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20
1884
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Omeka Image File
The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files.
Width
534
Height
458
Bit Depth
8
Channels
3
IPTC Array
a:0:{}
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Contribution Form
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Submission Consent
Indicates whether or not the contributor of this Item has given permission to submit this to the archive. (Yes/No)
Yes
Posting Consent
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Yes
Online Submission
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Yes
Contributor is Creator
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Yes
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Contributor
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Megan Minter
Creator
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Megan Minter
Description
An account of the resource
Free bear hugs set up in the Cheatham Hall student lounge shortly after Apr 16 2007
Rights
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You are contributing your stories and/or files to The April 16 Archive, which is developing a permanent digital record of the events surrounding the tragedy on the Virginia Tech campus on April 16, 2007. Your participation in this project will allow future researchers, and people such as yourself, to gain a greater understanding of these events and the responses to them.
You must be 13 years of age or older to submit material to us. Your submission of material constitutes your permission for, and consent to, its dissemination and use in connection with The April 16 Archive in all media in perpetuity. If you have so indicated on the form, your material will be published on The April 16 Archive web site (with or without your name, depending on what you have indicated). Otherwise, your submitted materials will only be available to approved researchers using The April 16 Archive. The material you submit must have been created by you, wholly original, and shall not be copied from or based, in whole or in part, upon any other photographic, literary, or other material, except to the extent that such material is in the public domain. Further, submitted material must not violate any confidentiality, privacy, security or other laws.
By submitting material to The April 16 Archive you release, discharge, and agree to hold harmless The April 16 Archive and persons acting under its permission or authority, including a public library or archive to which the collection might be donated for purposes of long-term preservation, from any claims or liability arising out the The April 16 Archive's use of the material, including, without limitation, claims for violation of privacy, defamation, or misrepresentation.
The April 16 Archive has no obligation to use your material.
You will be sent via email a confirmation of your contribution to The April 16 Archive. We cannot return any material you submit to us so be sure to keep a copy. The April 16 Archive will not share your email address or any other information with commercial vendors.
Title
A name given to the resource
Bear Hugs
bear
Cheatham
-
https://www.april16.vtlibraries.net/files/original/P1020817_8ac7dc10cb.JPG
null
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2008-04-28
Omeka Legacy File
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Capture Date
2008-04-28 21:00:21
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Contributor
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Kacey Beddoes
Creator
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Kacey Beddoes
Date
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2008-04-28
Description
An account of the resource
View of the crowd prior to a University Commemoration on the morning of April
16, 2008, A Day of Remembrance.
Photo by Brent Jesiek.
Licensed under Creative Commons
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/">Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0</a>
Language
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eng
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Brent Jesiek (bjesiek@vt.edu)
Title
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Before Commemoration
anniversary
commemoration
Drillfield
remembrance
-
https://www.april16.vtlibraries.net/files/original/10 Yankees-Hokies bef~0003_80bed8cf8f.jpg
null
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2008-04-21
Omeka Legacy File
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Capture Date
2008-04-21 14:30:12
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Dublin Core
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Contributor
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Kacey Beddoes
Creator
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George Norton
Date
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2008-04-21
Description
An account of the resource
View of fans waiting for Yankees vs. Hokies game to start.
Photo by George Norton.
Language
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eng
Rights
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"Norton, George" <gnorton@vt.edu>
Title
A name given to the resource
Before the game
baseball game
english field
yankees
-
https://www.april16.vtlibraries.net/files/original/dsc01015_6ca8c7488c.jpg
83bbde9f0c2ebf9e72c7b6f5a870d9f2
Omeka Image File
The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files.
Width
2592
Height
1944
Bit Depth
8
Channels
3
IPTC Array
a:0:{}
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Contribution Form
The set of elements containing metadata from the Contribution form.
Submission Consent
Indicates whether or not the contributor of this Item has given permission to submit this to the archive. (Yes/No)
Yes
Posting Consent
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Yes
Online Submission
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Yes
Contributor is Creator
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Yes
Dublin Core
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Contributor
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Megan Minter
Creator
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Megan Minter
Description
An account of the resource
The Hokie stones on the drillfield before the permanent memorial was built
Rights
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You are contributing your stories and/or files to The April 16 Archive, which is developing a permanent digital record of the events surrounding the tragedy on the Virginia Tech campus on April 16, 2007. Your participation in this project will allow future researchers, and people such as yourself, to gain a greater understanding of these events and the responses to them.
You must be 13 years of age or older to submit material to us. Your submission of material constitutes your permission for, and consent to, its dissemination and use in connection with The April 16 Archive in all media in perpetuity. If you have so indicated on the form, your material will be published on The April 16 Archive web site (with or without your name, depending on what you have indicated). Otherwise, your submitted materials will only be available to approved researchers using The April 16 Archive. The material you submit must have been created by you, wholly original, and shall not be copied from or based, in whole or in part, upon any other photographic, literary, or other material, except to the extent that such material is in the public domain. Further, submitted material must not violate any confidentiality, privacy, security or other laws.
By submitting material to The April 16 Archive you release, discharge, and agree to hold harmless The April 16 Archive and persons acting under its permission or authority, including a public library or archive to which the collection might be donated for purposes of long-term preservation, from any claims or liability arising out the The April 16 Archive's use of the material, including, without limitation, claims for violation of privacy, defamation, or misrepresentation.
The April 16 Archive has no obligation to use your material.
You will be sent via email a confirmation of your contribution to The April 16 Archive. We cannot return any material you submit to us so be sure to keep a copy. The April 16 Archive will not share your email address or any other information with commercial vendors.
