The Tangled Thicket of Cho seung-hui, Don Imus, YouTube and American Idol
description: April 21st, 2007 Cho seung-hui, the Rutgers University women's basketball team, the students and Virginia Tech all form a tangled thicket nourished by the American media, overgrown with too many words, too many pictures and too many answers to too many bad questions. We, the American people struggle to navigate this thicket, for during the last few weeks we have only become more confused as if we have lost our sense of direction. You can enter any of these words in a search engine and lose all hope of finding any rationality, any thread that will lead you out. Technorati lists 152,000 blog selections for Virginia Tech, 23,000 for Cho and 4,788 for the Rutgers' team. With new posts on all of these each day, there are enough words that it would take a person probably a year to read them all. And yet we all seek a way out of this thicket of information, a clear path, a why that puts the last few weeks all in perspective. That the media have become such a tangled thicket rather than a clear voice represents perhaps the only generalization we can draw from these events and an indication of what has happened to America's sources and ideas about information. During past tragedies-the Kennedy assassination, Jonestown, the space shuttle explosion-somehow the media brought us together and enabled us to not only have a common source of information but also a shared sense of perspective. Just the opposite has occurred over the last few weeks. Instead of coming together we have thousands of information sources; instead of a shared sense of perspective we have something resembling a cubist painting crafted by a random group each with their own paints, brushes and sense of reality. Trying to come together has become an exercise in frustration, disappointment and even anger. The equilibrium many have found may even be misleading, for it comes from linking with a group of like-minded people who share their own prejudices and views of the world. So instead of finding a way out of the…
creator: Ralph Brauer
date: 2007-06-08
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
language: eng

Tragedy at Virginia Tech
description: Monday, April 16, 2007 As I wrapped up my afternoon course today, my students informed me of the 31 deaths at Virginia Tech today. It was the first I heard of it and so I immediately looked to the news and am now glued to the press conference airing on NBC. It is uncanny that this shooting tragedy has occurred in the same week as Colombine, 8 years ago (the very day I was interviewing for my job here). I am not sure what to make of this event yet, other than to be utterly horrified by this event and sorrowful for the community at Virginia Tech. We don't yet know how many of the deceased are students and how many are faculty. These details are sure to emerge over time. I am dismayed by the tone of the press, who launched into an attack of VT's President for not locking down the campus after the first shooting incident in the morning. The idea of lockdown and the idea that in the future we might have to post guards on our college campuses is frightening. This is a tragedy. This was an event that no one could've forseen (unless I am persuaded by evidence to the contray), and to respond to this event with greater militarism on college campuses horrifies me (perhaps more than the event itself). I will no doubt have something more to say about this event after I learn more facts and digest the coverage. In the meantime, I would appreciate any links to blogs from VT students or other bloggers covering this story. UPDATE: From the Huffington Post A White House spokesman said President Bush was horrified by the rampage and offered his prayers to the victims and the people of Virginia. "The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed," spokeswoman Dana Perino said BARF! Posted by Aspazia at Monday, April 16, 2007 -- Original source: http://melancholicfeminista.blogspot.com/2007/04/tragedy-at-virginia-tech.html Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
creator: Aspazia / Mad Melancholic Feminista Blog
date: 2007-05-21
contributor: Brent Jesiek
language: eng

Bowing Down to Our Own Violence
description: Media Beat (4/19/07) By Norman Solomon Many days after the mass killings at Virginia Tech, grisly stories about the tragedy still dominated front pages and cable television. News of carnage on a vastly larger scale -- the war in Iraq -- ebbs and flows. The overall coverage of lethal violence, at home and far away, reflects the chronic evasions of the American media establishment. In the world of U.S. mainline journalism, the boilerplate legitimacy of official American violence overseas is a routine assumption. "The first task of the occupation remains the first task of government: to establish a monopoly on violence," George Will wrote on April 7, 2004, in the Washington Post. But three years later, his Newsweek column laments: "Vietnam produced an antiwar movement in America; Iraq has produced an antiwar America." Current polls and public discourse -- in spite of media inclinations to tamp down authentic anger at the war -- do reflect an "antiwar America" of sorts. So, why is the ghastly war effort continuing unabated? A big factor is the undue respect that's reserved for American warriors in American society. When a mentally unstable person goes on a shooting rampage in the United States, no one questions that such actions are intrinsically, fundamentally and absolutely wrong. The media condemnation is 100 percent. However -- even after four years of a U.S. war in Iraq that has been increasingly deplored by the American public -- the standard violence directed from the Pentagon does not undergo much critical scrutiny from American journalists. The president's war policies may come under withering media fire, but the daily activities of the U.S. armed forces are subjected to scant moral condemnation. Yet, under orders from the top, they routinely continue to inflict -- or serve as a catalyst for -- violence far more extensive than the shooting sprees that turned a placid Virginia campus into a slaughterhouse. News outlets in the United States combine the totally pr…
creator: Norman Solomon
date: 2007-06-09
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0
language: eng

