RSSPlease Say a Prayer for the Victims of the VA Tech Shootings and Their Families … God Bless
As we all sit back and absorb the horror of yesterday’s shootings at VA Tech, let us 
remember those that lost their lives. Let us say a prayer for their families as their grieving must be beyond imagination. So many young lives lost. As many of our Nation’s Colleges Mourn Va. Tech Victims let us never forget those that were lost. Say a prayer for their families and loved ones and may they find peace in God’s grace.
President George W. Bush spoke today at the convocation ceremony at VA Tech and told the many family, friends and students of those that perished the following: (audio here)
“To all of you who are OK, I’m happy for that,” Bush said. “To those of you who are in pain or who have lost someone close to you, I’m sure you can call on any one of us and have help anytime you need it.”
Quoting Scripture, he told those angered by the killings not to be overcome by evil.
“People who have never met you are praying for you,” Bush said. “They’re praying for your friends who have fallen and who are injured. There’s a power in these prayers, a real power. In times like this, we can find comfort in the grace and guidance of a loving God.”
“On this terrible day of mourning, it’s hard to imagine a time will come when life at Virginia Tech will return to normal, but such a day will come,” Bush said. “And when it does, you will always remember the friends and teachers who were lost yesterday, and the time you shared with them, and the lives that they hoped to lead.”
Please let us remember those that passed away during yesterdays shooting. May they rest in peace and God bless. The magnitude of the violence and profound loss changed these students and faculty from VA Tech Hokies to one of a nations.
The University has set up a web site for condolences, The April 16th Memorial website. Please leave your comments, prayers and condolences. One can only imagine the grief that they Hokie community is going through and the words of comfort they so much are in need of.
- Ross Abdallah Alameddine, 20, of Saugus, Mass., according to his mother, Lynnette Alameddine.
- Christopher James Bishop, 35, according to Darmstadt University of Technology in Germany, where he helped run an exchange program.
- Ryan Clark, 22, of Martinez, Ga., biology and English major, according to Columbia County Coroner Vernon Collins.
- Austin Cloyd, an international studies major from Blacksburg, Va., according to Terry Harter, senior pastor at First United Methodist Church in Champaign, Ill., where Cloyd and her family lived before moving to Blacksburg.
- Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, a French instructor, according to her husband, Jerzy Nowak, the head of the horticulture department at Virginia Tech.
- Daniel Perez Cueva, 21, killed in his French class, according to his mother, Betty Cueva, of Peru.
- Kevin Granata, age unknown, engineering science and mechanics professor, according to Ishwar K. Puri, the head of the engineering science and mechanics department.
- Caitlin Hammaren, 19, of Westtown, N.Y., a sophomore majoring in international studies and French, according to Minisink Valley, N.Y., school officials who spoke with Hammaren’s family.
- Jeremy Herbstritt, 27, of Bellefonte, Pa., according to Penn State University, his alma mater and his father’s employer.
- Rachael Hill, 18, of Glen Allen, Va., according to her father, Guy Hill.
- Emily Jane Hilscher, a 19-year-old freshman from Woodville, according to Rappahannock County Administrator John W. McCarthy, a family friend.
- Jarrett L. Lane, according to Riffe’s Funeral Service Inc. in Narrows, Va.
- Matthew J. La Porte, 20, a freshman from Dumont, N.J., according to Dumont Police Chief Brian Venezio.
- Liviu Librescu, 76, engineering science and mathematics lecturer, according to Puri.
- G.V. Loganathan, 51, civil and environmental engineering professor, according to his brother G.V. Palanivel.
- Partahi Lombantoruan, 34, of India, civil engineering doctoral student, according to Kristiarto Legowo, a spokesman for the foreign ministry.
- Lauren McCain, 20, of Hampton, Va., international studies major, according to a statement from the family.
- Daniel O’Neil, 22, of Rhode Island, according to close friend Steve Craveiro and according to Eric Cardenas of Connecticut College, where O’Neil’s father, Bill, is director of major gifts.
- Juan Ramon Ortiz, a 26-year-old graduate student in engineering from Bayamon, Puerto Rico, according to his wife, Liselle Vega Cortes.
- Mary Karen Read, 19, of Annandale, Va. according to her aunt, Karen Kuppinger, of Rochester, N.Y.
- Reema J. Samaha, 18, a freshman from Centreville, Va., according to her family. (AP)
Profiles of victims (MSNBC)
More about the victims from Fox News.
Beautiful, clever, talented victims honored (CNN)
Friends, family recall lives of selfless students, teachers
Posted April 18, 2007 by Scared Monkeys Crime, Deceased, heroes, Murder, VA Tech Massacre | 16 comments |
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16 Responses to “Please Say a Prayer for the Victims of the VA Tech Shootings and Their Families … God Bless”
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I was told last night that the shooter’s English teacher realized from his writings that he needed psychiatric help and counseling, and went to the school administration and police demanding that something be done.
The response was, apparently, that nothing in his writings was specific enough to warrant any particular action.
