massacre personally
By Jeff Adair/Daily News columnist GHS Fri Apr 20, 2007, 12:19 AM EDT The responses seemed strange. A legislator in Washington, a student in Oklahoma, an insurance company owner in San Diego, and a government official and many others a continent away. This week, all felt the need to apologize. But they didn't do anything wrong, so why apologize? They all happen to be of Korean ancestry, like the Virginia Tech gunman, Cho Seung-Hui. "It hurts me deeply," Paull Shin, an orphan adopted by an American after the Korean War, and now a state senator in Washington, told his colleagues Wednesday. "This is not the way to pay back the blessings we received." "As a people, we take a certain amount of shame even though we didn't know this guy," said a co-organizer of a candlelight vigil in San Diego. "I think there's a lot of closed-minded people and people would automatically associate his actions with his race," Naht Nguyen, an Oklahoma City Community College student told the school newspaper. It seemed strange. Then of course, it's not new. I'm sure right after the Oklahoma City bombing, when initial reports pointed to a Middle Eastern man, those of that ancestry felt the same. I'm sure right after 9-11, Arab-Americans felt society was blaming them. Strange, isn't it? Not really. Not for those of us so-called minorities. The D.C. sniper attacks and the Carol Dimaiti Stuart murder in 1989 (police were looking for a black man, but later discovered her husband was the culprit) are two examples that stand in my mind. The minute the crimes hit the media, I said to myself, "I hope it's not a black man." Maybe we're paranoid. "Everyone's looking at us," we say. Maybe we grow tired of the stereotypes. We don't want to hear the critical, often wrong analysis of our communities. Maybe we see a double standard, as Mercury News writer L.A. Chung put it in a column this week, "I can't say I know a single white male who read about Jeffrey Dahmer's serial killing and thought, 'Oh, no, another white guy' - FBI criminal personality profiles notwithstanding." Dr. Kermit Crawford, a clinical psychologist and professor, told me that as recently as January, he felt the same way, crossing his fingers, hoping that the fatal stabbing at Lincoln-Sudbury High was not committed by a black person. The director of the Center for Multicultural Health at Boston University, Crawford said such feelings are rational in the sense that we all take ownership for our culture, whether we want to or not. That's not to say people should feel guilty, he said. He said in discussions with many people the past few days, including some who are Korean, it seems there's more of a collective fear, than collective guilt. "The greater concern is that there might be retaliation," he said. "There's a fear of them being blamed because they are Korean or Asian." The information from the Virginia Tech case points to Cho Seung-Hui as a very disturbed student, to put it mildly. Therefore, in my opinion every right thinking person should agree with Crawford that race had nothing to do with it. "Some people are sick," he said. "Some are just evil." Still, the apologies are made. According to Time.com, South Korea's Ambassador to the U.S., Lee Tae Shik, pledged to fast for 32 days to show his sorrow. That seems strange. Doesn't it? Jeff Adair is a Daily News writer and editor. He can be reached at jadair@cnc.com. -- Original Source: Framingham, MA - The MetroWest Daily News http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/opinions/x416900269 Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5.
