Hallelujah Blesses the Virginia Tech Tragedy

[lizzytysh]

I agree regarding his likely being autistic. The way his grandmother described him, he sounded autistic... cold in terms of emotion, not talking, not relating, etc. I heard a brief mention of it, too, Sherry.

When I saw the one gun demonstrated by the gun seller, I could see it wasn't an ordinary hand pistol... very easy to reload with many bullets and to quickly fire before quickly reloading, again. One appeared to have a very heavy duty magazine, with multiple bullets, that slipped easily into and out of place.

Yes, Hydriot, you're right that we often refer to "university" as "school" here, as well as the years of study that lead up to the age of 18. The context often is what makes the distinction on which we mean. However, I really did take your comment as referring to what you call school [of which I hadn't seen/heard anything], and then added that the only thing I had heard was of classmates [college] trying to include him. I've since heard something about being bullied in school.

With regard to Rod's commentary, I feel it's fair to criticize the media's handling of this, and to criticize the killer... and cite from where he apparently got some of his ideas [one of the things I contend is that people/children are influenceable by all the violence they see and hear]... and we are, as noted, saturated with it here... and, in the context it was cited, what is 30-some more. I don't know how other countries rate in this regard, how they do or don't aggrandize tragedy. I know that Al-Jazeera televises threats with blindfolded hostages, hangings, and beheadings. Does it get any 'better' than that on the morbidity scale? Do not other groups see opportunity for self-aggrandizing when they watch those? Still, two and three wrongs don't make a right; nor should this be the standard by which we measure ourselves. It just happens to be the only one I have for specific comparison.

What I don't feel is fair, though, is to criticize the way those who have suffered these tremendous losses are grieving. Everyone grieves differently. Some of those young people went home to their parents and some stayed, with many of their parents coming to them. There are so many ways of grieving and all are legitimate. Those students and their families were not putting on a show for anyone, though the media may have filmed whatever they were doing and turned it into a show.

The school's mascot nickname is Hokies ["hokey" happens to be a slang term for something that is uncool and in some way embarrassing, twirpy ~ when I first heard it, I thought geez, what an 'unfortunate' school nickname to have]. When I first heard the chant, I was taken aback a bit, too, until I really thought it through. These young people have had their very close community [much has been said about this fact] shattered and splattered. They're traumatized; and, they want to be around people who understand and can relate to what they're going through. For many, maybe most, that appears to be their classmates, who have suffered the same blow. The students attending Virginia Tech come from all over the world, with different nationalities, cultures, and languages; different religions/faiths/spiritualities; different economic backgrounds; different educational goals and life pursuits. The one thing where they all converge is that they are attending the same university and refer to themselves as "Hokies." It's the one thing that they all identify with. It's the 'mental/emotional' space they can go to where everyone else will be there. It's where they can find and express comfort and support. It's a means of wailing and prevailing at the same time.

At a time when your world has been turned upside down, and everything you took to be a given is uprooted; it's natural to want to come together with people who can reenforce what might be considered stable. That university stands to lose a lot of students as a result of this. Still, some are digging in and saying, "No way" ~ the same as many of the citizens in Iraq have refused to leave and not give in to the insurgents/terrorists. The same thing has been said by both these students and those Iraqis... to leave would be to let him/them win. Their loud chanting gives form to their grief. They can't just yell and scream at the killer, as he's no longer there. They can't just randomly yell and scream into the air. They can, however, chant... as a call and answer to each other in a place where words used to make sense.

At a time when it's easiest to feel shattered and destroyed, they are coming together, gaining strength from each other and focusing on their solidarity... the only symbol of that solidarity for them is being a "Hokey." The chant is the equivalent of their [sports] 'fight song' - one that's done at competitive events. Again, solidarity... the message being, "You're not going to win... you can't keep us down." It's also an organized way of giving them the chance to concentrate their disparate energy and yell and scream, out loud, as loud as they can... to release all of that negative energy that they don't have a clue what to do with. They've just literally been fired upon and everything in their personal worlds has been forced into question.

It reminded me of an account of an Iraqi woman who survived a roadside bomb but lost some members of her family to it. The account said that she angrily shook her fist in the air and yelled something. I remember thinking how oddly disproportionate to what had just happened, as this kind of action is generally something that happens when people are arguing or something. It, of course, was futile, as well. Still, it was an act of defiance, symbolizing her anger and her being resolute to fight back and not be driven from her homeland of Iraq. Grief can find a hiding place in anger, at least for the time being. Anger can also make fear bearable and force a person to take action, instead of cowering.

