Campus life after the tragedy at Virginia Tech. Philip Yancey | posted 6/06/2007 08:01AM "April is the cruellest month." When T. S. Eliot penned that opening line to "The Waste Land" in 1921, he had no idea how it would resound in modern America. Oklahoma City, Columbine High School, and Virginia Tech—our calendars mark all three within a span of five days, a week soaked in grief. "As a youth minister, you anticipate weddings, not funerals," said Matt Rogers of New Life Christian Fellowship (NLCF), a Christian community that meets in the Student Center at Virginia Tech. "We have no playbook for something like this." I spoke at NLCF two weeks after the tragedy, accompanied by the Ruegsegger family, whose daughter Kacey survived gunshot wounds at Columbine High School eight years ago. "Very few people know what you're going through," Kacey told the students gathered for the somber service. "We've been there." The news media portrayed yet another mass killing on a U.S. campus. What greeted the visitor, though, was an overwhelming display of national solidarity. Banners and posters hung in many school buildings, covered with tens of thousands of handwritten messages of support. And a cluster of spontaneous memorials appeared around campus. Each day, visitors filed past the mounds of mementoes—a baseball, a Starbucks cup, a teddy bear, a favorite novel—that gave individuality to the 33 who'd died. Spring arrived late in western Virginia. As April faded into May, redbud and wild dogwood trees dotted the surrounding hills. Tulips and daffodils set off the gray stone university buildings. "It's usually such a happy time," mused one student. "We pack our books and stereos and head home, some of us with diplomas. This year, a gray haze hangs over everything." Before departing, many students paid one last visit to Norris Hall, blocked off with a green fence and yellow police tape. Where they used to attend classes, state patrolmen now stood guard. Copyright © 2007 Christianity Today. -- Used by permission, Christianity Today 2007 Original Source: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/june/15.56.html
Becky Custer, Editorial Coordinator (bcuster@christianitytoday.com)
A sermon given on the Virginia Tech campus two weeks after the shootings. Philip Yancey | posted 6/06/2007 05:31PM We gather here still trying to make sense of what happened in Blacksburg, still trying to process the unprocessable. We come together in this place, as a Christian community, partly because we know of no better place to bring our questions and our grief and partly because we don't know where else to turn. As the apostle Peter once said to Jesus, at a moment of confusion and doubt, "Lord, to whom else can we go?" In considering how to begin today, I found myself following two different threads. The first thread is what I would like to say, the words I wish I could say. The second thread is the truth. I wish I could say that the pain you feel will disappear, vanish, never to return. I'm sure you've heard comments like these from parents and others: "Things will get better." "You'll get past this." "This too shall pass." Those who offer such comfort mean well, and it's true that what you feel now you will not always feel. Yet it's also true that what happened on April 16, 2007, will stay with you forever. You are a different person because of that day, because of one troubled young man's actions. I remember one year when three of my friends died. In my thirties then, I had little experience with death. In the midst of my grief, I came across these lines from George Herbert that gave me solace: "Grief melts away / Like snow in May / As if there were no such cold thing." I clung to that hope even as grief smothered me like an avalanche. Indeed, the grief did melt away, but like snow it also came back, in fierce and unexpected ways, triggered by a sound, a smell, some fragment of memory of my friends. So I cannot say what I want to say, that this too shall pass. Instead, I point to the pain you feel, and will continue to feel, as a sign of life and love. I'm wearing a neck brace because I broke my neck in an auto accident. For the first few hours as I lay strapped to a body board, medical workers refused to give me pain medication because they needed my response. The doctor kept probing, moving my limbs, asking, "Does this hurt? Do you feel that?" The correct answer, the answer both he and I desperately wanted, was, "Yes. It hurts. I can feel it." Each sensation gave proof that my spinal cord had not been severed. Pain offered proof of life, of connection—a sign that my body remained whole. Love and Pain In grief, love and pain converge. Cho felt no grief as he gunned down your classmates because he felt no love for them. You feel grief because you did have a connection. Some of you had closer ties to the victims, but all of you belong to a body to which they too belonged. When that body suffers, you suffer. Remember that as you cope with the pain. Don't try to numb it. Instead, acknowledge it as a perception of life and of love. Medical students will tell you that in a deep wound, two kinds of tissue must heal: the connective tissue beneath the surface and the outer, protective layer of skin. If the protective tissue heals too quickly, the connective tissue will not heal properly, leading to complications later on. The reason this church and other ministries on campus offer counseling and hold services like this one is to help the deep, connective tissue heal. Only later will the protective layer of tissue grow back in the form of a scar. We gather here as Christians, and as such we aspire to follow a man who came from God 2,000 years ago. Read through the Gospels, and you'll find only one scene in which someone addresses Jesus directly as God: "My Lord and my God!" Do you know who said that? It was doubting Thomas, the disciple stuck in grief, the last holdout against believing the incredible news of the Resurrection. In a tender scene, Jesus appeared to Thomas in his newly transformed body, obliterating Thomas's doubts. What prompted that outburst of belief, however—"My Lord and my God!"—was the presence of Jesus' scars. "Feel my hands," Jesus told him. "Touch my side." In a flash of revelation, Thomas saw the wonder of Almighty God, the Lord of the universe, stooping to take on our pain. God doesn't exempt even himself from pain. God joined us and shared our human condition, including its great grief. Thomas recognized in that pattern the most foundational truth of the universe: that God is love. To love means to hurt, to grieve. Pain is a mark of life. The Jews, schooled in the Old Testament, had a saying: "Where Messiah is, there is no misery." After Jesus, you could change that saying to: "Where misery is, there is the Messiah." "Blessed are the poor," Jesus said, "and those who hunger and thirst, and those who mourn, and those who are persecuted." Jesus voluntarily embraced every one of these hurts. So where is God when it hurts? We know where God is because he came to earth and showed us his face. You need only follow Jesus around and note how he responded to the tragedies of his day: with compassion—which simply means "to suffer with"—and with comfort and healing. I would also like to answer the question why? Why this campus rather than Virginia Commonwealth or William and Mary? Why these 33 people? I cannot tell you, and I encourage you to resist anyone who offers a confident answer. God himself did not answer that question for Job, nor did Jesus answer why questions. We have hints, but no one knows the full answer. What we do know, with full confidence, is how God feels. We know how God looks on the campus of Virginia Tech right now because God gave us a face, a face that was streaked with tears. Where misery is, there is the Messiah. Not everyone will find that answer sufficient. When we hurt, sometimes we want revenge. We want a more decisive answer. Frederick Buechner said, "I am not the Almighty God, but if I were, maybe I would in mercy either heal the unutterable pain of the world or in mercy kick the world to pieces in its pain." God did neither. He sent Jesus. God joined our world in all its unutterable pain in order to set in motion a slower, less dramatic solution, one that involves