Coding Gun Control
description: Gene Koo - April 21, 2007 @ 6:42 pm · Filed under Code / Code A report in today's New York Times illustrates both the promise and the difficulties of (legal) code as (software) code (U.S. Rules Made Killer Ineligible to Purchase Gun). Apparently, slight discrepancies between the wording of Virginia and federal laws that disqualify the "mentally defective" from purchasing a handgun created a gap that enabled Seung-Hui Cho to purchase the weapons he used to carry out his killing spree: ...[T]he form that Virginia courts use to notify state police about a mental health disqualification addresses only the state criteria, which list two potential categories that would warrant notification to the state police: someone who was "involuntarily committed" or ruled mentally "incapacitated." However, Mr. Cho belonged to a third category: "determination by a court, board, commission or other lawful authority" that as a result of mental illness, the person is a "danger to himself or others." Thus, a special justice's order that he seek outpatient care and that also declared him an imminent danger to himself was never transmitted to the federal system of handling background checks for handgun purchases. The article mentions Representative Carolyn McCarthy's efforts to "automate their criminal history records so computer databases used to conduct background checks on gun buyers are more complete." McCarthy (who happens to represent my hometown) introduced in January H.R. 297. The bill would require state officials to report disqualifications to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) as well as provide funds to fund "establish or upgrade information and identification technologies for firearms eligibility determinations" and "improve the automation and transmittal to federal and state record repositories" disqualifying factors. Monday's tragedy offers an extreme example of what happens when jurisdictions fail to reconcile discrepancies in their laws. The answer…
creator: Gene Koo
date: 2007-06-06
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Gene Koo (gkoo@cyber.law.harvard.edu)
language: eng

Mental Health is Everyone's Business
description: 4-30-07 Mental Health is Everyone's Business: Historical Reflections on the Virginia Tech Shootings By Heather Munro Prescott Ms. Prescott is Professor of History at Central Connecticut State University. Her book, Student Bodies: The Influence of Student Health Services on American Society and Medicine will be published by University of Michigan Press in Fall 2007. A man's college days, collectively, are usually his happiest. Most of mine were not happy. --Clifford Whittingham Beers, A Mind That Found Itself (1908) Clifford Whittingham Beers's words came to mind as I followed the news coverage of Cho Seung-Hui's shooting rampage at Virginia Tech last week. I empathized with the victims and their families and for the community; it was a tragic and terrible loss of life. As the days wore on, I began to have another reaction to the events. Since I am a historian and a client of mental health services, the heated discussions about what to do with "deranged" students like Cho that appeared in various mainstream media seemed all too reminiscent of earlier incidents of discrimination against mentally ill individuals. One especially troubling article by crime novelist and psychologist Jonathan Kellerman in the Wall Street Journal, placed the blame for the shootings on the anti-psychiatry and deinstitutionalization movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He argued for stricter laws for involuntarily committing students exhibiting disturbing thoughts or behavior, declaring it was better to "err on the side of public safety rather than protect individual liberty at all costs." This cavalier attitude, combined with the sensationalistic footage of the "madman" on NBC, seemed to me a step backward in a century-long battle to safeguard the civil rights and enhance the public's understanding of mentally ill individuals. A Mind That Found Itself represented a landmark in this struggle. Likened to Uncle Tom's Cabin in its vivid description of the horrors of asylum life, the book launched a …
creator: Heather Munro Prescott
date: 2007-06-06
contributor: Heather Munro Prescott
language: eng