Title
A name given to the resource
Before the permanent memorial
Drillfield
Hokie stone
memorial
-
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Contributor
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Adriana Seagle
Creator
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Die Tageszeitung
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2007-07-04
Description
An account of the resource
KOMMENTAR VON ADRIENNE WOLTERSDORF
Der tödliche Amoklauf auf dem Campus der US-Hochschule in Blacksburg, dem mindestens 33 Menschen zum Opfer fielen, ist der schlimmste,der sich bislang in der Geschichte der Vereinigten Staaten ereignet hat. Doch er bildet nur den blutigen Höhepunkt einer ganzen Serie von schrecklichen Schulmassakern dieser Art. Kaum ist das spontane Entsetzen überwunden, drängen sich die nahe liegenden Fragen auf: Wenn die größten Gefahren, denen US-Amerikaner ausgesetzt sind, zu Hause und um die Ecke in der Schule lauern, warum wird dann nicht das Naheliegendste getan? Warum gibt es keine effektive Waffenkontrolle?
In allen Fällen waren es die allzu leicht zu erlangenden Waffen, die das Desaster erst ermöglichten: Das ist längst eine Binsenweisheit. Doch es gehört zum amerikanischen Ritual post mortem, dass das Geschehene zuerst betrauert wird, um im nächsten Satz auf das Recht des amerikanischen Bürgers, seine eigene Knarre zu besitzen, zu pochen. Es sei in der Verfassung so verbrieft, verkündet allen voran die National Rifle Association, die Lobby der Gewehrliebhaber. Was so viel heißt wie: Es ist in Marmor gehauen.
War die Nation nach den Terrorattacken vom 11. September nicht sofort bereit, alles in ihrer Macht Stehende zu unternehmen, zukünftige Angriffe mit allen Mitteln zu verhindern? Es mag unfair sein, diese beiden Ereignisse nebeneinanderzustellen. Doch die bürgerlichen Freiheiten, die jeden US-Bürger vor staatlicher Verfolgung und Schnüffeleien schützen sollen, stehen in der Verfassung. Bei denen aber war man sich 2001 schnell einig, dass sie zu zugunsten der Terrorbekämpfung vorübergehend - und vielleicht für immer - ausgesetzt werden müssten.
Das Recht auf Waffenbesitz dagegen ist historisch gewachsen und eng verknüpft mit der Eroberung des Kontinents. Das macht eine rationale Diskussion darüber nicht einfach. Der Amoklauf von Blacksburg ist ein erneuter Warnruf an die US-Gesellschaft, sich endlich von überkommenen Denkmustern zu trennen. Tut sie das nicht, muss sie lernen, auch in Zukunft mit solchen Massakern zu leben. Denn Amokläufer wird es vermutlich immer geben. Aber man könnte es ihnen schwerer machen, zur Tat zu schreiten.
--
Mit freundlicher Genehmigung der taz - die tageszeitung.
Ursprüngliche Quelle: <a href="http://www.taz.de/index.php?id=archiv&dig=2007/04/18/a0040">http://www.taz.de/index.php?id=archiv&dig=2007/04/18/a0040</a>
Language
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deu
Rights
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Corrina Urbach (lizenzen@taz.de)
Title
A name given to the resource
Beihilfe zum Amoklauf
amoklauf
historisch
massakren
-
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Contributor
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Sara Hood
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Adan Berkowitz
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2007-08-14
Description
An account of the resource
By:Adan Berkowitz
Posted: 4/18/07
In the wake of the tragedy at Virginia Tech, there's going to be a lot of people asking why this happened, or what could have been done to prevent this or keep it from happening in the future. I think pundits in the media and people on both sides of the gun debate would be wise to refrain from using the shooting to further their agendas. There's going to be a lot of people on both sides frothing at the mouth, saying this could have been prevented if only some of the students had been armed or if guns were made illegal or other such nonsense. Any group who tries to spin this into a crusade against violent media or for gun advocacy or for its own goals should be ripped apart by the press. Unfortunately, the press usually latches onto this kind of sensationalism and frames it as a crusade for some issue, instead of treating it as it really is: a monumental tragedy.
As a journalism student and a person who believes in general good taste, I have to say I was nauseated while watching events unfold on the news, not only because of what happened, but because of the way the media seemed to be wringing every drop they could from the story. With 24-hour news coverage, this comes as no surprise. For hours, networks would loop a 10-second clip of blurry cell phone footage, followed by mostly baseless speculation, followed by a parade of talking heads ready to blame the shooting on everything from video games to rap music. Jerks like Geraldo Rivera talk their mouth off even without any new information about the story. The media is relentless when it comes to stirring up a frenzy. We can't even wait until the dead are buried before all sorts of scaremongering like Fox News's brilliant article: "Experts: Colleges Ripe for Attacks." CNN ran some pretty tasteless stuff, too, like "Students Slaughtered." I know that "if it bleeds it leads," but you can almost smell the media sniffing blood like sharks do in the water. At least wait before all the facts are in before people like Anderson Cooper bring on some idiot who says this was caused by Grand Theft Auto. I can only imagine how the kids at Virginia Tech must feel, being swarmed by reporters with cameras and microphones trying to capture a sound byte of their grief.
All the facts haven't been released yet, but no matter what anyone says in hindsight, the sad truth is that nothing really could have prevented this. Virginia Tech officials are most likely going to catch enormous amounts of flak and lawsuits and probably lose their jobs, but who knows if there was anything they could have done differently. I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of sensationalist articles about college safety forthcoming in the media, and I sincerely hope that colleges don't turn into locked-down fortresses because of one incident. Safety is important, but realistically there's only so much that can be done to prevent something like this, and we shouldn't believe that by insulating students further we can avert every incident of violence. All the metal detectors and random searches in the world aren't going to stop a determined nutcase.
