MERGED--> Shooter loose on Virginia Tech campus

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
Status
Not open for further replies.
PHILADELPHIA - David Wright had a few anxious moments yesterday morning when he awoke to news on TV that there had been a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech University. The third baseman's 21-year-old brother Stephen is a senior engineering major at the Blacksburg, Va., school, and Wright initially was unable to reach him by cell phone.

"It's a scary thought to turn on the TV and see a shooting at a school - any school, especially one that your brother is at," Wright said.

Wright soon reached another brother, Matthew, by phone. Matthew, a freshman at James Madison University, had spoken with Wright's parents and had learned his brother was safe off campus. Wright believed Stephen had been scheduled to take a class later in the day in a building where shooting took place. Thirty-three people, including the gunman, died.

"It wasn't too long," Wright said about the period of time he didn't know his brother's whereabouts. "I woke up. I turned on the TV. That's when your heart kind of skips a beat a little bit. But then right away I talked to my little brother. He let me know he talked to my mother, and my mother said everything is okay."

Wright, who attends Virginia Tech football games after his season is over, eventually spoke with his distraught brother Stephen around 2 p.m., shortly before last night's Mets-Phillies game was rained out.

"He's obviously shaken up," Wright said. "I briefly spoke to my brother. It's tough to get ahold of him because all the cell phones, with the usage, it's tough to get through. I just tried to be brief. He's trying to call and make sure with his friends everybody he thought might be there is okay."
Click to expand...
 
please pass this along

hokiehope.jpg
 
the original "bomb threats" were to steger....i forgot his office is in there. but it was unfounded.

now i just heard bburg town offices are on lockdown. we don't know why yet.

i can't take all this stress!!!
 
unico said:
i can't take all this stress!!!
Click to expand...



Mia, you should get off campus for a bit.

Memphis and i are in the city this weekend, just in case you make it up here and want to have beers or something.

good luck.
 
Irvine511 said:




Mia, you should get off campus for a bit.

Memphis and i are in the city this weekend, just in case you make it up here and want to have beers or something.

good luck.
Click to expand...

i want to...but then i don't.

i have to be here for my students. they need me. i'm an advisor, this is my job. this is when they need me the most, and...i need them too.

but some people are coming up to visit. kristina, and possibly laura this weekend. which, is comforting beyond words. my dad left this morning, so it will be nice to have someone else around.
 
I work for an NPO, and this morning we are having a short service to remember all of you in our thoughts and prayers.

Like Irvine said, I hope you are able to get some time away from campus. :hug:
 
unico said:


i want to...but then i don't.

i have to be here for my students. they need me. i'm an advisor, this is my job. this is when they need me the most, and...i need them too.

but some people are coming up to visit. kristina, and possibly laura this weekend. which, is comforting beyond words. my dad left this morning, so it will be nice to have someone else around.
Click to expand...



do whatever you think is best. it's so commendable how you put your students first. they are lucky to have you.
 
Im happy that you will have friends visiting you this weekend Mia :hug: Know it can't take away from what happened but maybe it will help to ease your mind just for a little bit. Even though Im only in Delaware it feels like Im still miles away from you :(. Would be there if I could :hug:

I truly am proud of you for how you are being there for your students. Rememer to take care of yourself too please :hug:

Laura stay strong your friend continues to be in my :pray:
 
Last edited:
I think it's a sad commentary on society that the Korean community and government feel they have to go on a PR campaign in fear of backlash against their communities. I am sure their sadness for the victims is heartfelt but they aren't responsible. Most reasonable people probably don't feel like targeting the Korean community but there is an obvious concern for that possibility. White people didn't go out and apologize for actions of other murderers after past shootings. Mental illness and deadly violence is not exclusive to any ethnic group.
 
trevster2k said:
I think it's a sad commentary on society that the Korean community and government feel they have to go on a PR campaign in fear of backlash against their communities. I am sure their sadness for the victims is heartfelt but they aren't responsible. Most reasonable people probably don't feel like targeting the Korean community but there is an obvious concern for that possibility. White people didn't go out and apologize for actions of other murderers after past shootings. Mental illness and deadly violence is not exclusive to any ethnic group.
Click to expand...

Absolutely, it's a very sad commentary. But I've already seen online and in person people blaming this on "damn foreigners".:|

It sickens me.
 
I tried to bring up a "cultural" conversation about this with my coworkers yesterday, which they ultimately turned into "every race has crazy people" conversation instead. Whether even the smallest bit of this had to do with his ethnicity/culture, just the fact that I couldn't even have a rational conversation with my coworkers about it was disheartening.
 
The sad truth of this situation is that so many people are going to try to make it about things it's not really about, whether it's in regard to ethnicity, politics, or anything else. I just hope enough people realize that we all need to be talking about what we can do to make sure it never happens again and to help students feel safe.
 
