A pile of mementos in front of construction fencing at the intermediate memorial site. At the time of this photo, staff members and volunteers were cleaning up the site, moving some items to storage and others to the newly completed center of the memorial. Photo taken July 6, 2007. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0.
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
Bags of plastic flowers sit on a walkway at the new intermediate memorial. Hokie stones for Nicole White, Daniel O'Neil, and Seung-Hui Cho (unmarked) are visible to the right. At the time of this this photo, staff members and volunteers were cleaning up the site, moving some mementos to storage and others to this area, the newly completed center of the memorial. Other parts of the intermediate memorial were still under construction. Photo taken July 6, 2007. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0.
After April 16, plastic daisies have regularly been laid down at various places on the drillfield in the shape of the VT logo, near the temporary memorial in front of Burruss Hall. This photo was taken on Thursday, June 14. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0.
View of the intermediate memorial in front of Burruss Hall. At the time of this photo, volunteers were cleaning up the site, moving some mementos to storage and others to the newly completed center of the memorial. Other parts of the memorial space were still under construction. Photo taken July 6, 2007. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0.
Wide View of Intermediate Memorial Construction
View of the drillfield, intermediate memorial construction, and Burruss Hall from the War Memorial. Photo taken July 6, 2007. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0.
Photo: INA / Andy Princz Liviu Librescu's wife Marilena is comforted by their son Arie, while son Joe stands to the left, at Librescu's April 20 funeral in Israel. Librescu's body was buried at the Kfar Nachman cemetery of the central Israel town of Ra'anana. -- Original Source: Israel News Agency http://www.israelnewsagency.com/liviulibrescuvirginiatechherofuneralisraelholocaust48042107.html
Joel Leyden, Publisher; israelnewsagency@gmail.com
Photo: INA / Andy Princz Liviu Librescu's sons Arie and Joe at their father's funeral, which was held in Israel on Friday, April 20. The funeral was attended by some 500 friends, family members, foreign diplomats and others who came to the Kfar Nachman cemetery of the central Israel town of Ra'anana to pay their respects to this Jewish hero. Joe's ripped black shirt reflects a Jewish custom of mourning a relative. -- Original Source: Israel News Agency http://www.israelnewsagency.com/liviulibrescuvirginiatechherofuneralisraelholocaust48042107.html
Photo: INA / Andy Princz The body of Liviu Librescu, wrapped in a white and black prayer shawl according to Jewish tradition, shown prior to his April 20 funeral in Israel. Librescu will be buried at the Kfar Nachman cemetery of the central Israel town of Ra'anana. -- Original Source: Israel News Agency http://www.israelnewsagency.com/liviulibrescuvirginiatechherofuneralisraelholocaust48042107.html
Tears, Pride for Holocaust Survivor, Virginia Tech Librescu At Israel Funeral
By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem ----April 21...... "Daddy, tell me the story again," said the 6-year-old girl. "Tell me how he saved the big children." It had been hours earlier in this pristine, palm tree lined Ra'anana cemetery that hundreds stood mourning and praising Holocaust survivor and Virginia Tech hero for sacrificing his life so that his students would live. "He was a good man," said Amanda. "Will he come back to life now?" she asked. It was this young girl's first trip to a cemetery. I explained to her that in life we are born in hospitals, live our lives and then we are buried in cemeteries. "We will all be buried in a cemetery, but some people die from old age, others from diseases, but this man - he was a hero. He was buried here because he gave life to the big children in Virginia," I told her. A link to exclusive INA video of the Liviu Librescu funeral in Ra'anana appears here I had promised my daughter when picking her up from her mother's home that we were going to visit a real hero. Heroes come and go. Moshe Dayan is credited for many acts of bravery, including opening up the City of Jerusalem with Yitzhak Rabin in 1967. David Ben-Gurion had the wisdom and leadership to win Israel's battle for independence, creating the modern Jewish state of Israel. But Dayan and Ben-Gurion, who became myths larger than life, had also been criticized. Ben-Gurion for attacking an Irgun ship - the Altalena and Dayan for stealing and selling archaeological treasures from Israel soil. They had both been in the public spotlight for many years. Their achievements were many. Their faults were few but still they were mere mortals. But Liviu Librescu was a hero with no baggage. He had survived the Nazi holocaust, he had survived persecution in communist Romania. Only to find peace and tranquility teaching in the hills of Virginia - until last Monday. In a remarkable act of sacrifice and bravery, the 75-year-old Israel professor and Holocaust survivor was murdered in the massacre at Virginia Tech on Holocaust Memorial Day, when he leaped between the crazed gunner and his students. According to eye witnesses the heroic action of Liviu Librescu, a lecturer in the Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, saved the lives of an unknown number of students in his class. Asael Arad, an Israeli Virginia Tech student told Israel Army Radio that "all the students lived - because of him." The last person to see Professor Liviu Librescu alive appears to have been Alec Calhoun, a student at Virginia Tech who turned as he prepared to leap from a high classroom window to see the elderly academic holding shut the classroom door. The student jumped, and lived. Minutes later, the professor was shot dead. The professor was popular among students and colleagues alike, and his ultimate sacrifice on Monday will cement that reputation. The last stop on Cho Seung-Hui's killing spree was Librescu's classroom. The professor blocked the unlockable door with his body to hold out Cho while shouting for his students to escape through the classroom windows. Cho overpowered Librescu, pushed his way into the room and shot the professor in the head. All of his students survived. Librescu's wife told the NRG Web site that her husband had loved his job with "all his heart and his soul." Librescu was a gifted scientist in Romania, and the government tried to prevent him from moving to Israel. He was eventually allowed to leave the country after then Israel Prime Minister Menachem Begin made a special appeal to President Nicolae Ceausescu, Ynetnews reported. Librescu immigrated to Israel from Romania in 1978 but moved to Virginia in 1986 for his sabbatical and had remained their ever since. The professor has two sons, one named Arieh who lives in Israel, and another, Joe, who resides in the US. Librescu was described by his colleagues as a "true gentleman." He was one of 33 people murdered in what has been described as the biggest single shooting attack in US history. They all had died in the rampage, including the gunman, 23-year-old student Cho Seung-Hui from South Korea, who committed suicide. Cho, who had sent a package to NBC News between the first and second shooting attacks at Virginia Tech, stated in a manifesto that he hated rich people and warned that he would get even. These facts emerged from a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the case. Late Wednesday, MSNBC showed a photo from the package of Cho glaring at the camera, his arms outstretched with a gun in each hand. He wears a khaki-colored military-style vest, fingerless gloves and a backwards, black baseball cap. Virginia Tech reported shootings on two sides of the 2,600-acre campus, the first at about 7:15 a.m. at a co-ed residential hall called West Ambler Johnston, and resuming about two hours later at Norris Hall, an engineering building. According to students, at around 7:15 a.m. the gunman appeared in West Ambler Johnston and began searching rooms for his ex-girlfriend. He killed two people, Ryan Clark, and a freshman identified by students as Emily Hilscher. In the second attack, the gunman shot professors and students in classrooms and hallways of the engineering building, killing around 30 people. The carnage ended Monday with the gunman shooting himself in the face. Students complained that the university did not adequately warn them about the gunman until over two hours after the first incident and around the time that the second round of killings began. At that time, an e-mail was sent. Virginia Tech President Charles Steger defended the university, saying authorities believed the shooting at the dorm was a domestic clash and an isolated incident. They also mistakenly thought the gunman had left the campus. "We had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur," Steger said. He added, "We can only make decisions based on the information you had on the time. You don't have hours to reflect on it." Steger explained that it was difficult to inform everyone at Virginia Tech because there were thousands of people arriving to the campus on Monday morning. As controversy continues to grow regarding the apparent lack of proper security response to the first shooting, and why with a shooting suspect loose, was there no shut down of the Virginia Tech campus, many have started to heal their wounds, leaving the anger stage and moving onto grief. Now focusing on the positive aspects of humanity, the acts of courage and bravery which occurred during this bloody massacre. In his speech at the United State Holocaust Memorial, US President George W. Bush paid tribute to Liviu Librescu, the aeronautics engineering professor who died while trying to save students during the shooting spree at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. "That day we saw horror, but we also saw acts of quiet courage. We saw this courage in a teacher named Liviu Librescu. With the gunman set to enter his class, this brave professor blocked the door with his body while his students fled to safety. On the Day of Remembrance, this Holocaust survivor gave his own life so that others might live. And this morning we honor his memory, and we take strength from his example." President Bush said. Liviu Librescu's body was transported to Israel last Wednesday, to be buried at the Kfar Nachman cemetery of the central Israel town of Ra'anana. Marilena, his wife, also flew also from New York Wednesday arrived in Tel Aviv Thursday, 37-year-old son Arieh told Deutsche Presse-Agentur in a telephone interview. The funeral was attended by some 500 friends, family members, foreign diplomats and others who came to this Israel cemetery to pay their respects to this Jewish hero. The funeral was to begin at 10 a.m. on a clear, sun drenched