us. One day a man said to me, "You wrote a book called Where Is God When It Hurts, right?" Yes. "Well, I don't have much time to read. Can you just answer that question for me in a sentence or two?" I thought for a second and said, "I guess I'd have to answer that with another question: 'Where is the church when it hurts?'" The eyes of the world are trained on this campus. You've seen satellite trucks parked around town, reporters prowling the grounds of your school. Last fall, I visited Amish country near the site of the Nickel Mines school shootings. As happened here, reporters from every major country swarmed the hills of Pennsylvania, looking for an angle. They came to report on evil and instead ended up reporting on the church. The Amish were not asking, "Where is God when it hurts?" They knew where God was. With their long history of persecution, the Amish weren't for a minute surprised by an outbreak of evil. They rallied together, embraced the killer's family, ministered to each other, and healed wounds by relying on a sense of community strengthened over centuries. Something similar has taken place here in Blacksburg. You have shown outrage against the evil deed, yes, but you've also shown sympathy and sadness for the family of the one who committed it. Cho, too, has a memorial on this campus. Life Matters The future lies ahead, and you're just awakening to the fact that you are an independent moral being. Until now, other people have been running your life. Your parents told you what to do and made decisions for you. Teachers ordered you around in grammar school, and the pattern continued in high school and even into college. You now inhabit a kind of halfway house on the way to adulthood, waiting for the real life of career and perhaps marriage and children to begin. What happened in Blacksburg on April 16 demonstrates beyond all doubt that your life—the decisions you make, the kind of person you are—matters now. There are 28 students and 5 faculty members who have no future in this world. That reality came starkly home to me nine weeks ago today when I was driving on a winding road in Colorado. Suddenly, I missed a curve and my Ford Explorer slipped off the pavement and started tumbling side to side at 60 miles per hour. An ambulance appeared, and I spent the next seven hours strapped to a body board, with duct tape across my head to keep it from moving. A cat scan showed that a vertebra high on my neck had been shattered, and sharp bone fragments were poking out next to a major artery. The hospital had a jet to fly me to Denver for emergency surgery. I had one arm free, with a cell phone and little battery time left. I spent those tense hours calling people close to me, knowing it might be the last time I would ever hear their voices. It was an odd sensation to lie there helpless, aware that though I was fully conscious, at any moment I could die. Samuel Johnson said when a man is about to be hanged, "it concentrates his mind wonderfully." When you're strapped to a body board after a serious accident, it concentrates the mind. When you survive a massacre at Virginia Tech, it concentrates the mind. I realized how much of my life focused on trivial things. During those seven hours, I didn't think about how many books I had sold or what kind of car I drove (it was being towed to a junkyard anyway). All that mattered boiled down to four questions. Whom do I love? Whom will I miss? What have I done with my life? And am I ready for what's next? Ever since that day, I've tried to live with those questions at the forefront. I would like to promise you a long, pain-free life, but I cannot. God has not promised us that. Rather, the Christian view of the world reduces everything to this formula: The world is good. The world has fallen. The world will be redeemed. Creation, the Fall, redemption—that's the Christian story in a nutshell. You know that the world is good. Look around you at the blaze of spring in the hills of Virginia. Look around you at the friends you love. Though overwhelmed with grief right now, you will learn to laugh again, to play again, to climb up mountains and kayak down rivers again, to love, to rear children. The world is good. You know, too, that the world has fallen. Here at Virginia Tech, you know that as acutely as anyone on this planet. I ask you also to trust that the world, your world, will be redeemed. This is not the world God wants or is satisfied with. God has promised a time when evil will be defeated, when events like the shootings at Nickel Mines and Columbine and Virginia Tech will come to an end. More, God has promised that even the scars we accumulate on this fallen planet will be redeemed, as Jesus demonstrated to Thomas. I once was part of a small group with a Christian leader whose name you would likely recognize. He went through a hard time as his adult children got into trouble, bringing him sleepless nights and expensive attorney fees. Worse, my friend was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Nothing in his life seemed to work out. "I have no problem believing in a good God," he said to us one night. "My question is, 'What is God good for?'" We listened to his complaints and tried various responses, but he batted them all away. A few weeks later, I came across a little phrase by Dallas Willard: "For those who love God, nothing irredeemable can happen to you." I went back to my friend. "What about that?" I asked. "Is God good for that promise?" I would like to promise you an end to pain and grief, a guarantee that you will never again hurt as you hurt now. I cannot. I can, however, stand behind the promise that the apostle Paul made in Romans 8, that all things can be redeemed, can work together for your good. In another passage, Paul spells out some of the things he encountered, which included beatings, imprisonment, and shipwreck. As he looked back, he could see that somehow God had redeemed even those crisis events in his life. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us," Paul concluded. "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:37-39). God's love is the foundational truth of the universe. Clinging to Hope Trust a God who can redeem what now seems unredeemable. Ten days before the shootings on this campus, Christians around the world remembered the darkest day of human history, the day in which evil human beings violently rose up against God's Son and murdered the only truly innocent human being who has ever lived. We remember that day not as Dark Friday, Tragic Friday, or Disaster Friday—but rather as Good Friday. That awful day led to the salvation of the world and to Easter, an echo in advance of God's bright promise to make all things new. Honor the grief you feel. The pain is a way of honoring those who died, your friends and classmates and professors. It represents life and love. The pain will fade over time, but it will never fully disappear. Do not attempt healing alone. The real healing, of deep connective tissue, takes place in community. Where is God when it hurts? Where God's people are. Where misery is, there is the Messiah, and on this earth, the Messiah takes form in the shape of his church. That's what the body of Christ means. Finally, cling to the hope that nothing that happens, not even this terrible tragedy, is irredeemable. We serve a God who has vowed to make all things new. J. R. R. Tolkien once spoke of "joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief." You know well the poignancy of grief. As healing progresses, may you know, too, that joy, a foretaste of the world redeemed. Philip Yancey is a CT editor at large. Copyright © 2007 Christianity Today. -- Used by permission, Christianity Today 2007 Original Source: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/june/14.55.html
Display in our Student Union Building at The University of British Columbia. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tyfn/467527061/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical-NoDerivs 2.0
Phillip Jeffrey http://www.flickr.com/photos/tyfn/467527061/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical-NoDerivs 2.0
Photo by: Jessica Lum Students and university employees joined together last night in De Neve Plaza in remembrance of victims at Virginia Tech.