I don't want to turn this into a debate about civil liberties, because this isn't about that. But people and officials are going to be scrambling to try and prepare for every contingency and start locking things up because everyone feels helpless and wants to think there was something they could have done. We want to be able to find reason in this, to view the shooting as part of an overarching trend, a result of our violent culture or our attitudes about gun control or whatever, because the truth -- that there isn't a reason, that there's no definite thing that would have stopped this -- is hard to accept.
My condolences go out to everyone at Virginia Tech, and I can't imagine how they are dealing with this. Hopefully the media will cut them some slack and will give them some time to grieve before they swoop in and start throwing blame on everyone except the guy who did it. Those kids whose lives and dreams were cut short are what's important, not your agenda.
Adan Berkowitz, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, is a weekly columnist for The Daily Free Press.
--
Original Source:<a href=http://media.www.dailyfreepress.com/media/storage/paper87/news/2007/04/18/Opinion/Berkowitz.A.Campus.In.Grief.Distracted.By.Media.Attack-2849544.shtml>The Daily Free Press - April 18, 2007</a>
Language
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eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Matt Negrin <editor@dailyfreepress.com>
Title
A name given to the resource
BERKOWITZ: A campus in grief distracted by media attack
boston university
journalism
media response
news coverage
-
https://www.april16.vtlibraries.net/files/original/beta_bridge-hoos_for_hokies_260e174c7c.jpg
null
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2007-04-29
Omeka Legacy File
The metadata element set that, in addition to the Dublin Core element set, was included in the `files` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all Omeka files. This set may be deprecated in future versions.
Capture Date
2007-04-29 12:59:24
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Contributor
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Vincent Rivellino
Creator
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Vincent Rivellino
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2007-04-29
Description
An account of the resource
This picture was taken on the morning of Tuesday, April 17, 2007. UVA students had re-painted Beta Bridge on Rugby Road with maroon paint with the phrase "Hoos for Hokies" in white letters
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Title
A name given to the resource
Beta Bridge at UVA
beta bridge
charlottesville
hoos
hoos for hokies
university of virginia
uva
-
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kacey Beddoes
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Editorial Staff
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2008-02-18
Description
An account of the resource
Issue Date:Wednesday April 18, 2007
Section: Editorial Section
There are still many questions left for the Blacksburg, Va., community as police and federal agents continue to investigate the gunman's trail.
But there is one startling fact we are all aware of: Students and the rest of the university's community were not notified of the first shooting until nearly two hours later. And when they were notified, many did not take the message seriously until, in many cases, they saw bloodshed for themselves.
It's hard not to think about how West Virginia University and others across the country would respond if a similar situation took place on their campuses.
As explained in a news story in today's Daily Athenaeum, WVU officials say they do have an emergency plan in place.
But does it need to be modified to be made more efficient?
In a much less dire situation, WVU administrators took several hours to cancel classes when roads were too icy to drive on during a snowstorm last March.
When Virginia Tech officials did notify the campus of the shootings, the message was mass delivered through an e-mail. Many VT students wondered aloud to the media if the tragedy could have only been an incident if they were notified earlier.
And what if e-mails simply can't be read when the power shuts off or students and faculty don't check their accounts?
We're glad to hear University officials are looking into campus-wide text messaging and messaging centers that are visible to traffic. Innovative measures such as these are some of the best ways to reach everybody at once nowadays. Still, in an emergency, cell phone network lines could become loaded, making messages hard to send. That's why universities, including WVU, need to work with local companies and networks to make plans for mass communication during security threats.
Of course, nothing can change Monday's monstrosity. But if communities and administrators work together now, they may be able to prevent another tragedy.
--
Originial Source: The Daily Athenaeum
<a href="http://www.da.wvu.edu/show_article.php?&story_id=27573">http://www.da.wvu.edu/show_article.php?&story_id=27573</a>
Language
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eng
Rights
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Leann Ray <Leann.Ray@mail.wvu.edu>
Title
A name given to the resource
Better safety measures needed
e-mail
emergency plan
messaging centers
safety measures
text messaging
wvu
-
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Brent Jesiek
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Dave Vogt
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2007-05-26
Description
An account of the resource
Dave Vogt / <a href="http://davedot.com/">davedot.com</a>
I am honestly at a loss for what to say about the events that unfolded on the Virginia Tech campus this morning. I was walking across the Drillfield towards GBJ when firing broke out in Norris hall. I had heard nothing about the previous shootings in West AJ. While I recognize that the decision to go on with classes was an informed one, I still feel that it was the University's responsibility to inform the students of potential danger.
I consider myself extremely fortunate that neither I nor anyone I know was involved. I spent the morning trying to touch base with as many people as possible until the phone network here became absolutely saturated. I hope that I was at least able to set up a cascade so that people wouldn't have to be worried about my safety. That being said, it's extremely difficult to place my reaction. Obviously I am not as heavily affected as those whose loved ones have been injured or killed. At the same time though, this is very jarring for everyone involved. I don't think I'll really know how I feel for a while yet. They don't tell you how to react to this sort of thing.
<b>UPDATE 17 Apr 2007 11:21p:</b> I have been mostly disgusted by the media coverage of this event. I think that larger and more distant news outlets get things the most wrong, and locals do the best job. CNN's article is as sensationalizing as the rest, but if you scroll down towards the bottom, Gov. Tim Kaine's remarks perfectly echo my sentiment. "People who want to take this within 24 hours of the event and make it their political hobby horse to ride, I've got nothing but loathing for them." I don't deny that there are questions that need to be asked, but there are more important things to deal with right now.
On the other side of the coin, I am deeply touched by the outpouring of support from universities and individual students across the country and abroad. There has been a huge "We are all Hokies" movement, with students wearing maroon and orange to show support. That is probably the best response that I've heard about. I'm glad that the younger generation have a grip on what's important. We're going to need it going forward.