Message on Safety and Security
description: (This message was distributed to all faculty, staff and students April 27, 2007.) In the days following the Virginia Tech tragedy, our solidarity with and sympathy for the faculty, staff, students and families affected by the loss of lives on April 16, 2007 remains front and centre in our minds. Openness and access are features that define us as a university, and we cherish those attributes greatly. At the same time we are conscious that these features make us vulnerable to the behaviour of troubled or violent people. Our overall approach to providing a safe environment is therefore guided by the desire to maintain and nurture openness while doing all we can to prepare for, prevent, and respond to crisis situations. The events of Friday April 20 were a good test of our overall philosophy and systems with respect to both safety and security. Shortly before 5 pm, a report was received of a male with a rifle in the vicinity of the bowl. Saskatoon Police Services (SPS) and Campus Safety responded, conducted a sweep of buildings in the vicinity, and declared the incident over at 7 pm. The next day SPS concluded, based on the report of another eyewitness, that the rifle was actually a bike seat and post and declared the incident a false alarm. This incident demonstrated strengths in our systems, including effective coordination with SPS. It also highlighted some areas for improvement, including our ability to communicate with the entire campus when necessary. There are many dimensions to our approach to safety. Our department of Campus Safety maintains a 24-hour watch over the campus, with a team of security staff on duty and a video-surveillance system. The U of S works closely and cooperatively with Saskatoon's emergency service organizations, engaging in joint training initiatives. There are a number of additional safety measures in place including safety alert notices, the Safewalk program, campus emergency phones, and counseling and health services for staff and stud…
creator: Peter MacKinnon and Richard Florizone
date: 2007-06-09
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution 2.5
language: eng

Campus mourns the lives that were lost
description: The university community gathered in remembrance of the violence at Virginia Polytechnical University in a candle vigil last Thursday. Faculty, staff and students from Hamline's various colleges were all present. Over 120 people were in attendance, including multiple university administrators. The vigil included members of the religious community including university chaplain Theresa Mason, Rabbi Esther Adler and Bishop Rosalyn Carol. Bishop Carol said her goal is a world where no "people are dying because we do not live and love each other." Carol also said that the community at the university needed to celebrate the fact "that we are truly brothers and sisters." Poems in Hebrew and English were read, as well as psalms from the Christian Bible, Torah and Qur'an. Communication professor Suda Ishida performed a traditional Buddhist ritual, asking all present to link arms with the person beside them as water was poured from a basin unto the base of a tree. Adler spoke of a Virginia Tech professor and Holocaust survivor Liviu Librescu, and questioned his destiny. "Was April 16 his appointed purpose or just a cruel irony?" she said. CLA Sophomore Emily Hager-Garman led the choir in a version of "Oh, Jerusalem" and a faculty member from the Graduate school sang parts of the African national anthem. President Linda Hanson was visibly moved by the display of student and staff solidarity. Many in attendance were moved to tears as the names of the departed were read aloud and a bell on loan from Hamline United Methodist Church was tolled as each name was said. In addition, the student who led the Tibetan Buddhist invocation invited the community to create Tibetan prayer flags which were to be hung up outside Bush Library. The Tibetan prayer flag is a piece of cloth with a message for the living and departed. Many of the messages included words of hope, forgiveness and mourning. The service ended as the clock tower on Old Main ominously tolled 5 p.m. Compiled by Chris Matter …
creator: Chris Matter / Oracle Student Newspaper Staff
date: 2007-06-09
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 1.0
language: eng