day. Speaking at the ceremony, Librescu's son Joe wearing a ripped black shirt, reflected on the questions he had never asked his father. It is Jewish custom to rip a part of your clothes when mourning a relative. "They're asking me today about your past, and I don't know what to tell them," he said. "I'm proud of you. I walk today with my head held high." "Sometimes I didn't hear you, but my ears are now wide open to your legacy," he went on. "I'm doing my best, reaching to the moon - I know I can reach it because of you." Librescu's wife, Marlena, had lost any remnants of composure. She spoke to her husband Liviu who was wrapped in a white and black prayer shawl according to Jewish tradition. "My sweetheart, I am in such pain. So much pain. I have lost not just a husband, but my best friend," she said. "I was blessed to be with him each day for 42 years - to learn from his wisdom, to receive his advice - and I thank you for giving me our two children. I'm now blessed to be with them," said Marlena. "It's so painful for me to think of your last moments, in which you suffered. I'll never know what went through your mind, but I hope very much that wherever you are, you will watch over your family," Librescu's weeping wife, Marlena, said. "I ask forgiveness from you for every time I upset you. I hope you will protect your family from where you reside now," she said, adding, "I have only the good left from you.... May it go easy for you, my sweetheart." The professor's other son, Arie, said his father had "always said to be strong." "Father, I believe that at this moment you're looking down on us from above and saying, what is all this crowing around? I only did what I had to do. From our childhood, you taught us to care for people, to work hard, to succeed, but you never taught us to be heroes. It is more theoretical a lesson than aerodynamics," he said. "A hero must have the right combination of certain attributes, and you had them." According to Arie, his father "used every spare minute to do what he loved." Speaking of his father's teaching, Librescu said that "the courses in aerodynamics have ended. On the 16th of the month, you started a new career, teaching a new subject - heroism - which millions of students are learning." Arie thanked family, friends and neighbors in Israel and around the world for all they had done for the family - and particularly for his mother - in their time of loss. He added special thanks for "a righteous man, an organization, Chabad, someone who drove five hours to mother [the day of the shooting] and made sure the body would come to Israel as soon as possible." Rabbi Danny Cohen, a Chabad representative in Hebron and a close friend of Arie, said at the funeral that "Librescu's last act lit a fire of unity throughout the world. This evening, tens of thousands of Jewish women will light Shabbat candles at the special request of Marlena." Librescu's wife stated that lighting Shabbat candles was his favorite mitzvah. Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Arie said his mother would now move to back Israel once she has completed the arrangements in the US. Gheorghe Angelescu, adviser to the president of Romania, presented Marlena Librescu at the funeral with the Grand Cross of Romania - the country's highest civilian honor, which was previously granted to the prime ministers of France and Italy. Librescu was given the award for his scientific achievements and the heroism surrounding his death. According to Angelescu, Librescu "was a very important scientist - not just for Israel or Romania, but for the world." Liviu Librescu was murdered on Holocaust Memorial Day and buried on Hitler's birthday. It appears that his act of bravery has reinforced one day and has overshadowed the other. A child in Nazi-allied Romania during Second World War, Librescu was deported along with his family to a labour camp in Transnistria and then to a central ghetto in the city of Focsani, his son said. According to a report compiled by the Romanian government in 2004, between 280,000 and 380,000 Jews were killed by the Romanian regime during the war. Librescu later worked as an engineer at Romania's aerospace agency under the postwar Communist government, his son recounted, but his career was stymied in the 1970s because he refused to swear allegiance to the regime. He was later fired when he requested permission to move to Israel. After years of government refusal, according to his son, Israel Prime Minister Menachem Begin personally intervened to get the family emigration permits. They moved to Israel in 1978. The family left Israel in 1985 for Virginia, where Librescu took a position teaching mathematics and engineering at Virginia Tech. "Daddy, who is worse, Hezbollah or Cho," my daughter asked as we stood over Liviu Librescu's grave. A small white sign bearing Librescu's name in Hebrew stood next to earth which was decorated with several colorful wreaths and flowers. "They are both bad. But today we are here to say thank you to a hero." My small daughter picked up a small white stone from a basket sitting next to the grave. She placed the stone on the freshly packed brown dirt. "Goodbye professor teacher who saved us. Goodbye." -- Original Source: Israel News Agency http://www.israelnewsagency.com/liviulibrescuvirginiatechherofuneralisraelholocaust48042107.html
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People came to the Squire Student Center with flowers and balloons to mourn for the victims on April 19.
