Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Virginia Tech, One Year Later

There are many things that could be said about the mass shooting at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, which left 32 students and faculty members dead. My sister is a alumnus of the school, and many friends either go there or have graduated from the school in Blacksburg, Va.

The events have also been politicized by sides of the gun control dispute, but today that does not seem appropriate.

I hope to devote future entries to the families of the victims I documented this time last year, including Henry Lee, an outstanding student who was the son of Vietnamese immigrants, who lived in my hometown of Roanoke, Va., and graduated from William Fleming High School with honors.

"The Roanoke Times" ran a special section on Sunday in tribute to those who lost their lives. Here are some of the quotes:

"The most important thing that might happen from all this is not what happened to the victims and not what happened to the families, but what lessons the other 26,000 students take away from it," Brian Cloyd, father of shooting victim Austin Cloyd who was from the hamlet of Narrows, Va.

"Ultimately, you think of the great waste that occurred on that day. The lives that were lost. The potential," Ishwar Puri, professor and engineering department head.

"I remember spring last year as cold because that morning it was cold.....It's kind of refreshing and exciting to be in springtime again. And now it's warm and nice and now my last memory of spring isn't the coldest day there was in spring," Heidi Miller, Virginia Tech student wounded in the shootings.

Useful Links:

http://www.vt.edu

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.planetblacksburg.com

http://www.collegiatetimes.com

 

 

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