We hear from universities that they can’t prevent students from drinking when they are underage; they can’t stop drug use on campus; they can’t do much of anything in what has become an academic consumer society (just show up, do what you want, pay the bills, and you’re “educated”).
I don’t pretend to have the answers, but it may be that the role of universities in actively overseeing and taking responsibility for the lives of their students is going to be getting some renewed attention. As always, it seems, we need a crisis to focus our attention.
And then, after so much sound and fury, things lapse back to normal….
Someone asked about memorial funds for the victims. If SM is allowed to post them, I will continue to send them in for either single victims, or otherwise.
This young man in the article is a local kid. William Fleming High School is setting up a fund, but that’s all the inforamtion I have at this time.
http://www.wdbj7.com/Global/story.asp?S=6384694
Brenda
Our police happen to be wonderful people and very dedicated. NO WAY would a request be ignored over a disturbed student. You all must really think we are the Barney Fife’s around here or something.
Please read the article. The shooter WAS referred to counceling. I watched an interview on our local channel with THIS instructor who never mentioned the campus police ignoring her requests….never. She said she “sought out information on how to intervene for Cho, but could not comment on the outcome of Cho’s counceling because she did not know when or what the outcome was.”
Ok…if she was soooo scared, think she’d have bothered to learn the outcome? YOU BET!!! She thought (according to her words on the TV that is) that Cho’s troubles were directed towards himself…she was worried he’d be SELF destructive.
As I said yesterday, PLEASE STOP 2ND GUESSING US!!!! WE HAVE STUDENTS IN OUR SCHOOL WHO LOST PARENTS WHO WORKED AT THE COLLEGE. Our neighboring county (Mont.Co.) schools remain closed, as do all after school activities for most surrounding counties. My daughter’s college classes (not a Tech student) have all been cancelled for the rest of the week. What are YOUR towns doing do to such grief other than judging US about how stupid we are to have screwed up so badly???
Have A FREAKING HEART SOME OF YOU. My son will be going to Tech since it’s only 20 mins away and he can commute. He plays trumpet and wants to be in the Tech Marching Band, so imagine the impact on a 16 yr old who is hearing from people who have no clue that “Tech isn’t safe enough, and the police and administration didn’t do enough.” I told him those persons are simply ignorant of all facts and don’t live afraid like they do. IT’s a waste of your life.
Hope this one gets posted. I was angry and one was not made public yesterday, but this is better…so I can only hope.
http://www.wdbj7.com/Global/story.asp?S=6381247
Brenda
Ok..here you go. Why this wasn’t mentioned on the previous interview was probably due to the fact she was only allowed to say so much, but she DID have him removed from the class and though it was over…hence why she never checked up on the outcome of counceling.
See…maybe you can blame the teacher or counceling services instead as it appears whoever escorted him out did not “decide the issue didn’t warrent any further action”. Looks like alot of action was taken…
http://www.wset.com/news/stories/0407/415357.html
Brenda
Brenda, my remarks most certainly were not addressed at you, the local police, or the dedicated teachers.
I was just talking about the general phenomenon seen these days, increasingly so since I was in college: schools seem to be washing their hands of their “substitute parent” function, not to mention being gun-shy of setting rules overall. This is my impression, anyway.
I don’t know where the proper balance should be drawn, and most certainly don’t think that anything is “automatically” going to be a cure-all. But perhaps if there had been more readiness to intervene, this wouldn’t have happened.
I’m not condemning the local police at all.
Let’s also have some compassion for the shooter. How painful his life must have been. Let’s try to understand what the influences might have been that created his suffering, which has in turn led to the suffering of so many others. He is also one of the victims.
#5 it is not the role of the university to be a ‘substitute parent’ Those attending college are almost always, by definition legal adults. What you speak about is a nanny state.
#6 Screw the bastard.
#6 Paul,
How about we dont!
Being a whiny ass murdering scum is hardly that of victim material.
Its was exactly the ridiculous kind of thinking that didn’t have this insane, hateful loser thrown in a mental institution. I really hope that you were just being sarcastic.
Victim, my A$$.
R
Video clips Cho NBC Nightly News aired in their coverage of the package he sent them:
http://tinyurl.com/2oz7cd
To begin with…
Paul..All I see in Cho is that his wiring somehow got short-circuited and he should have been put out of his misery sooner than 32 lives later.
He had the presence of evil to mail and chronicle his actions to the mass media, of which I will get to directly.
I really feel that you are mocking the memories of the students and teachers who were killed by alluding to some perceived “suffering” that this psychotic madman(yup, Paul, nutty as a fruitcake, if I may be so politically incorrect) may have convinced you that he had. I am not sorry, but my only wish against wishes was that some other student would have been armed and the casualty rate then may have been considerably diminished. As I meant before, the dog should have been put down(dispatched) ASAP. Didn’t happen.
