Shooting at Va Tech

[NELSON]

Two days after the deadliest shooting rampage in American history, many are left wondering who ultimately was reponsible. Was it the school officials who failed to act quickly enough to prevent the attack? Was it the creative writing professyms who saw all the signs but chose to ignore them? Was it the bumbling school janitor who parked his mop bucket right in front of the “Gun-Free Zone” sign? Or was it the guy who actually pulled the trigger? Wild theories abound. The goofy European newspapers, though well-intentioned, are even blaming Charton Heston for the shootings that left 33 students dead and 9 wounded. But such baseless accusations in our time of national mourning does a great disservice to those who lost their lives. No, the responsibility for what happened last Monday lies squarely on one person, and one person alone: George W. Bush.

After all it was Bush who, on orders from Heston, launched an illegal and immoral war in Iraq to desensitize Americans to violence, so that the gun lobby could continue putting deadly weapons into the hands of confused children unabated and with full cooperation from the Bush Junta. Or maybe Bush allowed the rampage to occur just to frighten people into buying more guns. Or maybe it was all the work of a psychopath who walked into a college campus and opened fire with no remorse for his actions - but that's just pure speculation.

The Shrub will probably swagger away from this whole ordeal completely oblivious to the blood on his hands. However, perhaps this terrible tragedy will finally be a wake up call for Americans to demand an end to the NRA, or any other organization whose sole purpose it to defend portions of the Bill of Rights that don’t have anything to do with sex.

 

[cwnhokie]

Disneylover5 and mirthmaden, I'm glad that your children are ok. My heart goes out the kids at the high school as well. They have had a tough time there lately.

I feel, more than ever, so proud to be a Hokie and now the whole world knows what it's like to be a Hokie as well. The students there have been amazing in the face of all this and I hope that they will be able to start healing.

 

[Geoff_M]

No, the responsibility for what happened last Monday lies squarely on one person, and one person alone: George W. Bush.

Keith Olbermann, is that you?!?!?

As an advocate for people with mental illness, I fear for their futures and the backlash against them.

Forevryoung, I think your fears may be warranted based on all of the continuing Monday morning quarterbacking we are hearing. If a student is too "creepy" should he/she be kicked out? Is being accused of stalking (he probably was indeed guilty, but the charges weren't followed through on) enough to warrant ejection? If a judge thinks a kid is a possible harm to himself, but a actual doctor evaluates him and decides that even though he does suffer from a possible mental illness he isn't a clear danger, should VT have removed him?

 

[disneylover5]

disneylover5: May I ask you a question? You are in a group of people I have wondered about over the last few days. Will your son still accept his spot at Tech? With this tragedy occuring just before the May 1 commit date, I have thought about how this might affect the university's admissions yield. I have a junior in hs. My husband and I talked about this; we think it could happen anywhere and it wouldn't keep us from allowing our student to go to his intended college. But, I wonder how others, actually facing the decision right now feel.

Will parents be satisfied with how the administration handled the events of the day? Will students transfer or decide not to attend based on fears of safety?

Yes, Daniel will be Hokie on August 20th. He has wanted to be a Hokie since he was 5. We had such a wonderful weekend last weekend in Blacksburg, such a wonderful town.

As I said, Daniel goes to Westfield HS touched 3 times with the tragedy. About 100 kids (there are 1000 kids in his graduating class...largest HS in the Sate of VA) were accepted at Tech.....now not all 100 are going.....but of those who chose Tech...not one has changed their mind.

On facebook, Daniel is in a group called VA Tech Class of 2011. After he was accepted at the end of March we sent the deposit the very next day. He was one of the first to join this facebook group. Everyday 20 or 30 join....as they make their decision to go to Tech. He told me on Monday 500 kids joined.

Daniel's best friend is on the wait list. We were wondering if this event made his chances better or worse.....

Tech is a hard school to get into. If you have been listening to the kids on TV, you can see they are bright. Mike (Daniel's wait listed friend) had a 4.0 in high school.....straight A's...and got wait listed. The reason was he did nto have any AP classes, we think.

Daniel had a 3.8, 3 AP classes and has travelled the world doing Mission work since 7th grade. We think that got him in.

I graduated from Tech in 79.....such a wonderful school....I am so so so sorry this had to happen to these families and to the University.

 

[disneylover5]

My DSD is a freshman at VT. She lives in W. AJ on the 6th floor. She has no fears of going back to class. And her younger sister just got accepted for the fall and is still planning to attend.

I agree that this type of event could occur anywhere. It is not specific to VT, or even college. A person like that will find a way to explode no matter what his/her circumstances are. I think it's good to take a hard look at security measures everywhere, but to change schools because of this would be overreacting a bit IMO.

Well said, thank you

 

[Green Tea]

Yes, Daniel will be Hokie on August 20th.

Thanks for answering. It sounds as though the tragedy will not affect many's decision on where to attend. It could have been any of the great schools in Virginia, or anywhere else.

 

[phisigprincess]

Another thing that bothers me about this is that yet again there is attention being drawn back to Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. They were "martyrs" to Cho and from the parts of the manifesto that are out there, it's obvious that he idolized them. I just can't imagine how those parents who lost students at Columbine must feel, 8 years later, to have their child's killers being "martyred" and "idolized" in another bloody rampage. It's so very sad.

 

[luvwinnie]

There was a psychologist on one of the NBC shows I was watching yesterday that made exactly that point. (I don't recall if it was the local guys or the national one. ) Everytime the killer gets his views heard on TV, it sends a message to others with similar issues-"That's how to get people to listen to me!" It's a difficult line to walk because everyone wants to know WHY, but that perspective does make sense to me.