OH MY GOD. As if this could not get any sadder. THOSE POOR PARENTS!!!

What people have to understand is, in Asian culture having a reltive esp a child who is guilty of something like this is SO MUCH worse than if it was a Western-based society. Here, we'd all be sympatheitc to the parents if they were decent people, even as the media begin speculating on the killer's upbringing. etc. But in Asian societies, esp in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean socities, this is all a matter of "face."

It's something quite difficult for a Westerner to understand at first. The best thing way I can describe it is to understand that the concept of "face", so important to the aforementioned cultures, has to come from centuries and even millenia of living in a crowded society where good collective behavior is necessary for the basic functioning of society. As opposed to Western societies that have much less people and I think is is why we have the luxury of individualism. But over there good behavior is not only necessary it has become a status symbol. If you are decent, orderly, law-abiding memeber of society it gives you great prestiege and "face" (standing) in the community. Take away that sense of having "face" and you are forever disgraced. If your sin is bad enough it could even make you a pariah in society. My partment neighbor is from South Korea and she tried explaining this to me. Likely, now, Cho's parents are virtual social outcasts, with little or sympathy from their neighbors and fellow countrymen, and even worse, they have forever disgraced the nation. If this was the bad old fuledal days of Japan, in the 1800's, they'd have had to commit hari-kari on principle. However, in samurai society, a sin like this (for it wouldn't matter if you didn;t do it, one of your family did it, so you're all together, a family unit) might have even been so bad that the "honor" of ritual suicide might even have been denied by a leige lord.

Of course, Westernization has these societies to some extent but some social traditions have been hard to kill. This is one of them.

Now, my prayers go out to that poor family as well.
 
Last edited:
:sigh: within an hour this morning someone pulled the fire alarm in Reed Hall (where my history class was taking place) and then Waits Hall (My Dorm). My history teacher looked visibly upset when it happened, he just said, "Go outside, stay in a group, i'll try and finish class, obviously this is someone's idea of a joke after Monday, and it's just not funny." He looked like he was going to cry and it made me sad (He's a Grad. Student, so he's not much older than me...)...I don't know why the people need to take advantage of tragedy to get some enjoyment at the expense of others :(
 
Killer's parents hospitalised 'with shock'
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=261805

Wednesday Apr 18 13:00 AEST
By ninemsn staff

The parents of mass killer Cho Seung-hi were hospitalised with shock and had not attempted suicide, contrary to reports in Korean media.

Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that Cho's parents, who ran a dry cleaning shop in Centreville, Virginia, had been hospitalised after learning of ther son's killing rampage at Virginia Tech University.

Rumours earlier spread through Korean media sources that Cho's parents had attempted suicide.

The Korea Herald, quoting Radio Korea in Los Angeles, reported that Cho's father tried to slash his wrists. His mother had reportedly swallowed a toxic drug.

Cho was a permanent resident of the US, who came there to live there with his parents in 1992.

His sister was a graduate of Princeton University, according to the Korea Times.
Click to expand...
 
Compassion: Students Forgive Virginia Tech Killer
Students Say He's A Human First, A Murderer Second
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_107170729.html

(CBS) NEW YORK While it seems most people are resigned to express hatred toward Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech gunman who shot and killed 32 people before taking his own life, there are some who aren't thinking twice about forgiving the 23-year-old student for his heinous crimes.

The popular college Web site Facebook.com has become a haven for student groups to form, a place where thousands flock to express their feelings about the tragic incident that occurred on Monday morning. In doing a search of Cho's name on the Web site, results offer numerous groups -- most of which include either expletives in combination with his name as the name of the group, or others which wish harm upon him in the afterlife.

Special Coverage: Massacre At Virginia Tech
POLL: Should Campus Have Been Locked Down Sooner?
Dr. Phil: How To Cope With Virginia Tech Tragedy
CBS News Interactive: Blacksburg Massacre
Tri-State Students Among Dead In Va. Tech Shooting

Still, somewhere in between all the anger, there are the occasional students who are willing to forgive, and offer their prayers to honor the killer's life.

One such group, called "Eternal Rest Grant Unto Him, O Lord: Cho Seung-Hui," now has over 50 members signed up in the group, and they are speaking their minds. Most members do not attend Virginia Tech, and they range from high school students to graduates from all over the country.

On the group's bulletin board, 19-year-old Montclair State University freshman Justin Heba explained why he joined the group, writing: "Cho Seung-Hui lived eight-thousand, four-hundred, and eighty-nine days. I and no reasonable person, or deity, could or should allow the events of one of them to discount the other eight-thousand, four-hundred, and eighty-eight," the student wrote. "You will be in my prayers, Cho, though I never knew you -- it is a shame that you died the way you did, and that so many others died that day too."

