Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 4:44 am
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
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