Cho Seung-Hui: A Lone Deranged Gunman?
description: Thursday, April 19. 2007 As all of America mourns the deaths which occurred on the Virginia Tech campus, bloggers are drawing comparisons to the body count that issues daily from Iraq. See a particularly poignant post from Floyd Rudmin of commondreams.org titled "32 Senseless Deaths: A Chance for Empathy, Change of Heart, and Change of Course" which concludes: The tragedy at Virginia Tech was caused by lone gunman, probably deranged. It was a one-time event. It is finished. The tragedy in Iraq was caused by the US government, with the over-whelming support of the US Congress, most of the US media, and much of the US population. This war was planned and executed by rational men and women, none of them deranged. The US decided to start the war against Iraq. The US decided to destroy the infrastructure of Iraq. The US decided to destroy the Iraqi government and to disband its police and army. The US decided to send too few soldiers to secure the nation after doing these destructive deeds. And the tragedy of Iraq is not a one-time event. It is not finished. It continues, apparently without end. By many reports, the US is now preparing to start another war, this time against Iran. Americans feeling the shock and grief of the tragedy at Virginia Tech should look into their hearts and realize that they through their government are bringing this same tragedy again, and again, and again, and again, and again, endlessly and needlessly, to other people in the world who also have hearts that can be torn out, who also feel grief and loss when family and friends are suddenly killed when doing ordinary things of life, like going to school. Tragic deaths force us to feel our humanity and to see we are similar to others in the world. The tragic deaths in Virginia might serve to motivate Americans to curb their militarism and to minimize the tragedies of sudden death that they have been bringing to other families in the world. Read the full article. It is heartening to witness a vigo…
creator: David Barker
date: 2007-06-06
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5
language: eng

32 Senseless Deaths: A Chance for Empathy, Change of Heart, and Change of Course
description: Published on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 by CommonDreams.org by Floyd Rudmin The tragedy at Virginia Tech tears at the heart of everyone. Thirty-two innocent students and teachers, in the normal activities of their lives, are suddenly shot dead. Each one of them has a mother, a father, friends, classmates, siblings, and others who held them dear. And all of these have had their hearts torn, or torn out. There is now emptiness and grief where once there was a person. Americans in their sharing of this sadness should consider how others in the world have similar feelings when facing similar loss and tragedy. These 32 senseless deaths are a chance for empathy with other communities who have also lost 32 loved persons to sudden death. A search of Google using the search expression: "Iraq AND ("32 killed" OR "32 died" OR "killing 32")" finds the following news headlines and news text (in brackets): 3 March 2004: Bremer: U.S. to bolster Iraq border security ("killing 32 people") 24 April 2004: At least 32 killed, nearly 60 injured in another day of violence in Iraq 1 June 2004: 3rd of detainees who died were assaulted ("32 died in Iraq over 12 months") 16 July 2004: 32 killed as attacks rock Iraq 17 September 2004: 32 killed as US Forces continued their relentless strikes in Baghdad 15 October 2004: At least 32 killed in Iraq violence 28 December 2004: 32 killed in attacks in Tikrit 23 June 2005: 32 killed in coordinated attacks 14 November 2005: On American attacks in Iraq ("American navy announced killing 32 gunmen") 9 December 2005: Suicide bomber on Iraqi bus kills 32 6 January 2006: Scores killed on Iraq's bloodiest day ("32 killed by a suicide bomber at a Shiite funeral") 2 March 2006: Iraqi parties want Jaafari out of Prime Minister race ("more violence struck Iraq, killing 32 people") 24 March 2006: 32 killed in attacks across Iraq 14 May 2006: 32 killed in violence 27 June 2006: Seven Sunni groups seek truce in Iraq ("32 killed in violence") 28 July 2006: IRAQ: 32 …
creator: Floyd Rudmin
date: 2007-06-05
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Floyd Webster Rudmin (frudmin@psyk.uit.no)
language: eng

Some thoughts on the Cho identity and mass murder
description: April 18th, 2007 by Ryan Lanham I know very little about profoundly deviant behavior of this sort. It has never much interested me. I tend to turn off the channels where it is dealt with. I have extended familial ties to some protracted and difficult cases but rarely anything profoundly deviant like this. I have also had many friends and acquaintances who cope with various forms of mental illness in their relationships both near and extended. But this seems to be of a different sort...I think. I so far believe it isn't a "9" on a scale where many folks are showing up at the mental health center with a level 4 or 5 problem. But on that I may be sadly wrong. Things erode rapidly sometimes. Tear out hope from people and prospects go decay in a hurry. But people are usually self-destructive first...not outwardly destructive. Something is different when people need to spread a blight. It seems to me that the Virginia Tech murderer reached several cross-over points. For example, he constructed an identity of persecution. I am sure he had opportunities to back out of this, but he chose not to. He wanted to be persecuted. I notice this desire in many larger groups...sometimes whole nations. It is a need to be selected as a target of unfairness. At some level we all feel it. It is very hard to look for a job, for example, in academia without some sense of constant rejection. Maybe it is luck to get help or a positive turn, and some folks just aren't lucky. Maybe Cho never got cut a break. But it seems like he did get at least a few breaks to hear it from his roommates. He CHOSE to not find happiness. Perhaps that paranoia is an element of a broader delusional identity, but all that sounds annoyingly redundant. I must say that the psychological descriptions of these things feel inadequate. It is as if there are things unsaid or said as categorizations that seem deficient to offer any insight beyond a label. There is a Peanuts cartoon with Lucy psychoanalyzing Charlie Brown's …
creator: Ryan Lanham
date: 2007-06-05
contributor: Chad Newswander
language: eng