Thinking about Virginia Tech
description: I'd been thinking about starting this blog up again for a few weeks now. I didn't think I'd have something so tragic to write about. Probably it goes without saying that my thoughts and best wishes go out to the students, faculty, and staff at my alma mater, Virginia Tech, and especially to the families and friends of the victims. I was working from home today, heads down with all my external inputs (radio, TV, email, IRC, RSS feeds, etc.) turned off, so it wasn't until mid-afternoon that I became aware of what had happened. It has shaken me up, more than I would have expected it would. It's disconcerting to see a community that you've been part of suffer an event like this, especially when you see so many images on the news of places you're quite familiar with. When I was a student at Virginia Tech, I had friends who lived on the 4th floor Ambler-Johnston Hall, where the first shooting took place. I had classes in Norris Hall, where the second shooting occurred. I know these places. They were my places. It was my community. Even though I've been gone from Tech for a long time, it still hits close to home. Back in '88-'89 I was one of the editors of the Collegiate Times, Virginia Tech's student newspaper. I've thought a lot about the students working at the Collegiate Times today. What was the biggest story we dealt with back in '88-'89? I think a steroids scandal on one of the sports teams. Nothing to compare to what happened today. What a time it must be for those young, aspiring journalists. How difficult it must be to cover what will probably be the biggest story of your life when you are just twenty or twenty-one. Doubly difficult since it is the slaughter of your classmates that you have to cover. As young journalists they must feel a great deal of excitement at The Big Story . . . and, at the same time, a great deal of guilt and dread for being excited while their friends lay dead. I hope they sense the importance of their role of as the student voice of the …
creator: Greg Ritter
date: 2007-06-09
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial 1.0
language: eng

Virginia Tech, Imus and Curve Balls
description: [Philosophical Musing on Media Culture] By Carl Davidson 20 Apr 2007 The universe throws curve balls at us, now and then. It seems to want to wake us up, and teach us lessons in impermanence and interconnectedness. Take the killings at Virginia Tech. A strange, quiet young Korean man, Cho Seung-Hui, writer of tortured and violent plays and screeds, makes his own solipsistic martial arts-gangsta video of himself, and sends it to the media, in the course of slaughtering 32 people, then killing himself. The media sensationalizes it. MSNBC ratings go through the roof as its images are repeated, to millions and millions, then all the networks join in the frenzy. As expected, other troubled youth respond, in copy-cat fashion, often only with words, and scares shut down numerous classes across the country. At the same time, discussions of 'healing' get underway. Talk show commentators are having a time of it. I hear both liberal and conservatives alike carry on about 'looking in the face of evil' and trashing the notions of illness and therapy. Rush Limbaugh and one caller on his show go on about how the Korean youth is an 'America hater,' 'suicide bomber,' and simply evil. Retired FBI guys talk about 'training' students to be able to respond better, and hiring tougher 'security.' People debate police tactics, censorship and guns. Then a British paper goes to a tiny hut in Korea, and a reporter talks to the boy's grandparents, who say he was a bad kid and 'deserved to die' for his sins. But the grandparents also reveal the poverty of his parents as they immigrated to the U.S. Most important, they reveal their grandson was diagnosed early with autism, but the poverty all around prevented them from doing much about it, either in Korea or here. Autism is recently growing with unusual speed in the US. Parents, rich and poor, are desperate for help, since dealing with an autistic child is often beyond any couple, however well off. One radio personality, Don Imus, takes up their…
creator: Carl Davidson
date: 2007-06-10
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication
language: eng

Why Virginia Tech killings happened
description: EDITORIAL Published Apr 17, 2007 11:36 PM Yet another rampage has occurred at a school, this time leaving 33 people dead at Virginia Tech—the worst such incident ever at a U.S. college campus. The news media seem stunned and surprised, yet their coverage sounds so similar to the stories about Columbine eight years ago. They dwell on the personality of the young man the police say did the shooting, before killing himself. They talk about him being a "loner," depressed, perhaps angry at women. But aren't there lonely and depressed people all over the world? Many countries have high suicide rates. Why is it that here some become mass murderers? The U.S. is the world leader in seemingly random acts of violence by individuals. Why? President George W. Bush rushed to Virginia to speak at a large convocation the day after the killings and tried to set the tone for what could be said about them. "It's impossible to make sense of such violence and suffering," he said. Don't ask why, don't try to understand. It makes no sense. "Have faith" instead, was Bush's message. But there ARE reasons these things happen here, and they are pretty clear to the rest of the world. It's just in the United States that no one is supposed to talk about the reasons. What distinguishes this country from the rest of the world? It is neither the most affluent nor the poorest. It is neither the most secular nor the most religious. It is not the most culturally homogeneous nor is it the most diverse. But in one area, it stands virtually alone. It has the biggest arsenal of high-tech weaponry in the world, way surpassing every other country. It has military bases spread all over; most countries have no troops outside their borders. It is conducting two hot wars at the moment, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has sent hundreds of thousands of troops abroad over the last few years. Every day, the public here is supposed to identify with soldiers who burst into homes in Baghdad, round up the people and tak…
creator: Workers World
date: 2007-06-10
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Copyright 1995-2007 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
language: eng