A range of items are placed outside of West Ambler Johnson Hall. Photo Courtesy of Garry Thompson
Permission: Garry Thompson sthomp2813@aol.com
Por Pierre Lemieux 23 de abril de 2007 Virginia Tech (Blacksburg), Columbine (Colorado), Polytechnique (Canadá), Dunblane (Escocia), Jonesboro (Arkansas), Nickel Mines (Pensilvania), y Dawson College (Canadá). ¿Qué tienen en común todas estas trágicas matanzas masivas de estudiantes y escolares? La respuesta no es obvia. Lo que resulta obvio, para aquellos de nosotros que vemos más allá de los titulares, es que las matanzas masivas eran inusuales cuando las armas se encontraban fácilmente disponibles, pero se han incrementado a medida que las armas se han vuelto más controladas. A comienzos del siglo 20, las armas estaban fácilmente disponibles para la gente común en todos los países civilizados, incluida Inglaterra, Canadá, los Estados Unidos y Francia. En muchos casos, los individuos podían portarlas ocultas libremente. Pero todo eso ha cambiado. La masacre de Dunblane en Escocia en 1996, por ejemplo, la cual se cobró las vidas de 16 niños, ocurrió en un país donde, tras siete décadas de crecientes controles sobre las armas, se había vuelto muy difícil para los ciudadanos comunes poseer armas, especialmente pistolas, e ilegal portarlas virtualmente en cualquier lugar. De manera similar, los tiroteos en el Dawson College en Canadá en 2006 acontecieron después de 15 años de controles sobre las armas cada vez más rígidos, que tornan ilegal incluso portar armas en su propia propiedad. En los Estados Unidos, donde la mayoría de las trágicas balaceras han ocurrido, los controles federales sobre las armas se han incrementado prácticamente de manera continua desde los años 60. Ninguna de las masacres fue perpetrada por personas a las que se les permitió legalmente tener armas allí donde cometieron sus crímenes, y muchas de las matanzas tuvieron lugar en "zonas libres de armas" por disposición gubernamental. Lo cierto, tal como nos recuerda la tragedia en Blacksburg, es que resulta imposible estar totalmente protegidos por la policía contra los maniáticos criminales, excepto convirtiendo a la sociedad en una prisión. No obstante, un importante interrogante precisa formularse. ¿Qué tal si alguno de los estudiantes o profesores hubiese estado armado en Virginia Tech, una universidad donde las armas se encuentran vedadas? Resulta interesante que un proyecto de ley que hubiese permitido a los estudiantes y empleados portar pistolas en los campos universitarios de Virginia fue rechazado en la Asamblea General del estado a comienzos de este año. El vocero de Virginia Tech Larry Hincker elogió el rechazo: "Estoy seguro de que la comunidad universitaria está agradecida de las acciones de la Asamblea General en virtud de que esto ayudará a que los padres, estudiantes, profesores y visitantes se sientan seguros en nuestro predio". ¿Y ahora qué? Cuando se le preguntó en una conferencia de prensa después de la matanza qué puede hacerse para garantizar la seguridad del campo universitario, el Presidente de la Virginia Tech Charles Steger señaló que no hay manera de colocar a un guardia de seguridad en cada aula o dormitorio. Eso es muy cierto. Pero contrapónganse los horripilantes tiroteos de Virginia Tech con la matanza de enero de 2002 en la Appalachian Law School de Virginia. A pocos minutos de disparar a tres personas en la oficina del decano, el contrariado estudiante Peter Odighizuwa fue detenido por dos estudiantes que habían sacado pistolas de sus automóviles. Desarmaron al asesino y lo entregaron a la policía. Obviamente, cuando personas están resueltas a masacrar a estudiantes indefensos, no existe ninguna panacea segura. Sin embargo, debe haber un motivo por el cual tales matanzas no han ocurrido en sitios como la University of Utah, donde la gente que cuenta con licencia para portar armas puede llevarlas al campo universitario, incluidos los edificios de la universidad. Debería haber un motivo por el cual el asesino del Dawson College, quien tenía un automóvil y aparentemente ninguna razón especial para tomar como blanco a esa escuela en particular, no se dirigió en cambio a la Escuela Nacional de Policía, a unas 100 millas de Montreal, donde todos los estudiantes están armados. Necesitamos tener una visión más amplia. Algo más que la baja probabilidad de ser detenido antes de cometer tanto daño debe estar en juego. Hace algunas décadas, la mayoría de la gente, incluidos los jóvenes revoltosos, y tal vez incluso la mayoría de los criminales, se encontraban bajo ciertas restricciones morales a las que estaban abochornados de quebrantar. Desde esa época, estas restricciones se han desmoronado, siendo reemplazadas por un nihilismo post modernista y la pesada mano del gobierno. Siempre han existido maniáticos auto engañados quienes, a efectos de buscar solaz y fama, causan destrucción. Así era Eróstrato quien, en 356 A.C., y precisamente por esta razón, incendió el Templo de Artemisa en Efeso, una de las Siete Maravillas del Mundo. Sin embargo, dudo seriamente que hubiese asesinado a escolares o jóvenes mujeres, aún si hubiese tenido la facultad de hacerlo. Mientras toleremos una cultura de dependencia en un estado niñera, en el cual las personas sean tratadas como niños, desarmadas e imposibilitadas de protegerse así mismos, las absurdas matanzas masivas continuarán, y tal vez aumentarán. Traducido por Gabriel Gasave Pierre Lemieux es co-director del Economics and Liberty Research Group en la University of Quebec en Outaouais y un Investigador Asociado en The Independent Institute en Oakland, California. -- Fuente Original: El Instituto Independiente http://independent.typepad.com/elindependent/2007/04/virginia_tech.html
Gabriel Gasave Reasearch Analyst Center On Global Prosperity The Independent Institute ggasave@independent.org August 2, 2007
La universidad de Virginia Tech reanuda clases tras la tragedia
Por Andrea Hopkins 23.04.2007 - 23:01h BLACKSBURG, Virginia (Reuters) - Los estudiantes de la universidad de Virginia Tech, portando 33 banderas blancas que representaban a las víctimas y al responsable del tiroteo más trágico de la historia de Estados Unidos, reanudaron las clases una semana después de la masacre. Justo antes de las primeras clases del lunes, el grupo de estudiantes que llevaba las banderas marchó sobre el campus acompañado de un grupo de tambores y trompetas que tocaron 'America the Beautiful' para recordar a los 27 estudiantes, 5 profesores y al asesino Seung-Hui Cho. A las 9:46 a.m. la campaña de la universidad sonó 32 veces y se soltaron 23 globos, señalando los momentos en los que hace una semana Cho, de 23 años, disparaba a sus víctimas en un edificio de clases cercano. Segundos después, se soltaron un millar de globos naranjas y marrones, y llenaron el cielo de los colores de la escuela. Miles de estudiantes, empleados de la universidad y residentes de la ciudad se reunieron en el campo de entrenamiento para ver las ceremonias en silencio, algunos lloraban silenciosamente y otros se abrazaban dándose consuelo. Cuando finalizó, los estudiantes fueron silenciosamente a sus clases, listos para volver a la normalidad tras una semana de duelo, ceremonias emotivas y estar en el punto de mira de los medios de comunicación. La universidad ha dicho que las clases eran opcionales para todos los estudiantes, pero la asistencia fue alta en general, según dijeron los responsables de la escuela en una conferencia de prensa. 'Yo quería volver aquí con mis amigos, porque ellos entienden lo que ha pasado', dijo el estudiante de primero de ingeniería John Meyer, de 18 años, cuando se dirigía a su clase de cálculo. Meyer afirmó que había vuelto a su casa de Frankfort, Kentucky, para estar unos días con su familia, pero nunca se cuestionó volver a terminar las últimas semanas del año escolar. Aún siguen las preguntas sobre cómo Cho, que había sido investigado por dos denuncias de acoso en 2005 y tratado por una enfermedad mental, pudo comprar las dos pistolas que usó en la masacre. La universidad y la policía del campus también se han enfrentado a críticas por su manejo de la tragedia tras el primer tiroteo en el dormitorio, que sucedió dos horas antes de que Cho volviera al otro lado del campus y matara a otras 30 personas. -- Fuente Original: 20 Minutos.es -- España http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/226427/0/VIRGINIA/CLASES/ Derechos Reservados: Creative Commons Reconocimiento 2.1 España.