This entry was posted on 16.Apr.2007 7:41pm
--
Original Source: <a href="http://log.davedot.com/backlog/2007/04/beyond-words/">http://log.davedot.com/backlog/2007/04/beyond-words/</a>
Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5</a>.
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5
Title
A name given to the resource
Beyond Words
blog
commentary
-
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Sara Hood
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Claire Readhead
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2007-07-10
Description
An account of the resource
By Claire Readhead
Apr 30 2007
The paradox of mental health services, generally, hovers around the issue of consent. Most mental health services require voluntary participation from the patient, except in extreme cases. Thus, the question becomes, how can someone suffering from mental illness possess the wherewithal to seek help? Even those who are not clinically ill, but just unstable, may feel that the stigma attached to mental health services is a huge repellent. In light of the Virginia Tech Massacre, all educational institutions should begin to reconsider old notions surrounding mental health and seek to make services more accessible to students.
Issues of mental health are sorely misunderstood in this country, and not all medications and treatments are covered under insurance — emphasizing the cultural and political neglect of these matters. The fact that Cho Seung-Hui could fall through the cracks of a well-structured institution, such as a university, should be a Big Red Flag to all academic administrators to seriously address issues surrounding counseling services. The reality is that most students suffering from mental health related problems will not turn into Cho; however, they may fall through the cracks without such a "bang," if you will.
Counseling services at universities should not be reserved for the deeply troubled, but should be open and generally administered like the flu shot. Clearly, just as with the flu shot, counseling must be voluntary on the part of the students. Students should feel free to visit a counselor without fear of censure from peers. Hmmm ... this isn't so easy.
In terms of Gannett specifically, the first item of business should be that of privacy. For instance, I went in for a routine physical, and as I was walking away from the counter, the lady yelled out, "Oh by the way do you want to be tested for HIV today?!?!?!?" Wow, now that everyone in the lobby is staring at me, I really feel comfortable answering that question. I meekly replied, "Not today, thanks."
I did go back to get tested by the way, because I am vigilant about taking care of my health, and the HIV form was bright orange with "HIV testing" written in huge black letters. Cool, then for a normal exam there is a paper with a giant diagram of a vagina ... excellent. So clearly I just had to run into some guy I was vaguely interested in, clutching my vagina diagram and bright orange HIV testing form to my chest. Yeah, as if that's not obvious. Then to get the results, you have to go back to Gannett and have a long chat about sex with a nurse, or better yet, a peer-advisor — who you can run into at the bars (not a bright idea, Gannett). Dude, testing is the reality of any sexually active adult, and in my opinion, the less fuss made of it, the better.
In addition, Gannett ought to work on ensuring the privacy of its patients and should recognize that this issue is exceedingly important given that universities function socially like small towns, i.e. everyone is in everyone's business. Perhaps, for instance, you shouldn't have to give your name at the counter, but rather just the time of the appointment and the doctor's name. That's an itty-bitty step I know, but it would help. Also, don't play obnoxious rock music in the lobby — the students are either sick or feeling emotionally shitty. They need something soothing (damn it, I need something soothing). Okay, I'm getting distracted by details ... soon I'll be asking for lattes to be served with my therapy session. Hey, not a bad idea.
Okay, and then we have Counseling and Psychological Services ... ohhhh CAPS — this is located in the basement of Gannett. The actual counselors and doctors are generally good. I just find that the process is bad. Even at CAPS — and yes, I see a shrink and I'm proud of it! — there is absolutely NO privacy in the waiting area. The receptionist asks for your name really loudly over horribly peppy music. But to assuage feelings of inadequacy and depression, they have lots of lollypops, hot chocolate and inspirational posters!
Plus, CAPS is omnipresent. For instance, when I had pneumonia last winter, someone at CAPS found out, which led to an anonymous member of the clinic repeatedly calling me and asking, in a chirpy voice, "Do you plan on killing yourself today?" Yeah, that wasn't helping — an anonymous person calling to check to see if I had offed myself was not particularly comforting ... but enough about me.
Really, university administrators (or whoever is in charge of this sort of thing) have got to do something to minimize the stigma associated with counseling in order to encourage students to seek help ... even if it is just to talk about the pressures of beer pong. Seriously, seeing a shrink is chic. I can talk about seeing a shrink openly because I'm from L.A. and it is considered weird not to go to therapy. My mom had a brilliant idea — a personal trainer/shrink.
But I shouldn't trivialize this matter, because the lack of empathy and support surrounding mental health is an extremely serious problem. Unfortunately, mental health issues are not well understood, even by professionals, and treatment is still in the embryonic stages. But seeing as universities may not be able to a) stop the NRA b) install metal detectors in every classroom or c) change mental health care globally, they may as well start by reanalyzing their own facilities. Also, professors should be informed as to how to spot unhealthy behaviors and how to successfully refer students to counseling services, as students often look to faculty for help before consulting a trained therapist. Granted, the Virginia Tech Massacre is an anomaly, but there are plenty of students who suffer from mental illness. They will not go to the extremes that Cho did, but may end up harming themselves in some way. Universities should step up and address issues surrounding mental health and lead the way for acceptance, understanding and treatment.
<i>Claire Readhead is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at clr39@cornell.edu. Silk Blue Stockings appears alternate Mondays.</i>
--
Original Source: <a href=http://cornellsun.com/node/23257> Cornell Daily Sun - April 30, 2007</a>
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Jonny Lieberman <jdl46@cornell.edu>, <lieberman.jonny@gmail.com>
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Big Red Flag
cornell
mental health
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2008-05-02
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Brian Sewell
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Memorial stone of Christopher James Bishop on 4/16/08.