Librescu Day
description: By Salah Obeid Online Journal Contributing Writer Jun 8, 2007, 00:27 There isn't room enough on the calendar to honor every American hero, but Aug. 16, the birthday of one such hero, is a day teachers and others who cherish education should make a point of celebrating. No one knows what drove Liviu Librescu, four months short of his 77th birthday, to martyr himself to the cause of education. But that is what Librescu, a Romanian-born Holocaust survivor and mechanical engineering professor, did when he blocked a gunman from entering his Virginia Tech University classroom on April 16 -- earning him five bullets, one of them to the head -- so that most of his students could escape through the windows. Because he was slain in a public learning institution, public schools are where he should be celebrated. And because Librescu (the root of whose name, "libre," is Latin for "free") came to America searching for freedom, those who teach subjects like U.S. history and government should make honoring him a lesson on where his adopted country truly stands on freedom. By the time they enter college, many students in this country can't think critically about history and politics, having rarely been encouraged in school to think creatively outside of art and music class. Yet wolfing down hot dogs and soaking up sun on a field trip to celebrate Librescu Day could amount to more than just indigestion and sunburn, if the day were also an occasion for students to reflect on how their country, a magnet for immigrants seeking freedom, too often deprives people in other countries of the very freedoms Americans enjoy. Throughout its history, the United States has -- in places like Latin America, Haiti, the Philippines and elsewhere -- picked fights at the drop of a dime whenever dollars were to be made, a fact that is largely ignored in classrooms around the country. The result is that, as the country gets bogged down in Afghanistan and Iraq, many students don't know any better than to …
creator: Salah Obeid
date: 2007-06-10
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Bev Conover, Editor and Publisher, Online Journal (editor_oj@yahoo.com or editor@onlinejournal.com)
language: eng

US churches call for gun control following university shootings
description: News Brief By staff writers 17 Apr 2007 Expressing the sorrow of many Christians in the US at yesterday's killings in Virginia, the General Secretary of the National Council of Churches USA (NCC USA) has also renewed the NCC's call for 'meaningful' legislation to prevent gun violence. "My pastor's heart breaks for the families of those who died today," said the Rev Dr Bob Edgar following the fatal shooting at Virginia Tech University. "Faith leaders have spoken up continually about the epidemic of gun violence in our country," Dr Edgar said in a statement. "Despite repeated calls from faith and community leaders to Congress and presidents nothing ever seems to get done to stem the tide." Dr Edgar, himself a former Member of Congress, lamented that the issue of gun violence seems to get such little attention from those who have the power to do something about it. "How many more will have to die before we say enough is enough? How many more senseless deaths will have to be counted before we enact meaningful firearms control in this country? How many more of our pastors, rabbis and imams will have to preside over caskets of innocent victims of gun violence because a nation refused to stop the proliferation of these small weapons of mass destruction?," said Dr Edgar. Edgar pointed to the NCC USA's 1967 policy calling for firearms control and a March 2000 interfaith campaign calling for an end to the epidemic of gun violence in the nation. "The escalation of gun violence compels us to call for an end to the manufacture and easy distribution of such instruments of destruction," Edgar said in 2000 and reiterated that statement today. Edgar invited people of faith and goodwill to send messages of support to a weblog set up by the Virginia Interfaith Center. The NCC USA is an ecumenical voice of America's Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican, historic African American and traditional peace churches. These 35 communions have 45 million members in 100,000 congregations in all 50 sta…
creator: Ekklesia Staff Writers
date: 2007-06-10
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 England & Wales License
language: eng

https://www.april16.vtlibraries.net/items/show/454
description: Moment de comemorare a studentilor de la universitatea Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Iasi pentru studentii de la Virginia Tech - vineri, 20 aprilie 2007 Moment of commemoration from the students and faculty of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iasi, Romania for Virginia Tech- Friday, April 20th, 2007. -- Sursa Originala: http://www.uaic.ro/uaic/bin/view/Photos/RememberVirginiaTech
creator: Laura Copcea
date: 2007-06-08
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Laura Copcea (promovare@uaic.ro)
language: ron

https://www.april16.vtlibraries.net/items/show/449
description: Moment de comemorare a studentilor de la universitatea Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Iasi pentru studentii de la Virginia Tech - vineri, 20 aprilie 2007 Moment of commemoration from the students and faculty of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iasi, Romania for Virginia Tech- Friday, April 20th, 2007. -- Sursa Originala: http://www.uaic.ro/uaic/bin/view/Photos/RememberVirginiaTech
creator: Universitatea Alexandru Ioan Cuza
date: 2007-06-08
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Laura Copcea (promovare@uaic.ro)
language: ron