Could the Virginia Tech shooting been avoided?
description: Nafeesah Abdullah May 06, 2007 In light of recent events this just gets added to the list of school shootings that have taken place over the last 5+ years and what seems to be motive is identical the perpetrators are young white males under the age of 21 with a history of disturbing behavior either expressed through writing or other means like music, video games, and artwork. This situation took a small turn since the perpetrator was a 23 year old Asian (Korean) male. The loner mentality wasn't anything new because the two guys at Columbine also were loners too and the other perpetrators of past school shootings were also loners too with family issues. As a former college RA I have experienced students who are not as social as others, but I made it my responsibility to check in with my residents just to let them know I am there for them if they needed anything even someone to talk to. You got some RA's who are in the job just for the perks, but are not true to the job of being a student leader and someone who is held to standards to uphold and adhere to the job and what it entails. RA's need to be retrained to understand that they are in a position to serve students and to exercise their skills as a student leader, and having a more personal approach to how they interact with students. Most students who tend to be loners don't have a lot of friends and usually are the butt of people's jokes for being strange or weird and just plain dysfunctional. The RA who was among the victims of this horrific crime didn't deserve what he got, but this should be a wake up call to RA's who treat students like they don't matter. This should be a wake up call to students and teachers period that if you recognize someone who tends to be a loner to speak up because this can stop the violence in schools and it's not just college, but in grade and high schools everywhere. Students don't want to feel that they're ratting someone out, but would they rather tell on someone who's like this t…
creator: Nafeesah Abdullah
date: 2007-06-05
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
language: eng

Va. Tech Shooting: Privacy Laws Are Inhibiting Gun Control Legislation
description: Ann Clemmons May 03, 2007 Cho Seung-Hui a tormented young man, already exhibiting crazed behavior, ignored the advice of a teacher, slipped through a mental health care facility, conned campus police, and bought two firearms. Teachers, students, and law enforcement personnel were not able to prevent this tragic event. It seems many people, agencies, and family members were aware of the fact that Cho Seung was "troubled" however, due to the so-called protection of privacy laws; they were unable to help him. Privacy laws are inhibiting gun control legislation. There is now a bill before congress promoting states to report mental health records to the national database used to conduct background checks on people buying guns. Already federal law prohibits anyone involuntarily admitted as a "mental defective" from purchasing a firearm. However, only twenty-two states provide mental health records to the National Criminal Background Check System. At present, the National Criminal Background Check System, screens people before they can purchase a firearm. However, if states are not required to push mental health care facilities to provide mental health records, for all persons including voluntary commitments, what good is the law doing anyone? This problem has been going on for years, and gun control advocates, special interest groups, and law enforcement officials have been trying to shed light on the this unpredictable reporting. However, the biggest obstacle has been the privacy law in relation to mental health care records. Evidently, if you are voluntarily committed to a mental health care facility, privacy laws prohibit the facility from reporting your time there. If Virginia, had required mental health care facilities, to report voluntary records to the National Criminal Background Check, the people who died that day at Va. Tech., would still be alive. Cho Seung-Hui would not have been able to purchase the two firearms that killed thirty-three people, including him.…
creator: Ann Clemmons
date: 2007-06-05
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
language: eng

Virginia Tech 4.16.07
description: Artist's Comments Dedicated to those who lost their lives in the massacre at Virginia Tech... -- Original Source: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53603449/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5.
creator: Stephen A Evans / digitalpharaoh
date: 2007-06-04
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5
language: eng