Creative Commons Reconocimiento 2.1 España
Por El Nuevo Día - Puerto Rico Hace un año, los recién casados Juan Ramón Ortiz y Liselle Vega se trasladaron a Virginia a estudiar sus respectivas maestrías. BAYAMON - Amante de los bongós. Estudiante de talento extraordinario. Sano y sin vicios. Ése fue el Juan Ramón Ortiz Ortiz que describieron ayer sus familiares, atónitos aún ante el fallecimiento del joven de 26 años a manos del desquiciado que ayer mató a 32 personas en el campus de la univesidad Virginia Tech en Blacksburg, Virginia, en la peor matanza a tiros en la historia de Estados Unidos. "Él era un tipo completamente sano, sin vicios y buen hijo" El doctor Oscar Marrero, primo hermano del difunto, dijo que fue la esposa de Ortiz Ortiz, Liselle Vega, quien se comunicó al hogar de sus suegros para dar la mala noticia de la muerte del joven de 26 años graduado con altos honores de ingeniería civil de la Universidad Politécnica. Vega también estudia en Virginia Tech, pero no se encontraba en los predios al momento de la tragedia. "Ella estaba llamándolo, pero no lo conseguía en el celular. Luego llamó a un hospital y le dijeron que el cuerpo estaba en la lista del la morgue", dijo Marrero, entrevistado en las afueras de la residencia familiar, mientras se escuchaban personas orando en el interior del hogar. "La verdad es que no tenemos muchos detalles. Liselle es el enlace con la familia y ni siquiera le dejan ver el cuerpo", agregó Marrero. Explicó que la familia no tiene idea de cuándo el cuerpo podría arriba a a Puerto Rico. Ortiz Ortiz y Vega, quien es oriunda de Manatí, llevaban apenas un año casados y no tenían hijos. Ambos graduados de la Universidad Politécnica, decidieron partir rumbo a Virginia Tech para completar sus respectivas maestrías. Debido a su excelente promedio, Ortiz Ortiz, se desempeñaba como profesor y estudiante. Estaba pautado a terminar su maestría en diciembre. Los familiares que hablaron con El Nuevo Día describieron a Ortiz Ortiz, graduado del Colegio Nuestra Señora de Belén, como un excelente estudiante y amante de la música. Era amante de los bongós y cualquier instrumento de percusión. "El era un tipo completamente sano, sin vicios y buen hijo", dijo Marrero, mientras otros familiares asentían con sus cabezas. http://www.endi.com/noticia/portada/noticias/atonita_la_familia_del_isleno_abatido/198254 -- Fuente Original: abc.gov.ar http://abc.gov.ar/lainstitucion/noticiasdeladgcye/v07/internacionales/completo.cfm?id=651
PERSPECTIVE: Covering Virginia Tech as a student journalist in Blacksburg
By:Priyanka Dayal Posted: 4/23/07 I spent three days last week at Virginia Tech University as a reporter covering the heinous murder of 32 innocent people. I had never felt so many things all at once. I had never been so nervous and so excited and so sad and so scared all at the same time. I had never eaten so much fast food, then slept for three hours then worked for 16. I've spent this semester at Boston University's Washington Journalism Center, where I write for a newspaper in Massachusetts and intern at USA TODAY's main bureau in McLean, Virginia. Last Monday, I was sitting at my desk doing some mildly interesting research. That's when I heard the first reports that people had been shot at Virginia Tech. The newsroom started bustling. What was going on in Blacksburg? Which reporters and editors would go? How many should go? Mindy, a reporter who sits next to me and, for weeks, has been the best mentor an intern could have, started gathering some fresh notebooks and yelled over the wall dividing our desks if I wanted to go. "Go where?" I asked. "To Blacksburg!" she said. That's not what I expected to hear. My heart started beating really fast. I've been a reporter, albeit a student reporter, for four years. I've never had that kind of an adrenaline rush before. I know I should have jumped on the assignment. But I didn't. I got scared. I didn't know what to do. Did I really want to go straight to a place where a psychopathic killer had just stunned the world? Yes. Once we reached Blacksburg, I wasn't nervous anymore. I set about reporting the story like I would report any other story. I talked to people about the situation. But I wasn't always prepared for their answers. Through tears, a girl my age, named Tina, who was in Norris Hall last Monday morning, told me about hearing gunshots in the classroom below her. She heard pounding. She heard screams. She heard maniacal laughter. Later that night, she heard all those things again in her dreams. While Tina was telling me this, her mother walked into the room. They hugged and cried and stroked each other's hair. Clutching my pen and notebook, I could only watch. I thought I was going to lose it. How could any reporter not be touched by this? How could any reporter just be expected to say "thanks for your time," then move on to the next interview? There were a couple other times I almost cried. I guess that makes me a sap. But by the second and third day, I was almost too tired to be sad. I couldn't wait to collapse into my bed in my motel room and fall asleep to the sounds of Sports Center. It wasn't all horrible. It was thrilling, too. The story was appalling and gruesome and heartbreaking, but it was the biggest story since Katrina. Every publication and TV station with the means sent people to Blacksburg. The parking lot of the Inn at Virginia Tech, where the press was stationed, was teeming with news trucks and satellites. Inside the building, reporters and photographers and cameramen seized any nook of space they could find to set up their equipment. People were filing stories from cramped hallways and bathroom floors. Everyone had laptops and cell phones or Blackberrys that needed to be plugged in. There was a constant chase for electrical outlets. On Tuesday afternoon, I roamed the building looking for a place to charge my phone. There was one free outlet. It was right under FOX News cameras. The cameramen said I could plug in my phone, even though they were about to start some live shots. "Just play it cool," they said. So I planted myself on the floor and took out a sandwich, which had been sitting in my bag for hours. Six inches to my left, Geraldo Rivera and later, Shepard Smith, were fumbling with earpieces and retouching their make-up. In other corners of the same room, Katie Couric, Wolf Blitzer and Tucker Carlson were also getting ready for live shots. I met reporters from Norway and Australia, and one who lived down the road in Christiansburg, Virginia. Ten other people from USA TODAY were there. We had make-shift news meetings in crowded hallways then dictated our notes to editors in the home office. I was the only intern, but I was part of the team, part of a special group that shared the special privilege of telling this tragic story. Priyanka Dayal, a senior in the College of Communication and the College of Arts and Sciences, is a former Science Tuesday and Associate City Editor for The Daily Free Press. -- Original Source:The Daily Free Press - April 23, 2007
DAY OF THE DEAD ALTAR TO HONOR VIRGINIA TECH SHOOTING VICTIMS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Quinn Densley 602-740-8569 DAY OF THE DEAD ALTAR TO HONOR VIRGINIA TECH SHOOTING VICTIMS A Day of the Dead shrine honoring the victims of the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech will be on display at the Vision Gallery in Chandler, Arizona from October 22 - November 4, 2007. A special invitation is extended to Virginia Tech alumni, former students and friends to visit the gallery and pay tribute to their fellow Hokies. The shrine was assembled by artist Ruben Maqueda, who is best known for his work at the Museo Chicano, located in Phoenix, Arizona, where he has most recently created Day of the Dead shrines for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez. The shrine will incorporate traditional Mexican elements such as skulls and cut paper, but will also include other items associated with college students. The dominant color scheme of the shrine will be maroon and orange. The public will also have the opportunity to write a message which will be forwarded on to the students, faculty and staff of Virginia Tech. Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday which dates from pre-Columbian times. It is observed the night of November 1st to the morning of November 2nd. It is believed that on this night, the spirits of the departed return to earth to visit those whom they loved in life. Gravesites are cleaned and decorated, and special altars with offerings of food and drink are erected in honor of the deceased. Admission is free. Vision Gallery is located at 80 S. San Marcos Place in Chandler, Arizona. The gallery is open Monday through Friday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. A Day of the Dead festival will take place in historic downtown Chandler on November 3, 2007 from 12:00 to 8:00 p.m.