https://www.april16.vtlibraries.net/items/show/478
description: Moment de comemorare a studentilor de la universitatea Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Iasi pentru studentii de la Virginia Tech - vineri, 20 aprilie 2007 Moment of commemoration from the students and faculty of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iasi, Romania for Virginia Tech- Friday, April 20th, 2007. -- Sursa Originala: http://www.uaic.ro/uaic/bin/view/Photos/RememberVirginiaTech
creator: Alexandru Ioan Cuza University
date: 2007-06-11
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Laura Copcea (promovare@uaic.ro)
language: ron

https://www.april16.vtlibraries.net/items/show/477
description: Moment de comemorare a studentilor de la universitatea Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Iasi pentru studentii de la Virginia Tech - vineri, 20 aprilie 2007 Moment of commemoration from the students and faculty of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iasi, Romania for Virginia Tech- Friday, April 20th, 2007. -- Sursa Originala: http://www.uaic.ro/uaic/bin/view/Photos/RememberVirginiaTech
creator: Alexandru Ioan Cuza University
date: 2007-06-11
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Laura Copcea (promovare@uaic.ro)
language: ron

https://www.april16.vtlibraries.net/items/show/476
description: Moment de comemorare a studentilor de la universitatea Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Iasi pentru studentii de la Virginia Tech - vineri, 20 aprilie 2007 Moment of commemoration from the students and faculty of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iasi, Romania for Virginia Tech- Friday, April 20th, 2007. -- Sursa Originala: http://www.uaic.ro/uaic/bin/view/Photos/RememberVirginiaTech
creator: Alexandru Ioan Cuza University
date: 2007-06-11
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Laura Copcea (promovare@uaic.ro)
language: ron

https://www.april16.vtlibraries.net/items/show/475
description: Moment de comemorare a studentilor de la universitatea Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Iasi pentru studentii de la Virginia Tech - vineri, 20 aprilie 2007 Moment of commemoration from the students and faculty of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iasi, Romania for Virginia Tech- Friday, April 20th, 2007. -- Sursa Originala: http://www.uaic.ro/uaic/bin/view/Photos/RememberVirginiaTech
creator: Alexandru Ioan Cuza University
date: 2007-06-11
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Laura Copcea (promovare@uaic.ro)
language: ron

https://www.april16.vtlibraries.net/items/show/474
description: Moment de comemorare a studentilor de la universitatea Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Iasi pentru studentii de la Virginia Tech - vineri, 20 aprilie 2007 Moment of commemoration from the students and faculty of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iasi, Romania for Virginia Tech- Friday, April 20th, 2007. -- Sursa Originala: http://www.uaic.ro/uaic/bin/view/Photos/RememberVirginiaTech
creator: Alexandru Ioan Cuza University
date: 2007-06-11
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Laura Copcea (promovare@uaic.ro)
language: ron

https://www.april16.vtlibraries.net/items/show/473
description: Moment de comemorare a studentilor de la universitatea Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Iasi pentru studentii de la Virginia Tech - vineri, 20 aprilie 2007 Moment of commemoration from the students and faculty of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iasi, Romania for Virginia Tech- Friday, April 20th, 2007. -- Sursa Originala: http://www.uaic.ro/uaic/bin/view/Photos/RememberVirginiaTech
creator: Alexandru Ioan Cuza University
date: 2007-06-11
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Laura Copcea (promovare@uaic.ro)
language: ron

https://www.april16.vtlibraries.net/items/show/472
description: Moment de comemorare a studentilor de la universitatea Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Iasi pentru studentii de la Virginia Tech - vineri, 20 aprilie 2007 Moment of commemoration from the students and faculty of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iasi, Romania for Virginia Tech- Friday, April 20th, 2007. -- Sursa Originala: http://www.uaic.ro/uaic/bin/view/Photos/RememberVirginiaTech
creator: Alexandru Ioan Cuza University
date: 2007-06-11
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Laura Copcea (promovare@uaic.ro)
language: ron

https://www.april16.vtlibraries.net/items/show/471
description: Moment de comemorare a studentilor de la universitatea Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Iasi pentru studentii de la Virginia Tech - vineri, 20 aprilie 2007 Moment of commemoration from the students and faculty of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iasi, Romania for Virginia Tech- Friday, April 20th, 2007. -- Sursa Originala: http://www.uaic.ro/uaic/bin/view/Photos/RememberVirginiaTech
creator: Alexandru Ioan Cuza University
date: 2007-06-11
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Laura Copcea(promovare@uaic.ro)
language: ron