Profesorul erou din America, plecat din Focsani
description: De, Silvia Vrinceanu Nichita | 18.04.2007 Profesorul Liviu Librescu, impuscat mortal intr-un amfiteatru al Universitatii Virginia Tech din SUA, este originar din Focsani, unde a trait pina la 14 ani. De asemenea, sotia regretatului profesor este fiica unui stomatolog evreu din Focsani. Ambii au supravietuit Holocaustului si au emigrat cu greu in Israel in timpul regimului comunist. In masacrul de luni, de la universitatea americana, au fost omorite 32 de persoane si alte 29 au fost ranite. Ziarul de Vrancea se afla in corespondenta cu renumitul profesor in vederea publicarii unui articol despre opresiunile antisemite din perioada copilariei sale. Putini stiu ca masacrul care a ingrozit planeta in cursul zilei de ieri are legatura cu Focsaniul si cu prigoana evreilor care s-a produs in aceasta zona a tarii in timpul Holocaustului. Liviu Librescu, în virsta de 76 de ani, profesor de aeronautica la Universitatea Virginia Tech din Statele Unite ale Americii, care a fost ucis in atacul de luni, alaturi de 31 studenti, a copilarit mai multi ani la Focsani, unde tatal sau, un avocat evreu repudiat, a avut domiciliul fortat, in timpul prigoanei antiseminte. La Focsani, unde a urmat cursurile Colegiului Unirea, profesorul Liviu Librescu a cunoscut-o si pe cea care i-a fost alaturi toata viata, sotia sa Marilena. Ambii au fost supravietuitori ai Holocaustului din Romania. Chiar in aceste zile, cind comunitatea evreiasca din toata lumea se pregateste sa comemoreze revolta evreilor din ghetoul de la Varsovia, unul dintre simbolurile de rezistenta si eroism in timpul Holocaustului, reporterii nostri se aflau in corespondenta cu apreciatul profesor univesitar pe tema ororilor din timpul celui de-al doilea razboi mondial. Potrivit studentilor sai, citati de presa internationala, profesorul Liviu Librescu a cazut la datorie, împuscat de un bursier sud- coreean, în momentul în care se pregatea sa înceapa cursul în amfiteatrul universitatii. Stirea despre carnagiu a facut incon…
creator: Silvia Vrinceanu Nichita
date: 2007-06-04
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Silvia Vranceanu (silvia@ziaruldevrancea.ro)
language: ron

Cho Seung
description: Artist's Comments Image made for the newspaper I work at (Nyhedsavisen). Asking questions like "was the evil or just haunted? Was it something in his head or the society around him?" Kinda funny... A few months ago this was a guy I'd never ever have a chance to even know. And now I'm actually drawing him. Amazing what killing some people will get you. The media said he had no feelings, but I think he had too many of them. -- Provided courtesy of Riana Møller, http://www.fealasy.com/ Original Source: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/55107879/
creator: Riana Møller
date: 2007-06-04
contributor: Brent Jesiek
language: eng

Today We Are All Hokies
description: Wednesday, April 18. 2007 The blog has not been on my mind these past few days. My son is a senior at Virginia Tech. He's OK. We have spent most of the past two days staying in touch with him and answering phone calls and emails from friends and family. I watched the coverage knowing he was safe, and saw his freshman dormitory as the site of the first shooting, and his main classroom building as the site of the others. I've walked that campus, gone to football games, chanted Hokie chants, been in those buildings, and still I can't grasp what it must be to be that community. He called his mom as soon as he knew about the first shootings. He had a class in Norris Hall at 10:30 and planned to be there at 9:30 to work on his senior project. Professor Kevin Granata was their project adviser in the Engineering Science and Mechanics department. Their research is in muscle and reflex response and robotics. Dr. Granata is one of the top biomechanics researchers in the country and is known for his work on movement dynamics in cerebral palsy. If he had gone in as planned, he would have been exactly at the wrong place at the wrong time. Dr. Granata was one of the thirty in Norris Hall that was killed. I've been on the Tech campus a number of times, gone to a Hokie football game and have a sense of this spirit you hear students and staff talk about on the news. But I don't think we can understand it in the way that they do. The students and staff I saw on the news all served Tech well. The professors who were killed all died trying to protect their students in some way. They serve our profession well. I listened to poet Nikki Giovanni at the Convocation read "We Are Virginia Tech" and thought that some listeners must have thought it odd for a poet to talk about "We are Hokies." I would have thought the same before my son started Tech. I associated Hokies with sports, especially football, and the overwhelming volume of fans at the stadium. But it is more than that. When the stude…
creator: Ken Ronkowitz
date: 2007-06-03
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution 1.0
language: eng