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5
Adjusting to Campus Crisis: What to Expect and How to Cope
(PDF, 3 pages, 144KB) Prepared by the Family Therapy Center at Virginia Tech
Administration: Emory to Open Crisis Office
By: Susan McMillan Issue date: 4/24/07 Section: News Emory will establish an Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response to coordinate responses to catastrophic events, University officials announced Thursday. The office, CEPAR, will report directly to University President James W. Wagner. Although the announcement about CEPAR comes close on the heels of last week's shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, its director, Alexander Isakov, said the timing is coincidental. "What brought this to the foreground was the University's effort in the fall of 2005 to address the challenges of a pandemic strain of influenza," said Isakov, an associate professor of emergency medicine. The office was recommended by the Avian Influenza Task Force, which evaluated Emory's ability to respond to a flu pandemic, and it was first officially proposed in January 2006. CEPAR will also work on drawing up plans to deal with natural disasters, campus violence, disease outbreak and other situations. Isakov will assume his new position on May 1, and funding for the office begins Sept. 1, the start of the University's fiscal year. He said the staff of CEPAR will identify current emergency response plans in place across Emory's divisions and coordinate them to eliminate duplication. By making planning more efficient and cohesive, Isakov said, the University can ensure more effective responses to catastrophic events. In addition, by bringing together Emory's emergency planning and response functions, CEPAR will be able to serve as a "central command and control center" in the case of a crisis, Isakov said. Emory also plans to enhance its emergency notification systems with a handful of new technologies, Emory Police Department Chief Craig Watson said. He said the timing of the announcement of the enhancements is also coincidental, since they emerged as recommendations from a task force last fall. "We've been working on this for quite a while now," Watson said. One suggestion was a siren and public address system that could be used for inclement weather warnings or voice messages. Another addition would be a computerized paging system that could target key groups, such as building managers, or be used more broadly, like a text-message warning sent to registered cell phones. Less direct notification systems proposed include banners for Emory's cable TV system and the creation of an AM radio station that could also provide traffic and campus directions when there is no emergency. Watson said funding has been secured for these improvements and that they are expected to be in place by the end of 2007, if not sooner. -- Original Source: Emory Wheel - April 24, 2007
"Christopher H. Megerian" <cmegeri@LearnLink.Emory.Edu>
One of the items on display at the Alumni Center Art Exhibit. On 4/16/08, as part of the Day of Remembrance observance, the Holtzman Alumni Center Museum displayed examples of art, crafts, quilts, and other memorabilia contributed since April 16, 2007. This is one of over 60,000 items that will eventually go to Special Collections at Newman Library. This flag was flown at half-staff from April 17, 2007 until sunset on April 27, 2007 at the American Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. It was then sent to VT with a letter expressing sincere condolences. The letter was signed by Ambassador William B. Wood, Darrell H. Chapman, VT class of 1990, Kirk Ingvoldstad, father of Nicholas J. Ingvoldstad VT class of 2010, Karen Johnson, mother of Matthew D.J. Mitchell VT class of Dec. 1998, and Sara Rosenberry, VT Faculty member 1977-1988.
A young man and woman - likely students - are locked in an extended embrace after the close of the dedication ceremony for the intermediate memorial. Photo taken August 19, 2007. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0.
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
After VaTech, violent creative writing raises concerns on campuses
By: Sean Moroney Posted: 5/17/07 Other than being two of the most-read playwrights in history, Sophocles and Shakespeare share another common thread-a knack for writing gruesome but also unforgettable scenes. Likewise, Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech shooter who was a senior majoring in English, graphically described murder and violence in two plays he wrote for a class in the fall of his senior year. One difference between the well-known playwrights and Cho, however, was that their words stayed on the stage and Cho's played out in real life. Since the Virginia Tech massacre April 16, critics have questioned whether university administrators and professors could have taken further steps to prevent the shooting. Specifically, they have focused on Cho's two plays-"Mr. Brownstone" and "Richard McBeef," in which a 13-year-old threatens to kill his stepfather. "There is that understood latitude in creative writing," Duke English Professor Deborah Pope wrote in an e-mail. "There has to be that room to reach deeply. Not least of all because some of the greatest writers we know have written about quite disturbing events and characters. Many of the Greek plays and Shakespeare, as just two examples, are full of gore." In the English department at Duke, students can take a number of courses that either integrate creative writing into the curriculum or focus solely on it. Pope, who teaches creative writing, said she is not aware of an official policy on regulating a student's creative writing. "I don't know how there could be," Pope said. "It must rest with a teacher's individual judgment." Creative writing in college is a delicate issue because professors oftentimes encourage students to express themselves freely in their writing but at the same time must recognize when highly imaginative writing signals problems in the personal lives of the student. "I read both of [Cho's] short plays. I was pretty horrified and disgusted because I hate violence," said senior and English major Stephen Lee. "I haven't written anything equally violent or disturbing." Lee said he sometimes feels self-conscious about sharing his writing that is particularly grotesque due to fear of how other students might react. He added, however, that his creative writing professors have never censored a student's work just because it was violent or disturbing. "At Duke, I have read some disturbing stories written by fellow students, but I've never felt remotely endangered because the author has always been able to explain and defend his or her creative choices," Lee wrote in an e-mail. A senior in Cho's playwrighting class, Steven Davis, told The New York Times that after reading Cho's play "Richard McBeef" one night, he turned to his roommate and said, "This is the kind of guy who is going to walk into a classroom and start shooting people." After noticing a pattern of odd behavior from Cho-which included taking pictures of women with his cell phone camera in a poetry class in his junior year and a taciturn personality, Lucinda Roy, chair of the English department and co-director of the creative writing program at Virginia Tech, began to tutor Cho privately. Roy and other professors took further steps to ensure that counseling was sought for Cho, who was ordered to attend a psychiatric facility in late 2005. But their actions were not enough to prevent the shooting. "Fortunately, I have never had to deal with writing that struck me as truly psychotic or sadistic," Pope said. "When I heard that the Virginia Tech's writing teacher, of all people, had raised red flags, my first reaction was, 'My god, it must have been something really, really, unsettling-it must have just been completely over the edge.'" English major Melanie Garcia, Trinity '07, said the way she approaches writing is to write about things that mean a lot to her. "By writing things down that are personal, I make them permanent-they become something outside of me," she said. "If it were a painful memory, it would not be as painful." -- Original Source: Duke Chronicle - May 17, 2007
By: Hannah McBride and Andrea Rodi Posted: 4/25/07 Acknowledging cultural repercussions of last week's Virginia Tech shootings, Koreans at Boston University said they have been facing racial pressures as details have emerged about the killer, who came to the United States from South Korea when he was a child. Although Koreans -- whose culture traditionally values community support -- initially did not know how to react to the Virginia Tech shootings, many agree they should not feel responsible for the actions of Virginia Tech senior Cho Seung-Hui and should not fear persecution when expressing their culture, said BU Korean Student Association Secretary Clara Pyo. "Because it wasn't racism-driven, personally, we can be sorry that it happened, but we shouldn't feel responsible," she said. Almost immediately after Cho shot and killed 27 students and five teachers before killing himself on the Blacksburg, Va. campus April 16, many Korean organizations -- in the United States and overseas -- prepared for racial backlash against them. Members of BU Asian groups say they have not received a backlash from their peers, and the shootings are not a reflection of their culture. Nevertheless, KSA discussed taking extra precautions before its Korean cultural show, "Lost in Translation," on Saturday. Officers considered postponing the show, and the Student Activities Office offered to bolster security for it, but the group decided to continue with almost no changes. "We didn't know if we should be afraid or if we should celebrate [our heritage]," said Pyo, a School of Education sophomore, "but we decided that if there was any hostility against us, we didn't want to be swayed by the incident." In the wake of the shootings, the media can affect Americans' perceptions of Asians, said BU Asian Student Union President Lisa Tobari. "[Media portrayal] impacts the way you behave and the way you see yourself," the College of Communication junior said. "[However,] the fact that [Cho] is Asian . . . hasn't really affected our identities as Asian people living in America." In following traditional Korean values of taking responsibility in the community, some natives have taken the shootings personally and feel dismayed by them, Pyo said. "It's not our job to apologize for his actions as Koreans," she said. "Not to say it wasn't a big deal, but we had nothing to do with it." The Virginia Tech shootings are another point in history when a specific group of people felt at risk for racial discrimination in association with violence, said New England Korean News Editor-in-Chief Andy Min, who referenced the 1991 Rodney King incident, in which the black New York taxi driver was beaten by three white police officers and a Hispanic officer, sparking race riots. "Some people worry that we're going to get hurt from other people because we're Korean and the killer was Korean," Min said. For Korean immigrants like Cho, an American upbringing can conflict with Asian culture, which may leave children confused and isolated, Min said. "The children don't know why they came," he said. "There's a trauma and a breakdown between where they came from and what they're adjusting to." Trying to honor both American and Korean cultures in shows like "Lost in Translation," one of KSA's goals is to reconcile dual-heritage conflicts, Pyo said. "[Korean Americans] have the struggle of being appreciative of Korean heritage and being Americanized," she said. "[The show is] mixing Korean heritage with what we have experienced growing up here." Cultural student groups and other students have the responsibility to foster a sense of community for isolated students to avoid situations like the Virginia Tech shootings, Pyo said. "Anyone that feels alone or alienated needs to find a group to join for community," she said. "I think that was really missing with [Cho]." -- Original Source:The Daily Free Press - April 25, 2007
Memorial stone for Ross A. Alameddine on 4/16/08. Photo by Brian Sewell. -- Original Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/briansewell/2419169815/in/set-72157604577382666/
Virginia Tech senior Alison St. Onge speaks at a student "lie-in" at the far end of the drillfield on April 16, 2008, A Day of Remembrance. Organized by St. Onge, the event was intended to memorialize the victims and protest easy access to firearms. Other family and friends of victims spoke at the event before dozens of supporters laid down in silent protest and reflection. Photo by Brent Jesiek. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
an empty tissue box sits on board filled with sentiments from mourners.
Alum receives probation for 'maliciously conveying false information'
By Anita Pere Staff writer Baylor alumnus David Paul Cunningham, who in May threatened to destroy various buildings on Baylor's main campus, received three years of probation Thursday in a U.S. district court. According to his attorney, Vik Deivanayagam, Cunningham, 34, was able to avoid prison time due to mental instability stemming from a serious head injury incurred while playing rugby at Baylor. Cunningham faced a total of 20 years in prison for two felony counts of "maliciously conveying false information." On May 1, Cunningham called a Baylor switchboard operator and told her he planned to place diesel drums in the basements of every building at Baylor, according to court records. Cunningham said he would take this action in response to his perceived involvement of Baylor in the Virginia Tech shootings. The Baylor Police Department was able to trace the call to a hotel room in Tyler, Cunningham's hometown. The next day, Cunningham called Baylor Police Chief Jim Doak, threatening bodily harm. Again, he mentioned the Virginia Tech incident. The call was traced to the same hotel room. The Tyler Police Department arrested Cunningham later that day. "The justice system worked as it is supposed to," Doak said of the sentencing. According to an article appearing in the Waco Tribune-Herald, Deivanayagam was able to convince U.S. District Judge Walter J. Smith Jr. that Cunningham did not grasp the levity of these threats and did not plan on carrying them out. Deivanayagam said Cunningham was more or less "blowing off some steam." Also in the article, Cunningham apologized to Judge Smith and said, "I just don't have a lot of tact in dealing with police enforcement." Cunningham wrapped up his court statement by saying he wanted to see the elephants at the zoo in Tyler. According to Baylor Lariat archives, Cunningham was kneed in the head during a scrimmage against the University of Texas in 1995. Cunningham suffered a concussion, a broken nose and a skull fracture. He missed two weeks of school and his injuries required cosmetic surgery. Cunningham graduated the next spring with a degree in engineering. He was expelled for undisclosed reasons as a graduate student in 2001 -- Original Source: The Lariat http://www.baylor.edu/Lariat/news.php?action=story&story=47982
Julie Freeman (Julie_Freeman@baylor.edu)
2007.04.16. News satellite trucks at the Holtzman Alumni Center. Photo courtesy of Ivan V. Morozov
By Felicia Daniels Sun Staff Writer Apr 19 2007 Brenda Scinto '87 was in her bedroom studying in 1983, when two freshman women, Young Hee Suh '87 and Erin Nieswand '87, were fatally shot in the room above her by 26-year-old Su Yong Kim. Scinto said she does not remember much about that year academically, but 26 years later, she remembers everything about that particular Saturday night. Monday's shootings at Virginia Polytechnical Institute brought back a flood of memories for her. "It was incredibly violent, an event that no one in that dorm that night or in dorms around us will ever forget," Scinto said. Kim, who was not a Cornell student, invaded the North Campus dorm Low Rise 7 on Saturday, Dec. 17, 1983 armed with a rifle. According to Scinto and police reports, Kim arrived at the dorm and confronted Suh and Nieswand in their room after Suh refused to see him. Scinto called Kim an "obsessed admirer and stalker of Suh." "We all heard him come in through the back fire escape stairs. Those doors were supposed to have been locked but everyone kept them propped open, and that's how he got in. He came in through the fire escape stairway and entered the suite above me," she said. Less than 30 minutes later, Scinto heard gunshots as Kim murdered Suh and Nieswand. She then heard footsteps as he fled back down the staircase. Though only two people lost their lives, the incident had potential to be even more traumatic. Kim held five additional students hostage in Suh's room before releasing all but the two roommates. Joel Melby '84 lived on the floor below and remembers how much uglier the situation could have turned. "It was only because the man's primary target, a quiet, shy, freshman girl, persuaded him to let most of the others go. Her bravery saved the lives of all but herself and her roommate. What if she hadn't found the courage to do so?" he asked in a comment on The Sun's website. "What if" is a question many students are asking as they worry that shootings like the ones at Virginia Tech could happen at Cornell, and whether or not the University could handle such desperate conditions. Evan Kalman '08 does not feel any college is "equipped to handle a major situation." "You can criticize [a school's] lack of security, but not their lack of action. If there is a murder on campus you could say, 'stay in your rooms,' but I guess that can't really prevent anything either," he said. Isha Tohill '08 believes the events at Cornell in 1983 and the Virginia Tech murders emphasize holes in security at all college campuses. She said it was a mistake for Virginia Tech not to take any immediate precautions after the first shooting other than sending an e-mail two hours later stating that a shooting had occurred. "I know it's a big school, but they should have had people patrolling the whole campus, especially since they didn't know where the shooter was," Tohill said. Scinto found it frustrating watching the coverage at Virginia on Monday. She also criticized the delay in reporting the first shootings since technology is now better than it was in 1983. There was no e-mail sent in 1983; information was spread through word of mouth and over landline phones, Scinto said. "When the hostages were released in Low Rise, the resident advisors were immediately told what was going on and within minutes the police were there, buildings all over campus were locked down and police caught him within two miles of the dorm," Scinto said. "I don't know what the time frame is when administration was notified about the first shootings, but it had to be before two hours." Still, some students believe it is impossible to stop acts of violence and that something could happen at Cornell again or at any other college. Tohill said it is hard to prevent violent situations on campus, "unless every single building has card access that changes every semester according to who has classes in those buildings, and even then it's not fool proof." According to Kalman, a false sense of security will leave colleges vulnerable to attacks."You're not quite home in Ithaca, but you're very much not in the real world," he said. While the Virginia Tech community mourns 32 students and teachers, Cornell continues to offer condolences and support. Some are shocked from a distance, others personally affected by the rampage, but all share grief as many members of the Cornell community have friends and relatives attending and working at Virginia Tech. Though Cornell students were certainly affected by such a recent horrific event, many Cornell students are likely unaware of the University's tragedy decades ago. In a post on The Sun's website, Melby urged students not to become so far removed from the Virginia Tech tragedy that they forget the event "beyond the prayers and the tears." He stated, "Please don't believe that it couldn't have happened on our campus, because it already has." -- Original Source: Cornell Daily Sun - April 19, 2007
Jonny Lieberman <jdl46@cornell.edu>, <lieberman.jonny@gmail.com>
When I came around the corner, I was moved by the care given in this simple, but strong message.