In Praise of Korean Apologies By Yitzchok Adlerstein Despite initial apprehensions, Korean-Americans were not victimized in reaction to the Virginia Tech massacre. But this tragedy seems to have brought out the best in most Americans. Koreans initially took the news hard. Lee Tae-sik, South Korea's ambassador to the United States, suggested that Koreans in the U.S. fast for 32 days, one day for each victim. President Roh Moo-hyun devoted a press conference to the story; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs felt compelled to issue a statement. Cardinal Nicolas Cheong Jin-suk said, ``As a South Korean, I can't help feeling apologetic about how a Korean man caused such a shocking incident.'' Many in the United States followed with apologies of their own. Not everyone found this outpouring of apologies so admirable. One Los Angeles talk show host accused Korean-Americans of using the tragedy to stimulate sympathy for their community through a display of exaggerated contrition. He accused them of ``playing the race card.'' Now look who's stereotyping? An online Korean news source offered its own retort. ``It's an overreaction. It's doubtful whether the South Korean reaction will really help anyone.'' Perhaps it's now time to reflect on what it was that disconcerted Korean-Americans in the first place? If it was only fear of reprisals by other Americans, they were remarkably off-base. Their fellow Americans saw no more reason to target Korean-Americans than to go after gun shop operators or college administrators and hold them responsible for the shootings. Equally unfounded were any fears that the horrific crime would somehow impact the special status Korea enjoys in the United States, with more foreign students hailing from Korea than any other country, including China and India. Our country isn't that kind of place. Even more inappropriate were any pangs of guilt, a feeling that often defies understanding. Several times a year I get cold-calls from Germany, with someone on the other end seeking catharsis for guilt feelings about the Holocaust. Inevitably, the caller was born after the war, and was in no manner or form involved in the extermination of Jews. I do my best to assure the other party that one cannot be guilty for something that one did not do. Premature fear and unfounded guilt do not account for the extent of the Korean reaction. Apologies come with a price - a large price of losing face - in Asian cultures. (Witness the continuing outrage generated over ``comfort women'' appropriated for the pleasure of Japanese soldiers in World War II, and the tentative and strained form of the very delayed apology.) So there must be something of greater substance to elicit such profuse announcements of regret in the Korean community. Guilt has a first cousin, less anxiety-laden, and often a tool for positive action. A few weeks ago, six German teens visited a Jewish high school in Los Angeles. The Germans had all been involved in the translation of a book about a Jewish family during the Holocaust. They entertained questions. ``Do you feel guilty?'' one YULA student asked the guests. ``No. But I do feel greatly ashamed,'' the German teen responded. We feel shame for the actions of others only when we identify with those others so much that we have made room for them in our own identities. We do this often enough, in ways that are neutral (rooting for our favorite sports team) or negative (shunning outsiders, when we are tribal or jingoistic.) It is not surprising at all for people to feel so much for the larger group that all of its emotional charge the defeats and embarrassments as well as the victories redounds to each member. But strongly identifying with a larger group can be a wonderful tool for social responsibility and change. Good intentions often become nothing more than slogans when they are not transformed into action. Deciding where to act was much more intuitive before the world became a global village, where the efforts of any individual are dwarfed by the enormity of each problem. Groups that can take responsibility for whatever they perceive as ``their own'' have an advantage over people for whom all beneficiaries are equally attractive. Having too many places to park one's compassion and largesse is often the equivalent of having no place at all. Koreans sometimes see themselves as of a ``single blood'' or ethnicity, with a long memory of oppression at the hands of two much stronger peoples (the Chinese and Japanese) that took turns at invading them. Koreans may have had good reason to develop a strong sense of the collective. (More of that sense ought to be made available to a feckless Korean government in its non-activity on behalf of tens of thousands of relatives trapped for decades north of the 38thh Parallel. Cho Seung-Hui was the quintessential loner. He felt for no one, and connected with no one. The Korean reaction of bonding and responsibility was the polar opposite of the life-style that Cho practiced. It was an appropriate and humane reaction, not to be scorned but applauded and maybe at the right time, emulated. Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein is the director of Inter-faith Affairs for the Simon Wiesenthal Center and holds the Sydney M. Irmas Adjunct Chair in Jewish Law and Ethics at Loyola Law School. -- Original Source: Korea Times http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/opi_view.asp?newsIdx=2446&categoryCode=162
Mention of shooter's ethnicity unnecessary
Apr 30 2007 Re: "CUPD Assesses Campus Safety," News, April 18 To the Editor: Thank you for the article "CUPD Assesses Campus Safety." In some ways, it made me feel a little bit safer knowing about the heightened security. However, it made me feel uneasy and unsafe at the same time after reading about the last shooting that occurred at Cornell. As a Korean-American, I have felt shame, sadness, pity, anger and fear about sharing the same ethnicity as the shooter at Virginia Tech. In a society where racial inequalities and stereotypes still very much exist, I feared for what this one young Korean-American student may have done for our future race relations here in the U.S. My fear was shared by many others, where Korean parents took their children home from VTech for fear of racial backlash. Thus, I strongly believe that your reference to the last shooting at Cornell was inappropriate and uncalled for. Although you did not specifically say that Kim, the shooter at Cornell, was Korean, it can easily be implied just by his name. I believe that your mention of this one horrific incidence in which the shooter just happened to be Korean only further aggravates the very sensitive issue of race. I believe that you should have referenced the incidence at Cornell without giving names of those involved, to prevent any kind of potentially dangerous stereotypes and consequences that it may have on other Korean-Americans around campus. Rachel Baek '07 -- Original Source: Cornell Daily Sun - April 30, 2007
Jonny Lieberman <jdl46@cornell.edu>, <lieberman.jonny@gmail.com>
Ban lifted from UH professor - Hearing set for D'Andrea's defamation claim
Issue date: 4/23/07 Section: News By Rachel Manuel Ka Leo Staff Reporter A ban imposed on a tenured professor prohibiting him from entering campus and from speaking with his students, was lifted after the University of Hawai'i made an agreement during a court hearing last week. Michael D'Andrea, a professor in the Department of Counseling Education at UH's College of Education, was banned from campus and from contacting individuals at the college after receiving a letter from Interim Chancellor Denise Konan notifying him of his immediate reassignment to work at home. After arguments made on behalf of D'Andrea and a recess in the hearing before U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor on April 16, attorneys for UH volunteered to restore his freedom to communicate with students and faculty about the grievance process and complaints made against him, according to D'Andrea's attorney Eric Seitz. UH agreed to lift the ban while allegations that D'Andrea bullied students and faculty at the College of Education are investigated. A July hearing is scheduled to look at D'Andrea's claims for damages and defamation. On April 12, D'Andrea had filed a lawsuit against the university for what he called an infringement of his constitutional rights. According to the letter sent from Konan to D'Andrea, there were concerns about his "alleged intimidating, hostile and bullying behavior." UH officials issued a statement that the university is committed to and has an obligation to provide a safe and healthy working and learning environment for faculty, staff and students. The agreement reached last Monday that was entered into by UH also granted that current and former students, faculty and staff know that they have a right not to say anything to D'Andrea, according to UH attorney Gregory Sato. Sato had argued that UH feared D'Andrea might engage in bullying when communicating with students and faculty while Seitz argued that the ban imposed on D'Andrea was unconstitutional and an infringement of his rights of free speech. Following the hearing, D'Andrea, who is also represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai'i, wrote an open letter to UH's Board of Regents to address