Photo by Brian Sewell.
--
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<a href="http://flickr.com/photos/briansewell/2419985562/in/set-72157604577382666/">http://flickr.com/photos/briansewell/2419985562/in/set-72157604577382666/</a>
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Dave Shepherd
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Published by <a href="http://davesmidlife.com/author/admin/">Dave</a> April 18th, 2007
This past weekend was the middle weekend of April. That's the time universities put on dog-and-pony shows for students who have been admitted, to help them make up their minds.
My daughter has been admitted to several universities, and she managed to narrow it down to James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and <a href="http://www.vt.edu/">Virginia Tech</a>. Somewhat at the last minute, she decided she needed to see both campuses to make her final decision.
So on Saturday she and my wife drove down to Blacksburg from our suburban DC home, about a four-hour trip. They stayed near Blacksburg and then spent Sunday in Tech's pre-orientation sessions.
Monday they had moved up Interstate 81 to JMU, but my daughter had pretty much decided that Tech was the place she wanted to attend. Standing on the campus Sunday, looking around, she began to see herself as a student there.
As I was walking back from the cafeteria in my high school on Monday, one of the Spanish teachers had his classroom TV on. There was a map of Virginia with the town of Blacksburg highlighted. I saw a graphic indicating "21 dead, 21 injured." It didn't take long for the news of the massacre to filter through, as well as the instruction from our administration that we were to keep TV sets off and not talk about the news in class.
Many students from our area attend Virginia Tech. It is one of the more competitive universities in the Virginia system. Hokie loyalty is more intense than that of alumni of other places. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/17/AR2007041701132.html?hpid=topnews">Hokie pain is now intense</a>. To see Virginia Tech on the front page of all the world's newspapers because of a rampage that wiped out 33 young lives is deeply disturbing.
My daughter will probably still attend Tech next year. She realizes that Tech is the place she saw on Sunday, not the crazy-man-land it became on Monday. But it will always be unsettling to walk the campus where the worst shooting massacre in American history took place.
--
Original Source: <a href="http://davesmidlife.com/2007/04/18/blacksburg/">http://davesmidlife.com/2007/04/18/blacksburg/</a>
This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License</a>.
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Blacksburg
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orientation
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2007-05-11
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The Morning News - Personal Essays
It stunned the nation that the Virginia Tech murders took place; it shocked Virginians that they occurred in Blacksburg. A former longtime resident, BENJAMIN COHEN traces his connections to the tragedy.
--
I drove home from Charlottesville in confused panic after cancelling my afternoon class. Noah Adams was on NPR talking about the stark clash of nature and humans, setting and event. It was the visual, sensory contrast between Blacksburg, the bucolic valley town in southwestern Virginia, and mass murder news story. That this human tragedy could happen there, in that natural majesty. From all the 11 scattered years I lived there, before moving to the University of Virginia last year, the bucolic descriptor is one that sticks. It’s exaggerated, I know, but it works. And it’s the one the media evoked all week: Blacksburg, a quaint, off-the-beaten-track bucolic college town nestled in the mountains of southwest Virginia. Being “nestled” also seems key, the town cradled by the mountains, the students by the valley. I walked that nestled town too many times to count, and ever after have the image of my son cruising down Draper Road sidewalks wearing his red Keds and pushing his toy lawnmower.
Adams apparently had written about the New River a few years ago—a river paradoxically named, since it’s in fact one of the oldest in North America, if not the world—and thus knew the area. He was speaking in the first phase of tragedy, when people confront the fact that senseless things don’t make sense. This was before the pre-spin spin phase, when people talk about what people will soon be talking about: too many guns, not enough guns, no Bibles in schools, too much God in schools, moral decay, media glorification, video games, actual worldwide wars, daily death in Iraq, numbness, surveillance cameras will save us, mental illness is awful, failure of health-care system, campus judicial systems, parents, society, it’s “society’s” fault, and however else Nancy and Greta might try to understand it. After 9/11, they gave us, what, a three- to four-day opening phase? The duration is apparently proportional to death count; this time it lasted three to four hours.
<I>I</I> didn’t know any of the victims, but <i>everyone</i> I know knew one or more. From this, I found there is only one direction with things like violent tragedy: It isn’t that I was fortunate not to know any of them directly, but that it was unfortunate so many did; you can’t feel better, you only feel worse or more worse.
I went to Virginia Tech because its application didn’t require an essay. When I graduated, I had no idea why I’d chosen my major (chemical engineering), and I wasn’t even particularly fond of the school itself. But Blacksburg was significant to me. In this way, I have always been critical of an institution that has also come to define me; I placed the natural setting of Blacksburg as one thing, the human institution of Tech as another, as if they were separate, which they are not. So yes, I finally admit it, my adult identity was born there. There’s that. My biography’s tightly intertwined with the town, the valley, the school.
I met my wife there. She had been a freshman in West Ambler Johnston Hall. Three months after graduation, we got married in the chapel on the Drill Field at the center of campus. I played wiffle ball out there all afternoon on my wedding day, getting a slight sunburn in the calm afternoon sun. The sunburn shows in the wedding pictures. The Drill Field is that seemingly fabricated collegiate setting, the only one admissions folks want you to see—frisbees, wiffle ball, rugby, picnics, sunbathers, dogs and tennis balls, kites. It’s also a good place to hold candle-light vigils.
If anything, Blacksburg was known in the mid-’90s because of <a href="http://www.cni.org/tfms/1995b.fall/BEV.html">the Blacksburg Electronic Village</a>. (It was the first “wired” town. Soon, obviously, everyplace was a wired town, so I guess it didn’t really matter anymore.) Yes, Axl Rose supposedly once stopped by The Cellar after a concert in nearby Roanoke, but I never found out if that was really true.