Pictures of the victims in April 16 were posted in the Squire Student Center.
Part of the memorials were displayed in the Squire Student Center. Numerous universities expressed their sadness and concerns to Virginia Tech.
The memorials for Professor Kevin Granata were put in front of the Burrus Hall
Israel Professor, Murdered Saving Students At Virginia Tech, Buried in Ra'anana
By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem ----April 19...... In a remarkable act of sacrifice and bravery, a 75-year-old Israel professor and Holocaust survivor was murdered in the massacre at Virginia Tech on Holocaust Memorial Day, Monday when he leaped between the crazed gunner and his students. According to eye witnesses the heroic action of Liviu Librescu, a lecturer in the Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, saved the lives of an unknown number of students in his class. Asael Arad, an Israeli Virginia Tech student told Israel Army Radio that "all the students lived - because of him,". The last person to see Professor Liviu Librescu alive appears to have been Alec Calhoun, a student at Virginia Tech who turned as he prepared to leap from a high classroom window to see the elderly academic holding shut the classroom door. The student jumped, and lived. Minutes later, the professor was shot dead. Librescu's wife told the NRG Web site that her husband had loved his job with "all his heart and his soul." Librescu was a gifted scientist in Romania, and the government tried to prevent him from moving to Israel. He was eventually allowed to leave the country after then Israel Prime Minister Menachem Begin made a special appeal to President Nicolae Ceausescu, Ynetnews reported. Librescu immigrated to Israel from Romania in 1978 but moved to Virginia in 1986 for his sabbatical and had remained their ever since. The professor has two sons, one named Arieh who lives in Israel, and another, Joe, who resides in the US. Librescu was described by his colleagues as a "true gentleman." He was one of 32 people murdered in what has been described as the biggest single shooting attack in US history. Between his first and second bursts of gunfire, the Virginia Tech gunman mailed a package to NBC News containing pictures of him brandishing weapons and video of him delivering a diatribe about getting even with rich people. NBC said that a time stamp on the package indicated the material was mailed in the two-hour window between the first burst of gunfire in a high-rise dormitory and the second fusillade, at a classroom building. Thirty-three people died in the rampage, including the gunman, 23-year-old student Cho Seung-Hui from South Korea, who committed suicide. The package included a manifesto that "rants against rich people and warns that he wants to get even," according to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the case. Late Wednesday, MSNBC showed a photo from the package of Cho glaring at the camera, his arms outstretched with a gun in each hand. He wears a khaki-colored military-style vest, fingerless gloves and a backwards, black baseball cap. "NBC Nightly News" planned to show some of the material Wednesday night. Virginia Tech reported shootings on two sides of the 2,600-acre campus, the first at about 7:15 a.m. at a co-ed residential hall called West Ambler Johnston, and resuming about two hours later at Norris Hall, an engineering building. According to students, at around 7:15 a.m. the gunman appeared in West Ambler Johnston and began searching rooms for his ex-girlfriend. He killed two people, Ryan Clark, and a freshman identified by students as Emily Hilscher. In the second attack, the gunman shot professors and students in classrooms and hallways of the engineering building, killing around 30 people. The carnage ended Monday with the gunman shooting himself in the face. There were 33 deaths in total. Students complained that the university did not adequately warn them about the gunman until over two hours after the first incident and around the time that the second round of killings began. At that time, an e-mail was sent. Virginia Tech President Charles Steger defended the university, saying authorities believed the shooting at the dorm was a domestic clash and an isolated incident. They also mistakenly thought the gunman had left the campus. "We had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur," Steger said. He added, "We can only make decisions based on the information you had on the time. You don't have hours to reflect on it." Steger explained that it was difficult to inform everyone at Virginia Tech because there were thousands of people arriving to the campus on Monday morning. "Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions," Steger said. "The university is shocked and indeed horrified." In his speech at the United State Holocaust Memorial, US President George W. Bush paid tribute to Liviu Librescu, the aeronautics engineering professor who died while trying to save students during the shooting spree at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. "That day we saw horror, but we also saw acts of quiet courage. We saw this courage in a teacher named Liviu Librescu. With the gunman set to enter his class, this brave professor blocked the door with his body while his students fled to safety. On the Day of Remembrance, this Holocaust survivor gave his own life so that others might live. And this morning we honor his memory, and we take strength from his example." President Bush said. Liviu Librescu's body was transported to Israel, on Wednesday, to be buried at the cemetery of the central Israel town of Ra'anana. Marilena, his wife, also flew also from New York Wednesday and due to arrive in Tel Aviv today, 37-year-old son Arieh told Deutsche Presse-Agentur in a telephone interview. -- Original Source:http://www.israelnewsagency.com/liviulibrescuvirgintechheroraananaisrael48041907.html
Joel Leyden,Publisher;israelnewsagency@gmail.com
Virginia Tech's vigilant professor of English is a true leader Philip French Sunday April 22, 2007 The Observer The following correction was printed in the Observer's For the record column, Sunday April 29 2007 In the article below we said, when referring to Virginia Tech , that 'Edgar Allan Poe enrolled there in the 1820s'. He was, in fact, a student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. The Agricultural and Mechanical College, Virginia (Virginia Tech) was established in 1872. --------------------------------------------- This has been an extraordinary week for Yolanda Cornelia 'Nikki' Giovanni, born in Knoxville, Tennessee 64 years ago, called by some 'the Princess of Black Poetry', up in the African-American literary pantheon with Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou. A poet, essayist and political activist since her teens, Nikki Giovanni was a friend in the 1960s of the revolutionary Communist academic Angela Davis and the gay black polemicist and novelist James Baldwin. More recently she went bravely, recklessly public as an admirer of the late, embattled rap star Tupac Shakur. Since 1987, Giovanni has been a professor of English at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, an enormous multicultural campus now universally known as Virginia Tech. Edgar Allan Poe, among the first American poets to win wide acclaim in Europe and a writer with a peculiar understanding of madness, enrolled at the university in the 1820s. At that time, Virginia was a slave state, and after the Civil War it retained educational segregation until the 1950s. When the Korean-born, American-raised Cho Seung-hui marched out last Monday across the Virginia Tech campus, killing as he went, we have his demented account of the aggressive, vengeful thoughts that went through his mind. We have a more lucid idea of what went through the mind of his teacher, Nikki Giovanni. Cho's stories, conduct in class and general demeanour had excited her concern, suspicion and fear, which she conveyed to the university authorities. Last week, Virginia Tech provided Giovanni with a proper platform to speak on behalf of the university, its faculty and student body. She delivered her brief, beautiful 'chant poem' at the university's memorial service, and it brought together a heterogeneous campus. Her fresh eloquence was in marked contrast to the event's principal speaker, President George W Bush. The term 'Hokie', by the way, suggests some ancient Indian tribe. It was in fact coined at Virginia Tech in the late 19th century as a communal cheer, a version of 'hooray' or 'yeah', and became the name of the college's sports teams. Nikki Giovanni's 'chant poem' We are Virginia Tech. We are sad today, and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning. We are Virginia Tech. We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly, we are brave enough to bend to cry, and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again. We are Virginia Tech. We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did nothing to deserve it, but neither does a child in Africa dying of Aids, neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by the rogue army, neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory, neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water, neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy. We are Virginia Tech. The Hokie Nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong, and brave, and innocent, and unafraid. We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imaginations and the possibilities. We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and through all our sadness. We are the Hokies. We will prevail. We will prevail. We will prevail. We are Virginia Tech. Copyright Guardian News & Media Ltd 2007. -- Original Source: Guardian Unlimited http://www.guardian.co.uk/usguns/Story/0,,2062610,00.html
Eve Thompson-Acting Permissions Executive:permissions.syndication@guardian.co.uk
Leader Sunday April 22, 2007 The Observer Julia Pryde is not a household name. She was a 23-year-old graduate biology student who wanted to encourage recycling at the cafeteria at Virginia Tech University. Her face is not as universally known as that of Cho Seung-hui, the man who shot her and 31 others on campus last week. Cho secured his status as an icon of infamy by taking time, amid the massacre, to send a video manifesto to a TV network. Cho wanted not only to terrorise his fellow students, but to stare the world in the face, or rather, to force the world to look him in the eye. NBC has been criticised for showing the footage. Although there was a legitimate public interest in airing the material - it helped explain the dark motivation of the killer - the decision to run it on a constant loop within hours of the killings was clearly not taken with any consideration of sensitivity to survivors or victims' relatives. NBC apologised and toned down their coverage. But in the modern media age, Cho's broadcast would always have found a worldwide audience. He would still, one way or another, have forced everyone to hear his awful message: it is you who are responsible for this, not me. That is not true, of course. Cho was a psychopath, determined to kill. It may be the case that his determination was expedited by easy access to guns. But that is a feature of American society and American politics with its own strange logic, immune to comment by outsiders. The image of Cho striking murderous poses crosses all cultures. It is the face of modern, media-literate terror. That is not a fair emblem of modern American society. A truer symbol is found in the packed classrooms and lecture theatres of Virginia Tech, filled, just days after the massacre, with students who were determined to get on with their education - a triumph of youthful optimism over deadly nihilism. Pickleme April 22, 2007 8:16 AM Tragic though this all is , one has had a media onslaught day after relentless day,whilst ignoring 200+ killed/maimed/injured etc etc etc ad nauseum, a day in Iraq and thousands more in just as violent and senseless episodes elsewhere in world that are ignored or glossed over by media. . And disturbing though Cho was, one has surely to remember that this kid was desperately needing psyche help ? . I feel as sorry for him as his victims. That not one person bothered to follow up on the signs of his mental instability, and it seems enough powers that be and indeed students noticed, but did nothing is somehow as shocking as his mental breakdown that ended in this tragic episode .How sad is that.? winemaster April 22, 2007 2:03 PM Of course Cho, what ever his mental instablity, psychotic modus operandi at age 23, was not born as a killer. It is violent America that made him one, and for that matter, he is not exclusive, not that such maniac sociopaths are acceptable. Nevertheless, innocent Americans are not the only people that are dying or are killed. The war on Iraq and in Afghanistan; and the real terror of poverty, hunger, starvation, diseases like AIDS, malaria, denge fever, rift valley fever and hundreds of deadly viruses, parasites is a much bigger toll in thousands every day. The difference is the indifference of America to other people. As far as emblem of America, we have George W. Bush, that is showing up the whole world with his megalomaniac, compulsive-obsessive, sociopath mentality, divine religious mandate, being the messenger of his. Plus the like minded perverse ideology of inequality and rights only of their kind, not to mention their malignant narcissism, chronic scape goating, uncorrectable grab bagging, while sacrifcing others with coercion, reckless abandon and impunity to promote their own, outward, hypocrite self image of good and perfection. MDELELWA April 22, 2007 6:12 PM To me Cho represents at an individual micro level what the American nation stands for in the world. It is a vast, wealthy, but sickly nation that readily lashes out with a violence whose totality is as chilingly complete as Cho's at nations that pose no immidiate or even remote danger to it. To understand what dark forces operated and lived in Cho's mind we need to first understand the American national psyche-the sickly desire of one nation to dominate and control the rest of the world and its willingness to visit total destruction on those who stand on the way of its crazy, demented, schezophrenic designs. Of course I do not mean to trivialse the loss of the relatives of the dead students. Their loss is particularly severe in that all those lost were young people so full of promise and potential yet cut down in their prime years by a single lunatic. Inevitably so many lives there have been roughly touched by the hand of fate and altered for ever. Some will inevitably never recover from this loss. And all of them will go through life saying 'only if' so and so had not died in that shooting. Indeed a vacuum never to be filled has been left in the lives of many parents, siblings, children and loved ones. No words can ever articulate their pain. However this tragic path that Americans now grieving have to tread on is a well worn path. Countless Iraqs walk it daily. Many in Afghanistan have to too. All because of America's madness. Black Africans bear a simillar loss on a daily basis because of the American policies on issues of AIDS etc. All this means the world is a tough neighbour-hood. The likes of Cho are forever larking everywhere, foreever ready to visit mayhem and chaos and destruction within communities at all levels. In that vein as we take a pause to reflect on the tradegy and loss at VT lets also reflect on the countless lives lost elsewhere on that same day-dozens of kids succumbing to hunger and AIDS in Zimbabwe due to sanctions imposed by the West, and over and above all the 200 plus lost in bomb blasts at the very time the VT carnage was underway in Bhagdad Iraqi. It is a world gone mad. davidfletcher26 April 22, 2007 8:03 PM I doubt if America is a more aggressive culture than Britain and I also dont think they have any more violent nutters than we do. What is different is the ease with which such a young man can get hold of a high power handgun or an assault rifle. The knowledge that this kind of weaaponry is available helps to feed meglomaniac fantasies of mass killing. America is not a uniquilely evil society as some would like to think. Was the British Empire that good or that of Soviet Russia? WoollyMindedLiberal April 22, 2007 10:02 PM This poor young man was clearly a victim of religious delusion and is emblematic of the problems caused by the pernicious 'Christianity' strain that has plagued our civilization these last 2000 years. The time has come to grow up and put behind us these infantile games of make-believe which disturbed individuals take seriously with the terrible consequences we see daily in Iraq and every year in the USA. vandygirl April 24, 2007 8:58 AM I am a college student in the USA. I would like to say to all who will listen that what happened is at Virginia Tech is a tragedy, but it is not representative of the US or our citizens. We are a large and varied country, and I promise that most of us are not psycopathic, gun-happy murderers. In fact, most of us are disgusted and disturbed by the actions of people like Cho, but we are not the ones you hear about in the news. We are the ones forgotten by the media and the world (including within our own borders). And please don't let this become a debate on the war in Iraq - there is massive opposition to the war by people in the US, and many of us who disagree with the actions of our government and support the Iraqi people. Cho is not symbolic of the US or its people. There are many of us who are aware of the many crises facing the world today - yes, even those that occur outside the US - and we do sympathize with them. We do not hold our lives to be any more important than other peoples, and we are not indifferent to the rest of the world. Please don't assume all people in the US are the same, and don't judge us by the ones you hear about in the news - inevitably those are ones who have committed atrocities rather than the average US citizen. And as for the media - It is not the fault of the people if the media descends into the tabloid news that it so often is. The students at Virginia Tech have asked all media to leave their campus, an action supported by many. They need their time to grieve in private without being used to boost ratings. On Guardian Unlimited Full coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings Gun violence in the US Gun violence in Britain Full US coverage Related articles Virginia massacre gunman named Unofficial list of shooting victims emerges Massacre on campus Q&A: US gun laws World news guide North American Media Media CNN New York Times Washington Post Government Virginia state government portal US government portal White House Senate House of Representatives Copyright Guardian News & Media Ltd 2007. -- Original Source:http://www.guardian.co.uk/usguns/Story/0,,2062898,00.html
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First students are buried as US mourns Virginia Tech victims
Paul Harris in Blacksburg Sunday April 22, 2007 The Observer America began to bury its dead yesterday from the Virginia Tech massacre that cost 33 lives - the worst mass-shooting in the country's modern history. Three funerals of students killed by Cho Seung-hui were taking place last week. It was a tragedy that made headlines around the world and deeply shocked America. Among those being buried were Austin Michelle Cloyd, 19, the daughter of a Virginia Tech lecturer. She was being buried in Blacksburg, the tiny campus town tucked away in the Blue Ridge mountains of southern Virginia. Elsewhere, Jarrett Lee Lane, 22, was being buried in his home town of Narrows nearby, and Minal Panchal, 26, an Indian-born post-graduate student, was being buried in Odenton, Maryland. The funerals end a week of mourning and regret over the killings. Services are being held all over the country in victims' home towns and are likely go on well into next week. They come after a day of remembrance on Friday that saw a moment of silence observed across the nations. Across Virginia, many people have been wearing the college colours of maroon and orange. Police continue to investigate the shootings, seeking to find out how Cho, 23, carried out the murders. 'The why and the how are the crux of the investigation. The why may never be determined,' Virginia state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said. Cho carried out the attack in two assaults. The first killed two students in a dormitory hall and was followed by a pause of several hours before he rampaged through a lecture building, eventually killing 30 more. The investigation is focused on the first killings to see if there was any link between Cho and Emily Hilscher, 19, believed to have been the first person shot. The Cho family expressed its sorrow: '[The family will] do whatever we can to help authorities understand why these senseless acts happened. We have many unanswered questions as well,' it said. On Guardian Unlimited Full coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings Gun violence in the US Gun violence in Britain Full US coverage Related articles Virginia massacre gunman named Unofficial list of shooting victims emerges Massacre on campus Q&A: US gun laws World news guide North American Media Media CNN New York Times Washington Post Government Virginia state government portal US government portal White House Senate House of Representatives Copyright Guardian News & Media Ltd 2007. -- Original Source:http://www.guardian.co.uk/usguns/Story/0,,2062988,00.html
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Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington Saturday April 21, 2007 The Guardian Americans united in a collective day of mourning for the victims of the campus massacre yesterday, with church services and vigils from Capitol Hill to California. Yesterday's solemnities were centred on a moment of silence for the dead across the state of Virginia at noon after the governor, Tim Kaine, declared a day of mourning. Forty other states held vigils for the dead at the same time. "This has touched the globe," Mr Kaine told a memorial service . "The universality that we all suffer, we all grieve, has touched hearts around the world." The sombreness of the day was deepened by the knowledge that it was the anniversary of another school shooting - of 13 students and one teacher at Colorado's Columbine high school in 1999. After days spent trying to decipher the motives behind Cho Seung-hui's rampage, which left 32 dead before he turned the gun on himself, yesterday was given over to the victims. On the grassy expanse called the Drill Field at the heart of Virginia Tech campus, just outside Norris Hall, where Cho killed all but two of his victims, church bells tolled as students and professors gathered on a sunny day. Almost all the mourners wore the school colours of orange and maroon as they drew close to the makeshift memorial on the grass, a semi-circle of stones surrounding large placards covered with handwritten tributes to the dead, large wreaths and humble bouquets of flowers. Elsewhere in Virginia, bells chimed for each of Cho's victims at an interfaith memorial at Virginia Commonwealth University. "The thing that matters most today is to remember the friends and families of those who lost loved ones," Virginia's lieutenant governor, Bill Bolling, said. There were services at Washington's national cathedral, as well as a moment of silence in the House of Representatives. In Santa Monica, California, Virginia Tech alumni were scheduled to hold a memorial service later in the day. The first of Cho's victims was also buried yesterday in the Israeli town of Raanana, not far from Tel Aviv. Liviu Librescu, 76, was an expert on aerospace engineering and had taught at the university for more than 20 years. As a child in Romania, the professor had survived the Holocaust. On Monday, he was shot while shielding students from the gunman. Virginia's coroner has yet to complete the identification and examination of all the bodies so that they can be released. However, some families have held small memorial ceremonies. Private services were held in Virginia on Thursday for Waleed Mohammed Shaalan, 32, an Egyptian who was pursuing a doctorate in engineering. He was married with a one-year-old son; his PhD supervisor was also among the dead. There were also services in Virginia for Partahi Lumbantoruan, 34, a teacher in his native Indonesia whose family sold land and cars for his tuition at the university. He came from a military family and was pursuing a doctorate in civil engineering. On Guardian Unlimited Full coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings Gun violence in the US Gun violence in Britain Full US coverage Related articles Virginia massacre gunman named Unofficial list of shooting victims emerges Massacre on campus Q&A: US gun laws World news guide North American Media Media CNN New York Times Washington Post Government Virginia state government portal US government portal White House Senate House of Representatives Copyright Guardian News & Media Ltd 2007. -- Original Source:http://www.guardian.co.uk/usguns/Story/0,,2062300,00.html
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