Now to the media…
Once upon a time in America, when a suicide or raving lunatic(like Cho) would send a message to the world, it wouldn’t be so proudly displayed while the family and friends of the victim or victims were still fresh in the grieving process. It was an obscure term at the time known as and called respect. Kiss that adios, muchacho, as NBC couldn’t wait to taunt the parents and other loved ones with (satirical comment ahead)”duh, we gotta unnerstand wye he didit, dont we?? Hey, look at these cool pics, will you? and we gotta show ‘em to you.” Don Imus couldn’t hold a candle to that form of disrespect, for this was toward the dead and their family. What a piece of work the media has become. God knows what the next one(and there will be a next one since they know they will be broadcast) will be like.
This wouldn’t be censorship, just a higher standard of life, a standard we were closer to once upon a time than we are today.
As Paul ironically remarked, “Don’t forget compassion for Cho.” The media seems not to have. And the only compassion he was worthy of in the end was the short-cut he took ending his “suffering” life at his own hand. Guess Paul believes Cho when he wrote you made me do this.
Yeah, right. Paul, Cho may have been a victim after all, of your apparently twisted thought process equaling the value of 32 lives to the killer. Replace shooter(Cho) to Hitler and…oh, never mind. Don’t cry too hard, Paul, it’ll be alright.
As you may have already witnessed, Chos’ puss is plastered all over the front page of most, if not all, of the daily papers today, along with his “manifesto”.
I want to understand this, but how does his picture appear on the front pages minimizing the victims and accentuating the grief of family and loved ones, and since when does a DIATRIBE by a psychopathic lunatic become a “manifesto”? I dunno, but I see a lot of disrespect for the victims here, and we just don’t care as long as it brings in the money.
Once upon a time in America we had dignity and respect for those hurt by sensless tragedy. We would not publish these types of rants, now we in essence encourage them. Wonder what the next one will do for an encore, bet your bottom dollar it will be published nationwide as well.
Stick a fork in us. As far as a sense of decency and dignity goes, we’re done.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to get this off my chest on this board.
I just wish we would have given more attention to the beautiful victims and less to the blithering blabbering psycho and his DIATRIBE(not a “manifesto”).
Oh well, I guess in the end, he got everything he wanted from the media. Great jobs, and what a pack of 5th column heartless idiots you seem to be. Amazing how protected his family is by this yellow journalism. Gotta respect their privacy, I agree, but you do not give the same consideration the grieving families.
It does seem nuts to me that the media published the materials that he sent, i.e putting forth his point of view that he is somehow “right”, as if his sick point of view somehow was worthy of broadcast. I see that broadcast as indeed out of place and much more than an insult to the other victims and their families. The other victims did not have an opportunity to have their views aired, so why should he!
But calling him an inhuman animal, the personification of the devil, a psychotic madman, is unfortunately the same kind of thinking that he used to justify his offensive acts.
Gee, and I just thought that I called it as I saw it!
I stand by my politically incorrect freedom of speech, having no intention of doing harm to anyone wishing to live peacefully and not having murder and mayhem in their actions.
Paul, of course you have that very same freedom, and I respect that, so if you think that I have the same type of thinking because I describe him(boo-hoo) as an inhuman animal, etc. fire away. You’re wrong, of course, but then this may not be the first time that you were wrong, ne c’est pas?
Kay….
Thanks for expressing your view, which has a lot going for it. It sounds like I really offended you and I am sorry my comments had that effect.
So, where am I coming from, anyway — you do have a right to expect a response from me.
I’ve been studying something called Nonviolent Communication (NVC); you can look it up on the web. It leads me to not react so strongly in some situations where an injustice was done (somehow I still have a nasty reaction toward the power structure in Aruba, where clearly there are a bunch of conspiritors preventing Natalee’s family from having any closure). The approach of NVC is to look underneath any reactions of anger, hate, shame, guilt, to see how personally we or another individual is feeling offended by some action.
I still see Cho as a tragic victim of his own distorted perceptions and thinking — and I think that is a view worth considering. I think I would also do well to think more about his victims — but that I admit is something I am avoiding as I find it painful to dwell upon.
Thanks, Paul, for your honest response.
The fact that you admit avoiding thinking more of Chos’ victims than the killer and treating him with a more than equal footing than those he obliterated tells me much more about the NVC philosophy than its website did.
I may be wrong but that, my friend, seems to be a huge chunk of empathy missing “because the reality of the situation is too painful to dwell upon”. I want nothing to do with that type of philosophy.
Too painful? Yes, but without that pain we do not feel. And without that feeling, we become numb ourselves. That may or may not make sense to you but that is my experience. I need to feel that pain so I can learn from it. Cho’s “suffering” may he been brought upon by his own selfish, and yes , evil desires, and I have nothing but contempt for his actions. Lame excuses do not suffice for me, fortunately.
My retorts and reactions to the psycho were if nothing else honest and not hidden. I wish none harm that does no harm. Had he went along his merry way and kept his thoughts on paper and not action I wouldn’t be concerned, but cross the line into destroying life and yes, you will feel my emotions coming through, as a normal human being should be able to do.
You have an obligation, I suppose, to feel sorry for him. I guess its just as well. Your NVC attempts, as the website puts it..
“strengthens our ability to inspire compassion from others and respond compassionately to others and ourselves”. Good luck with that.
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