When we, my wife and I, came back for graduate school later in the decade—for something called “science studies,” something explicitly<i> not </i>engineering—Blacksburg had become a football school. Plus, <a href="http://outside.away.com/outside/destinations/200109/200109towns_10.adp">one year <i>Outside </i>magazine said it was a great place to live</a>. So much hiking; the Appalachian Trail close by; lots of mountain biking; did you know they filmed <i>Dirty Dancing</i> in a mountain retreat just miles away? Yes, everyone does; rolling hills; serene sunsets; a great vegetarian restaurant downtown; cows, horses, sheep, farms; tubing on the same New River that enchanted Noah Adams. One summer I lost a T-shirt in that river, and my keys and a shoe. It wasn’t until reading the <i>New York Times</i> last weekend—<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/us/22norris.html">”Students Recount Desperate Minutes Inside Norris Hall”</a>—that I remembered my classes had been in Norris Hall that summer.
Once when my wife was an undergraduate, there was a peeping Tom incident at the dorms. It was unsettling. That such a thing could happen in that little town. By the time we returned for our graduate stint—living the next county over, a few mountains to the west, in fact, not even in town—Blacksburg was a football school, and there had been a shooting at a local bar, several stabbings, and other violent incidents downtown. This added to my ambivalence about the school and the town and my place there. I didn’t see how I was tied to the area in the way I do now.
My graduate department was likely the most liberal-leaning one on the generally conservative campus. Our offices were in the middle of the ROTC quad. We’d be talking about ethics and technology and social structure and the military-industrial complex inside; they’d be doing roll call and formations and hut-hut-huts outside. In further contrast to this, a fellow graduate student friend was an activist organizer in town. Her friend, another grad student and probably the most visible and active of the activists, was murdered by yet another peace activist, an unstable married man who was having an affair with her. His subsequent suicide kept the motive unclear. Unsettling, in that case, is a disrespectful understatement. It was horrific.
Our children were born in Blacksburg. We lived there for 11 of our first 15 post-high school years: adulthood, education, dating, marriage, education, jobs, family. So it’s not only my biography that is interlaced with the town and the school, but my children’s as well. During the third week of my first semester teaching, after a lecture about the U.S.’s history of involvement in the domestic affairs of other nations, I walked back to my office and was stopped along the way by a friend who said only that “they hit the towers, they hit the buildings.” I had no idea what that meant. Sitting on the front porch of our building, the one facing the ROTC quad, on an amazingly crisp, clear, solid blue-sky day, someone else was the first to quote <i>Fargo</i>—“And it’s such a beautiful day,” she said, in disbelief. In such a placid town, nestled in the mountains of Virginia, we watched New York and the Pentagon burn. All of this, three months before our son was born. We had a lot of those “what kind of world…” conversations, all set against the backdrop of bucolic Blacksburg.
<a href="http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2004/8/12cohenphish.html">When we moved into Blacksburg for our last year of studies</a>, as a way to be closer to campus and friends and to live by foot more than car, we walked the mile from our house to downtown many times a week. Then we were true Blacksburg residents, with all the trappings, including first-name greetings at the coffee shop and that vegetarian restaurant and the credit union and the bookstore and the Greek restaurant and the farmer’s market. Our son pushed his toy John Deere lawnmower in front of him every time we walked downtown. He became “that adorable kid,” the one with the lawnmower in the red Keds. At the coffee shop, I recognized, though didn’t personally know, all the regulars. The one we called Stay-at-Home Dad always seemed odd, and my wife didn’t think he was really a father for the first year. (He was; we eventually saw his children.) Weird-Kid-Who-Should-Probably-Have-a-Job was always there too, usually playing backgammon with Stay-at-Home Dad. Unfriendly-Hippie Couple saw us every day for years, never once saying hello. Scowling peaceniks always confused me.
A year after we moved to Charlottesville in 2005 after all that time in Blacksburg, <a href="http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/79080">that weird kid at the coffee shop was arrested, then escaped from jail, killed two people, and caused a lockdown on the Virginia Tech campus on the very first day of the semester</a>. We watched the news from afar, absolutely stunned, completely silent that this was actually in, as the now-well-worn moniker has it, bucolic Blacksburg. College kids were being interviewed on CNN, terrified that this was their greeting to their new world.
I still work with colleagues from Blacksburg. I spoke to my doctoral adviser, himself in the history department at Tech, days before the massacre last week, and had heard there’d been bomb threats over the past month. That’s eerie. Because of my own biography there, I knew what others there were <i>already</i> going through before this happened—another adviser was dealing with her husband’s death last year; a classmate had a devastating miscarriage a little while back; another friend’s younger brother had unexpectedly died in February. And then, as I was leaving my second of three classes Monday afternoon, here at the University of Virginia, someone asked if I’d heard about Virginia Tech. Yes, I’m from there, I said, misunderstanding what she was asking me. I fast-walked to my office and saw all the news.
After I called my wife, hurriedly cancelled class, found my car to drive home, heard Noah Adams on the radio, scolded myself for being irritated by trivialities like CBS’s calling it Virginia Tech “University”—after that, I got home to find my family in the yard, the kids wanting to take a walk around the block. Though he hadn’t given it a second look for several years, my son grabbed his old toy lawnmower from the shed. Then my daughter got her baby stroller, and we walked around our peaceful violent American society.