what he called "the crisis of administrative leadership" and the violation of faculty members' free speech and due process rights. After his removal from campus, D'Andrea wrote in the letter that he was subjected to a number of disciplinary actions, without due process. He wrote that he believed other administrators and possibly BOR members approved of his removal. D'Andrea asserted that this action was based on attempts to repress his rights to free speech and his public stance on social justice and peace issues particularly including protests about President David McClain's recommendations for a proposal to establish a University Affiliated Research Center at UH. Some issues D'Andrea wrote he has and continues to address include the administrations refusal to investigate complaints he had filed regarding problems of institutional racism and sexism at the university, the high crime rates on campus, the continuing problems gay and lesbian people encounter on campus, the unsafe dormitory rooms and the increasing tuition costs. He cited that in addition to the attacks upon his rights, these issues are some of the problems at UH, illuminating the "crisis of administrative leadership." D'Andrea said in the letter that although it is important to support the right of all people at the university to engage in discussions about the issues, "The University Administration has crossed the line of ethical and professional behavior in my recent court hearing." He states that at the hearing, UH's attorney tried to compare the allegations made against him for "bullying" and "intimidating" behavior with the murders committed at Virginia Tech University and the Xerox killings in Hawai'i. He wrote that since the attorney "represents" the university, he finds it reprehensible that Vice Chancellor Neal Smatresk and Interim Dean Donald Young, both of whom were present, would allow such tactics to be used to serve the university's interests. D'Andrea continued that, "These disrespectful and insensitive comments represent the self-serving interests of an administration that has lost its moral compass and professional respectability." Vice President for Legal Affairs and University General Counsel Darolyn Lendio responded to D'Andrea's open letter upon review and wrote, "It is clear that your allegations and the remedies you seek are intrinsically connected to your pending legal and contractual claims. These legal and contractual claims derive from personnel actions made by the University of Hawai'i at Manoa and have no relationship to alleged issues that involve the UH system administration or the Board of Regents." Responses from Smatresk and Director of Public Relations Gregg Takayama were unavailable at the time of publication. D'Andrea also listed in his letter some individuals who had been retaliated against for raising social justice issues and/or other concerns about unjust personnel actions and mismanagement by administrators at the university. Lastly, he made a set of recommendations of actions to be taken to address present social injustices. They include: - An immediate investigation regarding those who were involved in the order to ban D'Andrea from campus and the other disciplinary actions taken against him - A written apology from UH for the manner in which its administrators allowed D'Andrea's case to be compared to the Virginia Tech massacre and the killings at the Xerox Company in Honolulu - An investigation into possible violations in UH BOR polices and professional ethics that may have been manifested by Smatresk and Young - The establishment of a special committee to investigate problems of racism and sexism at UHM - The development and implementation of a plan to reduce crime and violence on campus without resorting to the arming of security personnel - The development of an immediate plan of action to address structural problems that prevent people with disabilities from fully accessing campus buildings. Social-justice and peace advocate works Dr. Michael D'Andrea, a tenured professor at the University of Hawai'i at M?noa, had been teaching at UHM for about 18 years and during that time, had authored more than 200 scholarly publications, including six books. He had also received numerous awards for his contributions in areas of counseling and psychology. Some of his works include: Book chapters related to social justice issues: - D'Andrea, M. (2006). In liberty and justice for all: A comprehensive approach to ameliorating the complex problems of White racism and White superiority in the United States. In M. Constantine and D. W. Sue (Eds.), Addressing racism: Facilitating cultural competence in mental health and educational settings (pp. 251-270). New York: Wiley - D'Andrea, M. (2003). Expanding our understanding of white racism and resistance to change in the fields of counseling and psychology. In J. S. Mio & G. Y. Iwamasa (Eds.), Culturally diverse mental health: The challenges of research and resistance (pp. 17-34). New York: Brunner-Routledge Journal articles related to social justice and organizational issues: - D'Andrea, M., Skouge, J., & Daniels, J. (2006). Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: Expanding the multicultural-social justice family to include persons with disabilities. Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 21, 70-78. - D'Andrea, M., & Daniels, J. (1996). Promoting peace in our schools: Developmental, preventive, and multicultural considerations. School Counselor, 44, 55-64. Other scholarly works and publications: - D'Andrea, M., Arredondo, P., & Daniels, J. (2005, March). Multicultural advocacy and community service. Counseling Today, 47, 40-41. - D'Andrea, M., & Arredondo, P. (2000, August). Speaking truth to power: Dealing with difficult challenges. Counseling Today, 43; 30, 37. - Arredondo, P., & D'Andrea, M. (1997, February). Counselors' role in combating institutional racism and sexism. Counseling Today, 39(8), 34-35. - D'Andrea, M. (1994, October). Promoting the dignity and development of gay, lesbian, and bisexual students. Counseling Today, 37(4), 24. -- Original Source: The Voice - Ka Leo http://media.www.kaleo.org/media/storage/paper872/news/2007/04/23/News/Ban-Lifted.From.Uh.Professor-2874971.shtml
Balloons released before the Yankees vs. Hokies baseball game on March 18, 2008. Photo by Rachel VanPelt -- Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hokiefacs/2356325114/in/set-72157604217657636/
Free seat cushions given out at Yankees vs. Hokies baseball game on March 18,2008. Photo by Rachel VanPelt -- Original Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hokiefacs/2356328702/in/set-72157604217657636/
Promotional poster for Yankees vs. Hokies baseball game. Photo by Rachel VanPelt -- Original Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hokiefacs/2356343318/in/set-72157604217657636/
Scoreboard during Yankees vs. Hokies game on March 18, 2008. Photo by Rachel VanPelt. -- Original Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hokiefacs/2356341282/in/set-72157604217657636/
Va. Tech victims remembered by candlelight
Students and community members gather at MemChu to reflect, pray April 19, 2007 By Rahul Kanakia Several hundred Stanford community members gathered yesterday evening at a Memorial Church service for the 32 Virginia Tech students and faculty who were slain Monday by a gunman. Deans of Religious Life Rev. Scotty McLennan and Rabbi Patricia Karlin-Neumann presided over the service. "We come together as religious and non-religious people. As faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends, we are all part of one community here at Stanford University," McLennan said. "Many of us have been overcome with feelings of shock, sorrow, fear, incomprehension, anger and hopelessness since Monday, all mixed up together. We come here to offer all of that up in prayer and contemplation and thoughtful reflection." As Karlin-Neumann read the names of the dead, McLennan rang a bell. The tone hung in the air after each name, fading almost to silence before Karlin-Neumann read the next name. Some attendees looked upwards, some stared at the floor, while others fixed their eyes on the front of the church. Alyssa Battistoni '08 said she lost a good friend from high school, Daniel O'Neil, who was an environmental engineering graduate student at the Blacksburg, Va. university. "I don't know," she said. "I wasn't really there, to tell you the truth. I was just thinking about how much it all sucks. He just got married, my friend Dan." After the service, Takeo Rivera '08 drew parallels between the victims' lives at Virginia Tech and student life at Stanford. "Their lives were cut tragically short," he said. "And that all sounds cliche and such. But the fact that it happened on a college campus makes it all so real. For instance, one of the victims was an RA, and I'm an RA. It was one of those things where you kind of reflect on your own mortality." Calley Means '08, a Washington, D.C. resident who was at the service because many of his friends at Virginia Tech lost friends in the attack, said he was surprised that the events resonated so strongly 3,000 miles away. "There were so many people wearing Virginia Tech sweatshirts and crying," he said. "People who had gone to lecture in Norris Hall. People who had taken classes with those professors. It just shows the ripple effects of those 32 people. This event really showed me the magnitude of what had happened." McLennan told The Daily that the Office of Religious Life has been flooded with phone calls and emails requesting an organized gathering. "The scope of [the massacre] is unprecedented," he said. "This kind of thing usually does not happen in a college and university. And there is identification with the other students, faculty and staff and their friends. This touches pretty close to home; it could have been us." After Karlin-Neumann read a selection of prayers, attendees were given the opportunity to light candles in remembrance of the victims. Half of the mourners lined up and down the center of the church as the other half looked on. For more than 15 minutes the silence of the procession was broken only by a few people who delivered short messages after lighting their candles. One man, a graduate of both Virginia Tech and Stanford, read a statement taken from Virginia Tech Prof. Nikki Giovanni's speech at Tuesday's memorial service in Blacksburg. "We are sad today and we will be sad for quite awhile," he quoted from the speech. "We are not moving on. We are embracing our mourning. We are Virginia Tech. We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly. We are brave enough to bend to cry, and sad enough to know that we must laugh again." -- Original Source: Stanford Daily - April 19, 2007
Permissions granted by James Hohmann Editor-in-Chief The Stanford Daily <jhohmann@stanford.edu>
Va. shooting prompts Univ. policy review
Police trained, armed with special weapons, for crisis April 20, 2007 By Rahul Kanakia A new Stanford committee will conduct an evaluation of its emergency protocols in the wake of Monday's shootings at Virginia Tech University. The protocol review, which will be led by Vice President for Business Affairs Randy Livingston, was announced in a statement concerning the massacre by President John Hennessy. A University Department of Public Safety community service officer records the SLAC protest with a video camera and carries a camera with a telephoto lens to photograph activists. "The terrible ordeal suffered there reminds us how precious life is and how important it is that we all redouble our efforts to prevent such tragedies in the future," Hennessy said. "At Stanford, we plan to review all of our emergency response protocols. The safety of the Stanford community will always be a top priority for us." Police at Virginia Tech have drawn criticism for their decision not to lock down the campus after the initial shootings in West Ambler Johnson Hall, a dormitory. Chris Cohendet, a deputy at the Department of Public Safety (DPS), said the police train for what he called "an active shooter situation." In such a case, officers would call together nearby agencies and attempt to control the situation. "There's obviously a lot of things that go through your mind," he said. "You want to be sure the community is safe. But you've got to figure things out. For instance, at [Virginia Tech, officers] received what they thought was a domestic dispute call earlier on. And within that time frame the police department [was] getting numerous calls with differing information. It's really hard for a police department to filter all of this information." For these kinds of situations, Stanford's police cruisers carry a variety of weapons in addition to the standard issue handguns. They are also equipped with non-lethal weapons, such as tasers, as well as more powerful alternatives, including shotguns. "Basically, if there's something going on where someone is going through buildings and shooting away, law enforcement has to grab teams together and react," Cohendet said. "We would have to engage the suspect, in this case." Greg Boardman, vice provost for student affairs, said the University would take Monday's incident into account while reviewing its policies for students with mental health issues. The Virginia Tech shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, had previously been committed to a psychiatric facility by the Blacksburg, Va. university but was released when two female students he had harassed decided not to press charges against him. "In recognition of the increasing prevalence and complexity of student mental health issues both nationally and here at Stanford, we have been in the process of studying the University's policies and procedures as well as our campus climate through the work of the Mental Health and Well Being Task Force," he wrote in an email to The Daily. "Created in October 2006, the task force is composed of students, staff and faculty, and it has been meeting regularly since the fall in order to assess our current policies and determine where we can make improvements." Associate Vice Provost for Student Affairs Roger Printup was unsure what changes would come from these initiatives. "I am sure that not only Stanford but every college and university will be considering what this event means for a large number of issues," he wrote in an email to The Daily. "Campus security and mental health [are] the two most obvious issues. But it is way too early to speculate on what specific actions might be taken before institutions have an opportunity to examine those issues thoughtfully and in depth." Betts Gorsky, who was on campus for Admit Weekend and whose daughter will attend Stanford next year, said that the shootings did not change her view of campus security. "I think that it's very difficult for any school to protect against random acts of violence like that," she said. "Maybe it will make individuals a little more observant and willing to react if they see or hear something from a student that seems out of the ordinary or depressed. But it's always easy to have 20/20 hindsight." -- Original Source: Stanford Daily, April 20, 2007
Virginia Tech Redux: Did the Old Media Lose it in Blacksburg?
April 18th, 2007 As the words continue to flow along with the tears after the deaths at Virginia Tech, one important observation rises above the ruins: the incident represented a triumph for what the pundits term the New Media over the Old. The keys to this triumph lie in the strengths of the New Media: its immediacy, diversity, and ability to speak personally. The immediacy of the New Media put them far ahead of the Old Media even as the crisis unfolded. The on-campus emails that first informed many students that something terrible had happened became like pebbles dropped in a pond, rippling out into the ether. New Media such as Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and search engines became the preferred sources for people desperate to find out what happened. Probably the most dramatic illustration of this was the group of students who fled to the library and then frantically searched the Internet to find out what was happening. A decade ago they might have turned on the radio or television. Even the Old Media had to acknowledge the role the New Media played for the students at Virginia Tech. CBS ran a story "Students Turn To Web In Time Of Tragedy" whose sub head read, "How the Internet Helped Va. Tech Students Cope with Shooting Massacre." The Los Angeles Times reported about University of Southern California sophomore Charlotte Korchak who instead of using a cellphone to check on friends at Virginia Tech, immediately went to Facebook. "I was able to immediately find out who was OK," she said. "Without Facebook, I have no idea how I would have found that out." As for the news on campus, the Old Media struggled to catch up. National Public Radio even published a desperate-sounding plea on their web site for witnesses of the tragedy to please contact them so they could line up interviews. In short, in the first few hours after the shootings the Old Media became just like the rest of us, searching the web for information and answers. Later National Public Radio would gloat, its words a bit of an unnecessary distortion (i.e. many bloggers), on the misinformation posted on some blogs. Referring to a Wired post the NPR blog stated: Wired reports that many bloggers originally misidentified the shooter in yesterday's rampage at Virginia Tech, linking to "to the LiveJournal blog of a particular 23-year-old gun nut in Virginia." It turned out that this person was not connected to the shootings. However, the zealotry of some blogging wingnuts pales beside the old media's inability to even get the name of the institution correct. Most of them resorted to the shorthand Virginia Tech. It wasn't until a day after the shootings that the New York Times published the official name of the school-Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. As for misidentifying the killer, there were also many false reports in the Old Media, which at one time speculated the shootings at the two different buildings might not be related. Others in the Old Media recognized the role the New Media played in getting the story out. The Los Angeles Times admitted: Members of the most wired generation in history dealt with Monday's bloody rampage by connecting on blogs, Facebook and other websites. Their eyewitness descriptions, photos and video made the trauma unfolding in the rural Virginia town immediate and visceral to millions. The Hartford Courant also acknowledged: the most arresting coverage from Virginia Tech came from