The group's creator is not a Virginia Tech student, but instead 16-year-old high school sophomore MacKenzie Swigart from Kansas. She said it's the hateful and vulgar criticism toward Cho written in other groups that led her to create one forgiving him.

"The groups expressing anger toward him are what inspired me to create the group. We have no idea what happened to this kid, or what was going through his head, but it's really clear that he had problems," Swigart told wcbstv.com. "When I saw all of those groups damning him to hell and wishing him ill, without considering that, hey, he is a person too. I thought he deserved to be respected and remembered like the other victims."

Still, Swigart does admit her feelings might be different if she were a Virginia Tech student, but she thinks the hate and vulgarity is unfair, as well as the e-mails she's received from people who don't agree with her beliefs.

"I have had to delete posts on the wall of the group where people have said anyone in the group should burn in hell, or that we must all be 'sick' to sympathize with Cho," she said. "I've gotten a lot of negative feedback. I received a silly little hate mail that said,'You're an evil girl. God will never love you.'"

Those feelings ultimately appear to represent the vast majority of students, however. One Facebook group called "Blame Cho Seung-Hui (VT Shooter)" has over 600 members and over 400 postings on its bulletin board. Most offer constructive debate on the issue, but other students do go to other extremes to express their feelings. One member's post read: "this is [expletive]. i wish this dude did not kill himself so that he could have gotten the death penalty......fire squad."

And some are even bringing Cho's foreign background into their criticism. Heba said it's unfair how people are talking about Cho.

"I think it's unfair that he was 'the Asian killer,' then later the 'South Korean killer,' and now just 'the killer' because there have been some reports of escalating racial tension and harassment because of his actions. It's unfair that he is not being represented even as a human being with a name," he said. "He's being vilified and dehumanized to help people feel more blameless, which is most definitely unfair."

Heba, who considers himself to be a "pariah the last few years," also thinks the rap student outcasts receive is also unfair and puts them in tough situations when violence breaks out in schools and the suspects are said to be outcast students.

"There are enough outcasts that are not shooters that it is likely an irrelevant label," Heba said. "There are more useful patterns present throughout the small pool of 'student shooters' that to rely on such a broad one is fallacy, and does nothing, but push undue stress onto other 'outcasts' in the wake of events such as this."

Which leads many to wonder whether the shootings could have been prevented. Cho has been said to be mostly a quiet person, one who didn't socialize much, and could have received treatment for his problems.

"He was a really twisted person. He needed help, that is what led him to commit his crime," Swigart said. "That is what makes it so sad. He could have received the help he needed and possibly went on to live a more fruitful life, the lives of the other victims could have been spared, but we won't know now."

Since creating her group, Swigart's been forced to delete many posts ripping her group and its members from the group's bulletin board. However, no matter how much hate mail she receives, she plans to continue to stand by her position and hopes other will follow suit.

"What happened was a tragedy, and a senseless act of violence, as so many others have said. There were 33 victims though. Cho was a victim of himself, and of hatred and of evil. He deserves to be respectfully and lovingly remembered, just like the rest of the victims," she said. "He has a family missing a child now, too, who deserve to be reached out to just like the rest of the families. But people are talking about the senseless violence and hatred of his actions. They are senselessly hating him in return, and that is completely unfair."
Click to expand...
 
At my future campus, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, 7 buildings were evacuated due to a bomb threat :(



It's just sick that someone thinks this is a joke...
 
you don't have to look


there are many things

over my lifetime, that I have made a point not to look at

because I never wanted that image in me mind (period)
 
i'm so pissed off!!!!!! how the FUCK does he have time to go to the post office OFF FREAKING CAMPUS and mail this package, yet THIS FREAKING SCHOOL didn't have the time to notify us in that time frame of the first shooting.

all that time passed. we could've at least been notified.

i'm sick to my stomach.
 
and what about the package? did it not have his name or something? i'm sure that the package did not leave bxbg post office until after the 2nd shooting. did nobody really notice the name on it? wow.

i'm not blaming. i just think the whole mailing thing is really really bizarre and twisted.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

O
Better late than never “they” say…
Replies
1
Views
268
Headache in a Suitcase
Headache in a Suitcase
K
U2 Show Logistics Question/Theories
Replies
7
Views
729
lazarus
lazarus
W
A Boy Falls From the Sky is some U2's best work
Replies
3
Views
2K
zoocarolina
Z
N
NBA 2023-24 Thread
9 10 11
Replies
314
Views
10K
Hewson
Hewson
O
Live U2 concerts for sale
Replies
0
Views
579
one_cool_dude17
O

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom