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doxyzoo
04-16-2007, 09:59 PM
I have been watching the news about the massacre at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. I hoping for the best for any of you with family or friends at that school.

My son is an engineering major at University of Arizona at Tucson and even though Virginia is on the other side of the states it still scares me to hear about a shooting on a college campus.

Just as an aside ... every time the networks break into regular shows for a "Special Report" it brings back memories (horrible horrible memories) of September 11, 2001. I hold my breath and can hear my heart thudding in my chest and I want to cry. Does that ever affect any of you this way?

Otto'sMom
04-16-2007, 10:05 PM
I've only been reading about it online, but yeah, it hurts to hear of such suffering for people who don't deserve it. I'm the first one to wish death on someone for annoying me, but all those students were doing was going about their lives, going to school to better themselves, to do something with their lives. The same thing got me about 9/11, it was just people at work, and they died for no reason.
All those families, all those first loves, brothers and sisters are lost, and that hurts.

Yolanda
04-16-2007, 10:10 PM
We are a little concerned", one of my co-rescuers from Richmond, VA has a niece at VA TEC and no one can reach her. As of 9 PM thy have not reached all of the victims family. Yes, she is an engineering student.

My first thoughts was of Columbine and not 911. Living in VA, it is all that has been on the TV all day long. VA Tec is at teh far end of the state fro me closer to TN.

catstamm
04-16-2007, 10:13 PM
Out here we have heard 32+ have been killed....:shocked:

ebmw1975
04-16-2007, 10:38 PM
VA Tech is about 45 min from me and we were there on Sunday on our way home from KY. We picked up James'niece to drive her to her parents (next door to James' parents) as she had Mon and Tues off Thank god!. We have a number of friends who were students and staff and most we know are ok but a few we are still waiting to hear from. :pray:

Alex's Mom
04-17-2007, 07:41 AM
We are a little concerned", one of my co-rescuers from Richmond, VA has a niece at VA TEC and no one can reach her. As of 9 PM thy have not reached all of the victims family. Yes, she is an engineering student.
My first thoughts was of Columbine and not 911.
The first thing I thought of when I heard this, esp. the engineering school bit, was of the Montreal Massacre in 1982 (I think it was...). For those of you in the US who may not have heard about this, a lunatic woman hater named James Lapine entered the engineering dept. at L'Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal and started hunting down female engineering students...he killed 14 before killing himself. My stomach clenched...I vividly remember how that earlier episode (school killings not exactly being common at the time) affected me and everyone around me...these were bright young woman more or less my age who died for no reason whatsoever beyond being female. I think that was the day a lot of us became much more dedicated feminists! :sosad: that these random acts of violence have become so much more so in today's world. My thoughts and :pray: are with everyone involved. (there were 3 students from this part of the world attending VA Tech...fortunately all are safe, although 1 was actually in the building when the killings were taking place. She's obviously hugely upset!)

Tex
04-17-2007, 07:45 AM
My dad called me yesterday to let me know what was going on (at work all the tv's stay on Cartoon network all day)......his first comment was "this guy surpassed the killing spree at UT in '66")....really scary stuff. Sending lots of :pray: :pray: :pray: for the victim's families!

quavec
04-17-2007, 09:26 AM
One of the sad things about this horrible, senseless tragedy is that so many of us can relate to it in one form or another.

My :pray: are with the families, friends and loved ones who are still uncertain about so many things.

LexieLuvr
04-17-2007, 11:07 AM
What happened to "random acts of kindness?" These days it seems to be random acts of violence! I'm just sick to my soul over all of this! One deranged student has destroyed so many lives forever. :pray: :pray: :pray: for everyone affected - and for us who grieve with the others.

Wiener Mom
04-17-2007, 02:40 PM
As tragic and sad as this event is, its finally gotten the Don Imus fiasco on the back burner! I bet his comment seems pretty trivial today!

Puts things into persective for us though.

Goob
04-17-2007, 03:06 PM
My dad called me yesterday to let me know what was going on (at work all the tv's stay on Cartoon network all day)......his first comment was "this guy surpassed the killing spree at UT in '66")....really scary stuff. Sending lots of :pray: :pray: :pray: for the victim's families!

That was my first thought was the UT bell tower shooting. God Damm what is this world coming to?

Goob
04-17-2007, 03:07 PM
As tragic and sad as this event is, its finally gotten the Don Imus fiasco on the back burner! I bet his comment seems pretty trivial today!


AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LexieLuvr
04-17-2007, 04:01 PM
That was my first thought was the UT bell tower shooting. God Damm what is this world coming to?
It gets scarier every day. I guess it's a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Drive down the road, get blown away; go to college, get blown away; sleep at home in your own bed, get blown away. It's hard not to live in fear every minute of every day.

Goob
04-17-2007, 04:07 PM
It gets scarier every day. I guess it's a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Drive down the road, get blown away; go to college, get blown away; sleep at home in your own bed, get blown away. It's hard not to live in fear every minute of every day.

Yeah, be a productive and positive member of society and get blown away. Great. Scary and depressing.

quavec
04-17-2007, 05:05 PM
I've been glued to either the news or the web for info on the shooting, here is a blog written by on of the shooter's former classmates.

Blog (http://newsbloggers.aol.com/2007/04/17/cho-seung-huis-plays/)


The link was listed on the most current update from CNN.com

CNN story (http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/17/vtech.shooting/index.html)

The more I read/hear, the sadder I get. :(

Alex's Mom
04-17-2007, 08:37 PM
It gets scarier every day. I guess it's a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Drive down the road, get blown away; go to college, get blown away; sleep at home in your own bed, get blown away. It's hard not to live in fear every minute of every day.

It is scary, there's no doubt about it. But I truly believe that to let them make us live in fear means that the bad guys win. And I REFUSE to let them. Things like VA Tech sure remind us that there's a lot to be said about living every day, don't they!!

quavec
04-17-2007, 08:49 PM
Things like VA Tech sure remind us that there's a lot to be said about living every day, don't they!!

Yep, makes you remember to call your parents, friends, or even your 'enemies'.

lizzieb38
04-17-2007, 09:11 PM
Yep, makes you remember to call your parents, friends, or even your 'enemies'.

I saw a girl that said everyone she knew was calling to make sure she was okay. Even kids she didn't like in highschool. Is very scary, and feel so bad for all of the victims. There's some really scarey sounding stuff coming out about the kid that did this. I feel sorry for his parents too!! How terrible it must be for them also-to know that your son did such a horrific thing!:pray: :pray: :pray: :pray: :pray: :pray: to all!

Jacqueline
04-18-2007, 12:38 AM
One of the things that scares me is that so many people immediately want to jump in and try to get rid of all the guns, thinking that this is going to stop it. I hope that cooler heads will prevail, and those who can actually do something (?????? don't know who that would be these days) realize that when these people become so angry/depressed/determined to kill as many people as they can before they kill themselves, that nothing is going to stop them.

No guns? Build a bomb. Can't follow directions on the internet for bomb building? Just strap some dynamite around your body and carry a lighter. There is always a way. All the suicide bombers overseas have shown us that.

They are talking now about this guy being depressed, being angry, and leaving a vicious nasty letter about it being someone else's fault. Did no one see the signs of this coming on? Did everyone just ignore it like the parents of the kids at Columbine? Are we so isolated from one another that we don't notice when one of us is headed off the deep end? Apparently no one took notice of this guy. Maybe it's time we all started paying more attention to each other.

Another thing I have notice - for the most part, these people who go on killing rampages are not long time gun owners. They either steal them from someone who has them, or recently aquired them. I was a bit surprised that Virginia did not have a 3 day waiting period for someone who did not have a CW permit. Unless you have a CW permit in Florida, you go thru the background check and the waiting period. Not that it would have made a big difference in this case, but in a lot of cases - it may have.

We need to start paying more attention to what is going on in the lives of young people.


Okay.....it's now very early Wednesday morning, and they are carrying coverage of the shooter. Apparently this guy was leaving clues all over the place that he was a walking time bomb, and no one was doing anything about it. He was writing things about killing people - his teachers for giving him and other bad grades.....people who were picking on him. It's not that no one ever knew that he had problems. Yep, we really need to start paying more attention to the words and actions of those around us before these tragedies explode.

I told my husband that if I ever find myself feeling this angry toward anything or anyone, or feeling depressed enough that I want to die, I will be handing over all my guns to him. He feels the same way. I've had a CWP down here since 93, when we moved to Florida, and even tho I did pull a gun in self defense way back then, I did not fire it. I have never felt the urge to run wild thru public places killing people. I have felt the urge to turn a few into toads, beat a few over the head with the red stick that we use to divide orders, and just plain strangle some with my bare hands, but I have self control. Most people do. It's up to us to start paying more attention to the rest of the world. God, or whoever or whatever you believe in help us all.

Alex's Mom
04-18-2007, 08:11 AM
Okay.....it's now very early Wednesday morning, and they are carrying coverage of the shooter. Apparently this guy was leaving clues all over the place that he was a walking time bomb, and no one was doing anything about it. He was writing things about killing people - his teachers for giving him and other bad grades.....people who were picking on him. It's not that no one ever knew that he had problems.

On the news up here this morning it said that a couple of his profs have been trying for a year to get the university and even the police to do something about him, and nobody would listen. As someone who teaches in a university, I find this HUGELY disturbing. I know I've had students at times who I worried about, esp re: depression. Now I know something about depression, having had to live with it much of my life. And I know how frustrating it is when I've tried to point kids I see at risk towards help and it hasn't worked. The problem with mental illness is that the person suffering from it is not in a position to be able to recognize (as a general rule) that s/he has a problem. So when others try to help, it's not easy. But interventions can be made. IMHO the system at VA Tech let the victims down by not listening when something could have been done.

LexieLuvr
04-18-2007, 12:47 PM
Paula, I agree - my daughter also teaches college, and she's suffered from depression most of her adult life, too and perhaps is better equipped to identify others who also are depressed - plus she teaches social work classes, which get involved with depressed people in clinicals, I'm sure, quite often. I don't understand how those who could have helped just ignored the whole situation - it's very mystifying to me, and very scary, because that could happen on any campus, in any state, at any time.

BTW, I choose not to live my life my life in fear, because life can be such a scary place and it would be very easy to become overwhelmed. My theory is that if it's my time, it's my time, and I can only control so much - He controls the rest.