I think I saw the same person. And this morning my local paper has the killer's HUGE photo on the front page...I'd rather see photos of the victims.

 

[disneylover5]

Thanks for answering. It sounds as though the tragedy will not affect many's decision on where to attend. It could have been any of the great schools in Virginia, or anywhere else.

You know this evil doer was ranting about rich kids. Tech is not a "rich" kid school by any stretch of the imagination. An in state student can attend room board and tuition for $12,000.

I have helped raise my nephew and he is graduating from Georgetown this spring...last year room board and tuition was $44,000. Many of those kids do have Lexus and money.....

This guy was just crazy.....

 

[Belladonna]

I'm slightly annoyed that the press released all that information the way that they did. I mean, sure I was interested to know what it said --- but broadcasting it gave this guy just what he wanted - a voice.

I can just see this all leading to more left-wingers ranting on about how there needs to be more gun control. Dont blame this on Bush! He believes in guns for the same reason people like I do - for PROTECTION!!!! This whole thing makes me want to take the day off and get my gun liscense so I can carry one with me at all times so I can protect myself. Think of how many lives could have could have possibly been saved on monday if just one student had a gun on them and was able to use it for the *RIGHT* reasons and stop this kid before he had the chance to reload all of those times.

This whole story is sick. Its a shame what this world is coming to.

 

[Fitswimmer]

You know this evil doer was ranting about rich kids. Tech is not a "rich" kid school by any stretch of the imagination. An in state student can attend room board and tuition for $12,000.

I have helped raise my nephew and he is graduating from Georgetown this spring...last year room board and tuition was $44,000. Many of those kids do have Lexus and money.....

This guy was just crazy.....

I don't know how seriously we can really take what this boy said. He ranted against people with "loose morals" against "rich kids" and apparantly against "religion" as well. I'm sure with 1800 pages of "manifesto" pretty much everyone is going to end up represented as the cause of his issues.

He had defined himself as a victim and had a list of people to blame for what he felt was wrong with his life.

If one person doesn't like you, it's probably them-if EVERYONE doesn't like you, it's probably you.

 

[iggbees]

No, the poster is correct (though I'm not blaming NBC for showing the clips). To the VT shooter the Columbine shooters were "heros" and I have no doub that in a few locations around the US there are people that are watching the VT killer videos and thinking to themselves, as sick as it sounds to the rest of us, "Yeah! Right on! Those rich kids had it coming! I can relate to what he was feeling!"

thank you. this is exactly what i was trying to convey. personally, i don't find him a hero, but the way the media keeps showing his face and everything is about him and not really about the poor people who lost their lives is depressing and probably giving some people the wrong idea about what a hero really is (relating to what geoff said about the columbine students being heroes for cho).

 

[Deb in IA]

Oh he is the hero of every insane guy out there for the attention he is getting. How he is on every channel. Studies has proved tha glorifying the killer or giving him undue attention will result in a lot of copycats and it is happening. Yesterday a texas college was evacuated, today north brunswick NJ school got a shooting threat and got evacuated same someplace in CA.

Every wacko prankter is now leading law enforcment to a merry dance at laughing at their expense.

Plus it is disturbing to parents of the victim, survivors and general public. I do not wanna see him in his vest pointing a gun at me.

Absolutely.

I too am very disappointed that NBC chose to release the images and text they received from Cho. In doing that, they played right into his hands. He, in his sick, twisted mind, wanted more than anything else to be somebody, and by giving him the opportunity to let his voice and his words be heard around the world, NBC did just that. He wanted everyone to know who he was, and now they do.

And yes, someone, somewhere, holed up in a room or basement or dorm room, may be watching, and agreeing with Cho, and seeing his "example", like Cho himself was influenced by the videos left by the Columbine killers. And that person may be plotting his own ideas for revenge against society and their perceived injustices.

I'll confess; did I watch the videos? Yes, I did. But do I wish I hadn't? Of course.

Was this really newsworthy? I think that's debatable. By now, we all knew that Cho was very, very insane. We didn't need any more proof.

How much better it would have been if NBC did not publish these photos and videos. Even a brief description would have been better. The visual image is so powerful and so hard to erase.

 

[Fitswimmer]

Was anyone struck by the resemblance of his video to the Al Queda terrorist videos?

 

[notAgain]

This media should absolutely be made available. Viewing it could help answer questions many people have about the situation. Shuttering it because of the random possibility it might trigger someone else is not the right idea.

 

[meloneyb21]

They were just saying on CNN how his pictures and poses seem to be mocking those of a character in a South Korean film called Old Boy, it's about a guy who gets fed up and feels trapped so he goes on a muderous rampage. The movie had pictures of the guy holding a gun to his head and also holding up a hammer.

 

[pgsahm2]

Was anyone struck by the resemblance of his video to the Al Queda terrorist videos?

Yes, I noticed that too. That's another series of videos I wish they'd never released...

 

[mirthmaiden]

They were just saying on CNN how his pictures and poses seem to be mocking those of a character in a South Korean film called Old Boy, it's about a guy who gets fed up and feels trapped so he goes on a muderous rampage. The movie had pictures of the guy holding a gun to his head and also holding up a hammer.

Uh huh, but it's the U.S. gun culture that makes people do this.

 

[meloneyb21]

Uh huh, but it's the U.S. gun culture that makes people do this.

Who are you telling? I've seen quite a few asian movies and I couldn't even finish a lot of those. They are way more gross and violent than US movies.

 

[Deb in IA]

Viewing it could help answer questions many people have about the situation.

I disagree. There are no answers in these materials - only hatred and insanity.