Broken heart's here at Virginia Tech
description: Apr 18th, 2007 by Ryan Lanham This day, two days after the shootings at Virginia Tech, is a day of broken hearts. The eyes of those who love the place realize it is now defined...like Kent State, like Columbine, as a tragic event, particularly for most people outside the immediate community. That set of moments will always be...a where were you when...time. It is now the historical event of tours and commentators fifty years hence. The shooter has ensured his fame as a parting shot of narcissism. My boss and mentor has given over 30 years to the campus from a time when it was a sleepy state school that charged $18 a credit hour, or something like that, to helping it grow into a research institution of international note. It breaks my heart to see the heartbreak in his eyes. His love of the place helps me help him in his work; his disappointment and sadness magnify my own. In some ways to see his disappointment is almost the worst of it for me. I was in his office, locked in behind two doors but near enough to open windows to hear gun shots, as the whole crisis unfolded. He was, as usual, fatherly and wise. I could not help but wonder if his leadership at the moment of crisis might have made a difference. But so far as I can tell there are no lessons in any of this. The whole thing appears startlingly random. Gun ownership is falling rather rapidly in the United States and it would be utterly impossible to achieve any legislative gain on the issue in the face of those who are its advocates and protectors. The student was a loner who had troubling fantasies, but that would only put him amongst maybe 15% of his peers (at least). I heard today at a press conference that 7-30% of the student body is seen for counselling in the course of a year. Mental health is a real issue, and this fellow wasn't even really in the system like 10s of thousands of other college students. The university probably didn't act perfectly, but who would have? And second guessing such a singular…
creator: Ryan Lanham
date: 2007-06-03
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
language: eng

Virginia Tech - Personal Update for Ryan and his family
description: Apr 16th, 2007 by Ryan Lanham For those who know I am at Virginia Tech, both my family and myself are accounted for and uninvolved in any way in the shooting. Local sources (channel 7) report 22 dead. (see update below...now at least 31...) I was in Burruss Hall and heard gunshots at approximately 10AM. I spoke with one associate who reported having to evacuate Norris by stepping past or over a fatality. I have no other first-hand information other than to report that both my family and myself are safe. Update: The worst shooting incident in American history apparently occurred within earshot of my office. When we had huddled in my boss Minnis Ridenour's office, we heard gun shots around 10AM. The tragedy is obviously considerable. People I know well are reporting on national and international news. My neighbors and friends who are EMTs treated the wounded both from the 7:15AM dorm shooting and from Norris. For local friends, Sue O. was at the Burger King doing triage. The schools locked down early and people on campus acted admirably. We are, here in Blacksburg, VA, some 40 miles from the nearest small commercial airport at Roanoke, VA. To have something occur like this in a place of rural beauty at a campus that is quite closely knit and exceedingly friendly seems truly random in the most shocking sort of way. My thoughts are with the families of those injured and dead. -- Original Source: http://ryanlanham.wordpress.com/2007/04/16/virginia-tech-personal-update/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.
creator: Ryan Lanham
date: 2007-06-03
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
language: eng

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

In Memory of the Fallen
description: Artist's Comments To all of the fallen at Virginia Tech, rest in peace. Taken at Michigan State University's candlelight vigil for the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre last week. -- Photo taken Wednesday, April 18. Provided courtesy of Anne Johanna Strasko. Original Source: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53942334/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5.
creator: Anne Johanna Strasko
date: 2007-06-02
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Permission Contact: Anne Johanna Strasko (straskoa@msu.edu) Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0
language: eng