-Published April 24, 2007
Benjamin Cohen is an assistant professor of science, technology, and society at the University of Virginia. He also helps out at the McSweeney's web site. <a href="mailto:benjaminrcohen@yahoo.com">You can email him here.</a>
--
Archived with permission of the author. Original source: <a href="http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/personal_essays/blacksburg_and_biography.php">http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/personal_essays/blacksburg_and_biography.php</a>
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Blacksburg and Biography
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2007-06-29
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Chad Newswander
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Chad Newswander
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2007-06-29
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The Blacksburg Baptist Church posted 32 flags on South Main in remembrance of the 32 victims.
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The Blacksburg Baptist Church posted 32 flags on South Main in remembrance of the 32 victims. In addition, the Church did not want to neglect Cho and his family.
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The Blacksburg Baptist Church posted 32 flags on South Main in remembrance of the 32 victims.
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2007-04-27
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David Arnold
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Blacksburg Mayor Ron Rordam being interviewed on April 18,2007, two days after the Virginia Tech Tragedy.
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Blacksburg Mayor Ron Rordam
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Published by <a href="http://davesmidlife.com/author/admin/">Dave </a> April 25th, 2007
I have been on the sidelines of quite a number of handgun deaths in my life. Thank God, I haven't really been in the crossfire, nor has any member of my family. But gun violence has come close enough to me to be very unsettling.
In the late 1980s, when I was a graduate student in German at Vanderbilt, a German exchange student, <a href="http://www.vanderbilt.edu/isss/weser_award.html">Thomas Weser</a>, was gunned down in a parking lot on campus in the very early morning hours. The murder seemed to be a robbery gone wrong. It became a murder because the mugger had a handgun.
On Christmas Eve 1991, I was living in the Belmont Heights section of Nashville, a cozy suburban neighborhood near several university campuses. My kids were very young. We got along well with our neighbors. There were families all around us.
Diagonally across the street from us lived two brothers. They got into an argument in the middle of the night after much alcohol had been drunk. One brother fetched a loaded handgun and killed the other. Without the loaded handgun in the house, this argument would probably have remained a drunken fistfight, maybe a stabbing.
In February of 1997, our family accompanied my wife on a weekend trip to New York City. My wife had to attend an arts conference, and I was left to explore the city with the kids. On Sunday afternoon we wanted to go to the observation deck of the Empire State Building, but we weren't sure whether we should wait until Mom got finished with her afternoon meeting. We decided that I would go ahead and take the kids up to the top while Barbara was in her session.
After we returned home to Northern Virginia, we learned that <a href="http://www.cnn.com/US/9702/24/empire.shooting/index.html">a man had opened fire</a> with a handgun on the Empire State Building's observation deck later that afternoon. Seven people were shot; one was killed, in addition to the gunman, who committed suicide. If we had waited for Barbara, we might well have been there to experience the shooting firsthand. <a href="http://www.cnn.com/US/9702/24/empire.shoot/">Republican Mayor Rudolph Giuliani blamed weak gun laws</a> for the rampage.
America's latest adventure in easily available firearms is, of course, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Tech_massacre">massacre at Virginia Tech</a>. As I have <a href="http://davesmidlife.com/2007/04/18/blacksburg/">mentioned</a>, my wife and daughter, who had visited Blacksburg the day before, missed this one by about 18 hours.
The world press paid close attention to this shooting for a long time. It was front-page news in just about all the newspapers of the world for four or five days. As I write this, nine days after the attack, major papers in <a href="http://www.sueddeutsche.de">Germany</a>, <a href="http://derstandard.at/?id=2854321">Austria</a>, <a href="http://www.lemonde.fr/web/recherche_breve/1,13-0,37-986031,0.html">France</a>, and other countries are still reporting the aftermath.
The one thing the world press has emphasized, without exception, is their absolute bafflement at the U.S. gun laws-or lack thereof. We are the laughingstock of the world in this department. People from civilized countries around the world look at the apparent American fascination with guns and cluck in disapproving astonishment. The unifying theme is something like this: how can a great country such as the U.S., the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, continue to allow this to happen?
After all these years and decades, I cannot come up with an answer. The National Rifle Association seems to have our congressional legislators in a deathgrip. One mass murder happens after another, all carried out with handguns or assault rifles, and yet nothing changes.
The morning after the Virginia Tech shootings, I heard Washington Post sports reporter <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Feinstein">John Feinstein</a> on <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/wtwpradio/index.html">WTWP</a>. I wish I could find a transcript of his remarks. Essentially what he said was this: when gun owners and gun fans complain about the inconvenience or unfairness of having to register these deadly weapons, he is sick of hearing about it. Since 9/11 we have been subject to a series of ever more humiliating and inconvenient searches of our persons and property at airports. Nobody really complains, because that's just the way the world is.
Well, the world is also selling deadly handguns on the Internet to psychotic young men, who then commit mass murder. Couldn't we endure just a little inconvenience to combat such madness?
I am very angry now at our American stupidity. I am angry at the weak will of the majority of Americans who want stronger gun controls, yet who will not raise hell with their congressmen or senators about it. I am embarrassed to have to try to explain to my European friends and colleagues why Americans are still allowed to buy and carry handguns.
The <a href="http://www.gocomics.com/patoliphant/2007/04/19/">cartoonist Pat Oliphant</a> has captured my sense of befuddlement and rage.
--
Original Source: <a href="http://davesmidlife.com/2007/04/25/blacksburg-violence-and-america/">http://davesmidlife.com/2007/04/25/blacksburg-violence-and-america/</a>
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Blacksburg, violence, and America
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Adam Roberts / <a href="http://themetropolistimes.blogspirit.com/">The Metropolis Times</a> (Blog)
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
<span style="font-style: italic">"There is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre." - Kurt Vonnegut</span>
<b>I don't really want to write this blog.</b> I wanted to just take a few days off and give condolences to the victims at Virginia Tech. But before the bodies have even been identified, the media has already started playing the blame game. Apparently, if we had banned Hollywood, Nintendo and guns, this wouldn't have happened. I feel compelled to counter their bullshit.
It makes me very angry <a href="http://www.beliefnet.com/story/87/story_8770_1.html" >when moralists so brazenly exploit</a> a tragedy like this. I can't do anything about the murders, I can't stop people from trivializing deaths by turning them into moral panics, but maybe if I channel my anger into blogging, I can convince at least a few readers to pause before surrendering freedoms.
<b>Blaming guns is just stupid.</b> Guns were already banned on campus. The gun ban didn't work.
Last year, the State of Virginia dismissed a bill that would have allowed law-abiding students with a concealed-carry permit to bring their guns on campus, just as they are allowed to bring them anywhere else in the state. It was struck down. Its insensitive to say, but if just one of those hundreds of students had a single gun, more people would be alive today.
<a href="http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-50658"><span style="font-style: italic">"Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. 'I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus.'"</span></a>
<b>CNN Headline Prime kept showing movie posters for <span style="font-style: italic">Grindhouse</span></b> while Nancy Grace's substitute was blaming media violence. Apparently, <a href="http://themetropolistimes.blogspirit.com/archive/2007/04/07/review-grindhouse.html">the Tarrantino/Rodriguez double-feature</a> is going to be turned into <a href="http://www.revisionisthistory.org/matrix.html">the next <span style="font-style: italic">Matrix</span></a> by the media. (Marilyn Manson-blaming is out of style) I've already heard the <a href="http://kotaku.com/gaming/feature/columbine-survivor-talks-about-columbine-rpg-171966.php">Super Columbine RPG</a> referenced on both Fox News and CNN Headline News, even though there is absolutely no reason to suggest that the killer even knew about the game, and the 'game' is an anti-violent interactive documentary.
I remember coming home from seeing <span style="font-style: italic">Grindhouse</span> with a bunch of friends, and talking about how awesome the car battles were. We passed a real-life wreck on the freeway - the tone immediately changed and we all expressed sadness and hoped that no one was killed. There was no desensitization.
It is true that a small number of criticized studies have found links between exposure to media violence and aggression, especially in children. However, there has never been a study that showed exposure to media violence changed people into the type that commit real-life violent crimes. In fact, <a href="http://themetropolistimes.blogspirit.com/archive/2006/05/12/vlog-video-games-and-violence.html">there is probably a cathartic effect</a> - violence in video games helps quell natural violent tendencies.
<b>Nevertheless, violence in the media can sometimes inspire real-life violence. Its called the "Copycat Effect."</b> 19th Century terrorists called it "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_of_the_deed">Propaganda of the Deed</a>," modern terrorist fighters call it "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4GW">fourth generation warfare</a>." Simply put, alienated young male sees an example of how a violent death made someone infamous and important. Alienated young male is evil, depressed and angry enough to place his own lust for importance over his own life and the lives of others. So alienated young male becomes an anarchist, neo-Nazi or Mujahideen and plots a crime that he's sure will get him attention in the newspapers.
Historical examples are well-documented. Read <a href="http://hammernews.com/copycateffect.htm">Michael Hammerschlag's essay</a>. "<i style="font-style: italic">The 1774 Goethe book</i> The Sorrows of Young Werther <span style="font-style: italic">caused so many copycat suicides of lovelorn young men who dressed alike and shot themselves at the same time at their writing desk- straight from the story- that it was banned in Germany, Italy and Denmark</span>." Others include Shakespeare's <span style="font-style: italic">Romeo & Juliet</span>, Stephen King's novel <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rage_%2528novel%2529"><span style="font-style: italic">Rage</span></a>, Scorsese's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hinckley%252C_Jr.#Obsession_with_Jodie_Foster"><span style="font-style: italic">Taxi Driver</span></a> and, more than any other, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapruder_film">Zapruder film</a>.
We don't know anything about the shooter yet, but it seems obvious that this was a Columbine-copycat. At this time every year, somewhere in the country, kids get caught planning a Columbine-style attack. This Virginia Tech terrorist was probably trying to outdo the Columbine murderers.
<b>The Columbine massacre occurred on April 20th - this Friday</b>. Although this is also Hitler's birthday, the murderers' videos indicate that the attack was originally scheduled for April 19th - the same day at the Oklahoma City attack, which, according to their videos, the Columbine terrorists hoped to outdo. The Oklahoma City bombing of course, was scheduled for April 19th in order to avenge Janet Reno's misdeeds in the Waco disaster.
The shooter's actions demonstrate advance planning. He didn't get spurned by his girlfriend and suddenly decide to go on a rampage - although a domestic dispute could have pushed the massacre up a few days.
This is all just speculation. If the terrorist turns out to be an exchange student from overseas, he might not have been able to appreciate the significance of Columbine in our generation's psyche, and the timing could be coincidental.
People need someone to blame - the police, Hollywood, the NRA, our "culture of violence" - anyone.</b> It is almost incomprehensible that tragedies of this magnitude can happen for no good reason at all.
--
Original Source: <a href="http://themetropolistimes.blogspirit.com/free_markets/">http://themetropolistimes.blogspirit.com/free_markets/</a>
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Blame Game and The Ghosts of Waco
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https://www.april16.vtlibraries.net/files/original/100_0430_b2aaf2dc42.JPG
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Kacey Beddoes
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As part of the "Remembering Through Art Creation" activities on 4/16/08, a "blessing box" for each victim were set up. The sign for the boxes said,
"Please leave a note, a drawing, a remembrance, a wish or a blessing. Seal your message in an envelope and leave it in the appropriate box(es). Each box will be sealed in the tradition of a healing, protective amulet with the intention that it not be opened."
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Blessing boxes
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blessing box
remembering through art