The Virginia Tech campus has become the homeland for those students who are staying and expressing their determination to stay, not as Iraqis, but as Hokies. They appear to want to not be overtaken by the fear that has struck everyone's heart as a result of this massacre. I see their chant as a graphic expression of HOPE that they might one day regain a sense of normalcy.

The media can turn anything into a circus if it wants to... with this, it's no different. However, I feel it's important to blame the cameras and not these victims, who were not prepared for anything like this to occur in their young lives.


~ Lizzy

[ForYourSmile]

The madman, the despised one, the villain (and who knows), the infuriated, the frustrated one developed his revenge depending on the capacity of destruction of his weapon: two pistols and a good quantity of bullets. If he had the button he had pressed it.

Executed the massacre, the massacre continues. The president says that bad luck for those who were in the wrong place in the wrong moment. The television channel earns a lot of money with what came for free. Who does not want to earn easy money? We consume it for enjoy our morbidity. Or, Do we analyse conducts? The villain had his great moment of the protagonist. He has returned to kill the dead men, to hurt the injured and to humiliate the relatives and friends. Was this final victory part of his plan or the only reason? Who does not want to be famous in TV by awhile, although it is for entertaining us showing the miseries? The imitators to butchers learn. They terrify a little more to us. The salesman of arms says that the problem was not that the assassin had bought them, the problem was that the victims were not armed to defend themselves Why can serve a gun, if is not for defending ourselves? . .. and it continues. Hypocrisy

[Tchocolatl]

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget the perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

That's how the light gets in.

THE CENTER FOR NONVIOLENT COMMUNICATION : http://cnvc.org/

Enjoy!

[ForYourSmile]

Anthem fits as good as Hallelujah to this tragedy. I remember well a song of the same album than I prefer not reproducing. I don't share it, but sometimes, the bad times, it seems prophetic.

It was not my intention to use violent communication. Just I wanted to show the hypocrisy that I observe in many times in our societies. I believe in humanity without weapons, with mutual respect, with the responsibility and ethical of the mass media and politics. I don't like the fatalism.

I hope a much better future, in this way I denounce this present.

[Kush]

The madman, the despised one, the villain (and who knows), the infuriated, the frustrated one developed his revenge depending on the capacity of destruction of his weapon: two pistols and a good quantity of bullets. If he had the button he had pressed it.

Executed the massacre, the massacre continues. The president says that bad luck for those who were in the wrong place in the wrong moment. The television channel earns a lot of money with what came for free. Who does not want to earn easy money? We consume it for enjoy our morbidity. Or, Do we analyse conducts? The villain had his great moment of the protagonist. He has returned to kill the dead men, to hurt the injured and to humiliate the relatives and friends. Was this final victory part of his plan or the only reason? Who does not want to be famous in TV by awhile, although it is for entertaining us showing the miseries? The imitators to butchers learn. They terrify a little more to us. The salesman of arms says that the problem was not that the assassin had bought them, the problem was that the victims were not armed to defend themselves Why can serve a gun, if is not for defending ourselves? . .. and it continues. Hypocrisy

Man talk about being cynical!
Just for the record though the President did not say 'bad luck for those who were in the wrong place at the wrong moment'. He said they were in the wrong place at the wrong time - it is a common expression for those who get caught in such a situation not of their own making and who may lose their lives in the process. I have used it myself many times. Adding 'bad luck' to the statement suggests an insensitivity which is your purely your addition. The president also called the shooter "a deeply troubled young man" - not villain, despised one (as you did) or crazy killer (as I did earlier in the thread).
I prefer his words to yours - or mine for that matter.

p.s. BTW, in response to an earlier post apparently the shooter was diagnosed as autistic.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/ ... 17,00.html

[blonde madonna]

Still following the interesting perspectives on this link but once you jump out it can be hard to know where to jump back in. As another perspective on Tchoc's NVC link I would like to post this.

I don't know why this link is so long, hope it works.

http://www.npr.org/templates/dmg/popup. ... 7&mtype=WM

[Osiris]

The version of Hallelujah played on NBS`s Dateline April 17th is most likely not the version with the "four norwegians" as mentioned earlier in this thread. The quartet were topping the hit-charts here in Norway with their version last year, and the Hallelujah I found in msnbc.com was not that one. It sounds like a Jeff Buckley version to me...

One of the members of the norwegian quartet is actually a former winner of the World Idol Final; Kurt Nilsen. He sings like an angel but looks like a Hobbit. But he beat Kelly Clarkson

[Red Poppy]

The more I read here, the more I realise how small some people's world is. Look up, look out, see the rest of it!