citizen journalists who went to work well before the media could grasp the massacre's full scope. The reliance of the Old Media on the New gave rise to a host of stories with the following disclaimer, "[this network, newspaper, radio station] is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites." Those in the Old Media who won out in the rush to tap into local sources were those like CNN who have consciously solicited the work of citizen journalists. The Hartford Courant pointed out student Jamal Albarghouti, whose cell phone camera pictures were among the first of the massacre: Was one of more than 100 so-called I-Reporters to submit Virginia Tech content to CNN. Once CNN realized what it had, it paid him an undisclosed amount of money for exclusivity, limiting other networks to no more than 10 seconds of the clip. Some students became weary of all the attention as the Old Media desperately searched for someone, anyone who could give them an interview. One Virginia Tech blogger (in keeping with his request to limit intrusions I will not link to his site here but a secondary source) wrote: As of the time I am writing this I have done a radio interview with BBC and talked with a reporter from the LA Times. CBC Newsworld, the Boston Herald, Current TV, and MTV have asked for interviews and further information. As I said I intend to share my experiences with everyone, but I want to reinstate that I am just an average student and I don't want to be made into something I am not. The Old Media have no one but themselves to blame for not having reporters near the scene. For more than two decades they have been furiously pursuing a policy that has concentrated radio and television stations and newspapers into fewer and fewer hands. The changes in media concentration first proposed by the FCC in 2003 essentially would have allowed a single company to control almost half of all broadcasting stations and, more important, two companies could control 90%. It also raised the caps on how many local stations could be controlled by a single company and widened the ability of companies to engage in cross-media ownership within a single market. What this has meant is the steady decline of local media and the Old Media. An online check of Blacksburg showed that essentially Virginia Tech itself was probably the main local media. City-data.com lists five radio stations actually in Blacksburg. One of them is owned by a national chain, Capstar TX Limited Partnerships and three are owned by what seem to be regional corporations. Only one appears to be locally owned - the FM station owned by Virginia Tech. This leaves the networks and newspapers without any local media they can instantly tap into. They have to rely on the Internet just like the rest of us. In essence the networks have no one to call. This phenomenon is happening all over the country as local media voices disappear forever. In The Strange Death of Liberal America I wrote: Control of local markets by national conglomerates gives local citizens little information about their own community. In a way, many towns become . . . [media] ghost towns with only tumbleweeds howling through them and their vibrant down towns boarded up. Along with the loss of local voices comes the loss of venerable institutions like the broadcasts of the local sports teams, local personalities dishing out tips on canning this yearï¿½s tomato crop, and that lifeblood of many rural communities, the recitation of the current commodity prices. In a sense, conglomerates such as Clear Channel not only make people anonymous, they also make their communities anonymous. The New Media have helped to fill this gap, rushing into the vacuum created by the loss of local voices. As the Washington Post noted, Blacksburg, lead by Virginia Tech, is home to the Blacksburg Electronic Village, a pioneering project launched in the mid-'90s that sought to link everyone in an online community. A Reader's Digest headline in 1996 called Blacksburg "The Most Wired Town in America." For Blacksburg, replacing the Old Media with the New was a move that, as we have seen, paid off during the massacre. It is difficult to speculate what the consequences of the shootings would have been without the New Media, but clearly on the Virginia Tech campus alone, the New Media performed a variety of crucial functions in linking fellow Hokies. If we then move to the level of the friends and family of those at Virginia Tech, without the New Media they might have suffered a great deal more agony. An online Post link observed, Friends and family embrace the New Media to get the message out. It was in the second and third areas - the personal and the diverse - that the New Media really excelled. The Internet allowed those at Virginia Tech and those with close ties to it to quickly link to one another and form an online community of grief. For the rest of us the Internet performed a similar function as blogs, chatrooms, online audio and video allowed us to link with each other and to those at Virginia Tech. Now that the Old Media finally have their satellite trucks in place and have flown down their big name reporters to Blacksburg, they again appear in control. Once again their pious pronouncements and portentous analysis fill the airwaves. They desperately want to tell us how to think and feel about this tragedy. They seem almost eager to fill in the missing whys. The Old Media still have not learned an old lesson, one as old as the Kennedy Assassination, that event that was their first national moment, the first time they had us all glued to the glowing screens. Then they kept their voices soft and restrained and let the pictures tell the story. Now the Old Media broadcast events like the Virginia Tech shootings as if they were sports contests complete with the play-by-play person talking too much by telling us what we are seeing along with the resident experts pontificating about what it all means. And of course they manage to sign up a few "witnesses" who soon become THE voices of the tragedy-and, of course, each network tries to get exclusive contracts with them, trampling over the poor students in their zeal to find the most articulate, photogenic and dramatic. Then they ask the inevitable question, whether for the NCAA Final Four winner or a student at Virginia Tech is: "How do you feel?" In contrast in the New Media, as the cliche goes, everyone can be themselves. Instead of pat answers and telegenic witnesses you find reality. We all know reality can be chaotic, it can be messy and it can be downright obnoxious. It has no pat answers, no resident experts and no one cares what you look like or sound like or even if you are articulate. In the New Media there is the feeling that anyone close to such a tragedy who sounds articulate is suspect. The power of the New Media lies in its diversity. But what makes it powerful also has its dark side. You will find no shortage of rantings in various blogs that put even Fox News to shame. In fact right now unseemly discussions are raging all across the blogsphere like a tsunami of BS over who is to blame for this, whether we should or should not have gun control and the cryptic note the killer left behind. But to have diversity we must be willing to accept the garbage along with the wisdom, even if sometimes it seems the smell of the garbage is enough to make you puke. if you are willing to hold your nose and look hard enough you will also find analysis that both moves you and provides you with more information and more unusual slants than you will ever find in the Old Media. Clearly part of the attention and volume of comments the shootings have precipitated lies not merely with their horrific nature, but with the sense that many have that the massacre signaled something major had shifted in America. The seismic shock, the huge spike in online activity registered by blogs such as this one, signifies that a new world is being born, one in which the New Media have become the preferred means of communication and information. That the New Media are less reliable and more chaotic than the old has some people worried, especially in the Old Media. In many ways the situation with media mirrors the murders at Virginia Tech, for just as the shootings now have made all of us a bit less certain about our safety, so have the New Media made us a bit less certain about our information. We have entered one of those uncertain and exciting times where an old world is dying and a new one is being born. It may take a generation or two before the situation sorts itself out just as it did with previous media changes. As we weather these changes we need to remember that above all, the New Media is about connections and diversity, two things the Old Media lost sight of a long time ago. So, in the days ahead I hope those of you who found this post will wander on to others. Above all, I hope you will make new connections, find interesting voices, and perhaps even bump into some uncomfortable ideas. For unlike the Old Media, the New Media is organic, almost a living thing, because it changes and evolves even as I write this. Posted by liberalamerican -- Original Source: http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/2007/04/18/virginia-tech-redux-did-the-old-media-lose-it-in-blacksburg/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported