G. Love Post - VA Tech Shootings

[elephantus]

Yesterday I turned on the television and I couldn’t believe my eyes that 31 (and now 33) people were killed at Virginia Tech University during a regular Monday morning. Why?

Today we find more information about this atrocious act of random violence. The shooter was a student, 23 years old, by the name of Cho Seung-Hui. Will we ever know what prompted him to destroy the bright lives of so many people on a Monday morning? The Memorial service is going on right now in Roanoke, VA. People are all coming together to grieve and support each other. When something like this happens we all feel violated. Violated like we felt on 9/11/01. When innocent lives are lost to evil minds there is nothing we can do to bring them back? Nothing. How can we prevent this type of violence? It’s so hard to say because you can’t stop living. You can’t stop working, driving your kids to school, getting groceries or taking the train. You can’t just bottle it up and stay in your house. We all just need to look after one another.

There were many heroes at VA Tech who helped save lives; the kids who barricaded the door to keep out the shooter, one girl pretended she was dead. It saddens me that a professor who was any Israeli holocaust survivor was killed. To survive the holocaust and then 60 years later be killed by another senseless act. It’s just devastating.

Last night, ironically enough, we played on a college campus at OU in Omaha. You could just feel the heaviness in the vibe. Everyone was going on with their life, but the days events in VA were sinking into our minds and souls with a sadness that only violation of this magnitude and seriousness can impart. To think that events like this occur all over the world everyday. The evil men do...

Now we can take the time to pray for the victims and their families and friends. May God bless them all.

Rest in peace

[sway2sway]

amen.
I know my imagination is an asset, but it's also a downfall. When things like this happen, I can't help but try and imagine to be in those shoes. I think of the way my whole existence would be changed and the struggle I'd face to still have faith in anything, and I wonder, would that drive me over the brink, would I allow my life to be wasted, stuck in a victim role. I usually end up in tears. You always hear after someone loses a loved one and they are in the grieving process, that it seems so surreal, unfair- that the rest of the world just goes on like nothing has happened, they feel like they're in a twilight zone episode. And that is how it has to go, but I imagine it's a very lonely feeling. Maybe that's why I think about these things too much, it feels like the memories have to be kept alive, tallied somehow in the collective conscience, until a crucial load will be reached, and the world will take a stand and make a shift.
it's all wearing me down.
my thoughts are with those families.

[tinkerlion]

i couldn't believe it when i heard the news. it's such a tragedy. i was also somewhat dumbstruck that i didn't hear about the news at work. usually people have a way of discussing these things. it makes me wonder if we're just becoming so desynthasised to the world around us. i hope there is alot of support for each family affected.

[CaraD.]

How about how he sent video of his ranting and "why" he was doing --- though its not clear.
Then the whole thing about how he was hospitialized for his strange behavior in'05 and the judge said he is a threat to others and no one did anything about it. The thing that saddens me the most is that these were people my age. I couldn't imagine how I would react if I was a student at VT.

[Miss Shark]

Yes Cara, just another shining example of how we've failed as a community. Our streets and prisons are full of mentally ill people. They're addicted to the highs and lows and or their delusions of grandeur, not likely to take medication with any regularity, if at all. What do we do? Force them to take medication. That seems extreme, but look what can happen in extreme cases, such as this young mans. Mercy mercy.....

Needless to say, this is a serious problem that is in dire need of a solution.

[lietuvaite]

it is crazy and my thoughts go out to all virginia tech students and their families. the news in metro detroit has been crazy the last few weeks (two seperate office shootings, husband who killed and dismembered his wife, etc)

and then there are the copy cat threats that are developing in schools everywhere. two high schools in my district received threats worded as "Virginia Tech tomorrow". instead of closing school, police checked the schools w/dogs late last night and were at the doors checking all students this morning. the county's sheriff's dept. is pissed, claiming they will charge parents for the costs, charge the individuals caught w/ a felony that will require jail or prison term of 4 to 20 years (if 16 or over), and then there is a $1000 reward offered leading to the arrest. this also happened in two other neighboring districts, and is obviously getting out of control. the kids need to be be held accountable and need to be made an example of.

[Miss Shark]

I can't even imagine their pain.

Too true liet. There was a bomb scare here at the University as well.

[ramble on rose]

Va has been a sad place this past week, and I know the sadness has spread all over. Here too in Northern Va my old highschool had a bomb threat this morning. Maybe one day people will be good to one another before we blow eachother up for good. One can hope. Peace and One Love to all.

Check out the real situation:
Nation war against nation.
Where did it all begin?
When will it end?
Well, it seems like: total destruction the only solution,
And there ain't no use: no one can stop them now.
Ain't no use: nobody can stop them now.
-Bob Marley