Virginia Tech Tragedy: A Revealing Sociological Tome
description: about 1 month ago by Nate Brugnone The recent shootings at Virginia Tech are not only a tragedy at face-value, they are also a revealing tragedy on many social levels. As this story broke almost every headline across the US, and no doubt throughout much of the world, it's become apparent to me how much journalism today resembles a botch theatrical moral auction. It's a "who can draw the most hits using the most visceral, emotive attractor" competition. First come the alligators of the shallow, murky riverbanks. These are the fat lizard spawn of necessary 24-hour news corporations -- the ones with catlike reflexes and the largest paychecks. They're bug-eyes keep a most sentinel vigil over "normalcy" amongst the crowd. Even the slightest ripple caused by a ubiquitous herbivore hoof could spell a ratings spike and a big payoff. And I'm not just going to roll over here and give them the credit of, "[in a whiny, airy Bob Saget voice] well, they just want to get us the news we need to know about. They're looking out for us." If that's the case, then I'm severely deluded as to the nature of mass media in the US and Rupert Murdock (or whomever) has a proportional messiah-complex. We know, at least considering the second statement, that this is untrue. Covering the rest of Noah's Ark here, we come to the wolves in peacocks' feathers -- the journalists who find it necessary to employ visual aids, as if the headline, "33 College Students Slaughtered in Largest Killing Spree in US History," doesn't tweak tightly enough the heart muscles and gray matter of the soon-to-be-touched-upon emotional-parasites. "Here's a picture a bloodied boy barely clinging to life as he is carried out by fellow scholars." Blah blah blah... on & on. Then in come the dumpster-diving raccoon collage artists, riding the coattails of those before, pasting, quoting other papers, quoting bloggers (dah!), in hopes of making a few more bucks. These things smell and are super lazy. Just look at the abundance …
creator: Nate Brugnone
date: 2007-06-02
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States
language: eng

In Cho's defence...
description: Saturday, April 21, 2007 "this is a lesson for all o. i think those American parents should learn a lesson or 2 from this. with the way their kids tease other people of different nationalities. i went to school abroad as well, and i can tell you that most people, even the adult students have no regard for others. if you aint speaking the language like them, or don't look like them, its hard to mix. i'm not generalizing, but its a pattern ive noticed. hence it leaves people feeling isolated from others. i think people should be taught these subtle signs and not to ignore others. no be by force, but at least make an effort to make other people feel welcome. this matter was a big issue in the school i went to. if you aint white, forget it. no-one wants to have anything to do with you, no matter how extroverted or social you are." - Soulpatrol (Nairaland) Being a foreigner myself set me thingking... what could have made a man shoot 31 innocent people before taking his own life? It's easy to plant flowers at memorials, write words we don't mean on tombstones and whiteboards, talk about how good people were on facebook. . . if only we did this when we each could appreciate each other perhaps such episodes could be a thiing of the past. How could a fellow not have any friends for 4 years?? Everyone is talking about him being the weird kid who never talked, some are busy posting his plays on the internet, professors are describing a disturbed kid they think they did a huge favour by sending to see a psychiatrist. Where was everyone when a simple "how did your day go" would have averted this problem? How many times was Cho abandoned in the back of the class with everyone sniggering at that "weird asian kid who never talked"? I find it so difficult to imagine me sharing a room with another individual and him having issues that warranted psychiatric evaluation and police questioning and yet doing absolutely nothing! Only to appear on CNN after the shootings to hug the limeligh…
creator: David Adenuga
date: 2007-06-02
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5
language: eng

News Worthiness
description: Thursday, April 19, 2007 Since releasing the excerpts from the package sent by Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui, NBC News has received more than just a little criticism. Indeed, this story is so big that every little nuance... anything remotely connected to the story is being put under a microscope and reported on ad nauseam. Ironically enough, the decision to air the material delivered to NBC News has become itself a news story. If not for the "gift" left by Cho, the media would be filling all of that airtime and every available inch with anything and everything it could discover about this "seriously disturbed individual." Cho saved the media a huge amount of legwork and opened insights about what drove him. Did he get what he wanted? Some are saying that by airing this "manifesto," Cho has ultimately won. But think about how ridiculous that sounds. Cho is dead - and he's not getting any better. Last I checked, to get any enjoyment or satisfaction from an act, one must be alive to experience it. Furthermore, even if Cho could somehow relish his media spotlight from the grave, he would soon realize that no one agrees that he was any kind of victim. He would be crestfallen in the discovery that he is being regarded - at best - as "a seriously disturbed young man." Mostly he's being viewed as some kind of homicidal whacko. For those with a religious leaning, I'm guessing that Cho's last act earned him a one-way ticket straight to Hell. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Yet he is somehow enjoying the last laugh? I don't think so. Does this coverage intensify the pain of the community, the survivors and the victims' families? Undoubtedly, but surely they would understand that news of this magnitude must be reported. Even without Cho's help, there would be extensive coverage of Cho - a disproportionate amount. But even without considering the civic responsibility of the news business, let us remember that it is a business. If no one tuned into this stuff, no one wo…
creator: Michael Althouse
date: 2007-06-02
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5
language: eng

Dispassionate Reporting
description: Monday, April 16, 2007 Thirty-one... now 32 killed at Virginia Tech. Initial "breaking news" headlines emailed and forwarded to my BlackBerry from the New York Times, then the Washington Post and finally the Sacramento Bee reported the number dead at 20 or 21. I received these reports while sitting in a classroom at Sacramento State University - peeking at the screen of my personal digital assistant, surreptitiously answering its silent vibrations. Now, more than two hours later, I finally have occasion to open my laptop to read the full story and it's worse than I imagined. It could have gone either way. Initial reports in instances such as this are often inaccurate. When news like this breaks, details are often sketchy; new and updated information is constantly becoming available. I was hoping that the initial reports were wrong - that the death count was too high. As we now know, it went the other way. There are many questions yet to be answered, but the resounding senselessness of it all couldn't possibly be more pronounced. Although I haven't yet reported on a tragedy of this magnitude, I have covered other breaking news and experienced the singleness of purpose that getting the information to print as quickly as possible represents. While in the midst of the event, whether it's a fire, an accident or a shooting, getting the information out is the reporter's only job. The gravity of the event, at least for me, doesn't come into play until after I've had a chance to decompress - after the deadlines have been met. While reporting, I simply don't have time to make any judgments about what it all means, only to report on what it is. In this instance, I am a news consumer like most everyone else hearing about this calamity today. I am shocked, disgusted, dismayed... and distracted. If I were assigned to this story, all of those emotions would have to be put on hold - it's all about getting the story out. Like nurses, firefighters, emergency medical technicians and m…
creator: Michael Althouse
date: 2007-06-02
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5
language: eng

Now You Have Blood On Your Hands That Will Never Come Off
description: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old senior majoring in English at Virginia Tech, has completed his transformation from Clark Kent to, well, Rambo. Having killed and maimed over thirty people, in a calculated and merciless way, he has shown another facet of evil and pain to the world. Alone, bitter, unhappy and insane, his sad story reverberates on several levels. Is it better to have stricter gun control, or have more guns in the hands of law abiding people to protect themselves? Have privacy laws and rights for the mentaly disabled gone too far, or should involuntary committment for treatment be easier to order? Has community and the support of family been destroyed by the cheapening of our culture, or has the stigma of needing help become so great that those most in need shun it? There were heros at Virgina Tech - Professor Lucinda Roy, who tried so hard to get Mr. Cho the help he so badly needed; another Professor, Liviu Librescu, a 76 year old Holocaust survivor who gave his life offering his body as a shield for his students; during the aftermath the poet, Nikki Giovanni, leading students in a cheer to affirm that they will survive and be stronger - 'We are HOKIES!'. But there is one party who will not be a hero during all this, and that is the National Broadcasting Company news organization. After Mr. Cho shot his first two victims in his dormitory, he made a rambling videotape with his jeremiad on debauched rich students and how they had driven him to this action, shortly before he entered a classroom, chained the doors shut and killed thirty more people. This insane person took the time to film and mail his video between murders, and NBC chose to make it public. Poor Dylan Klebold - he never thought of making videos before killing his classmates at Columbine High School. Now, Mr. Cho has created a new item in the iconography of mass murder, one that we will surely see again. We have come a long way from the days when shooting Ronald Reagan…
creator: Peter Porcupine
date: 2007-06-02
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License
language: eng