Virginia Tech

[toppick08]

"The world was cheated of these lives and the accomplishments these extrodinary individuals would have made."

Oh gawd. Here we go with the, they wouldve changed the world, crap.

If I die, and somebody says at my funeral that I would've changed the world with my actions, please do me one last favor and shoot them.

 

[thurley42]

Who said they were even sitting...waiting for the bullet to hit them?

Maybe they were running. Maybe they were trying to stop the shooter. If you weren't there you just don't know.

because of the fifty million accounts they took from people that were in the rooms to the people who were ten blocks away that thought they heard shots. They said that they were trying to get under desks or sitting there in shock...they were in a major university tons of people he was one person...someone should have sucked it up and taken him down....

but that's just my opinion....and yes i've been in many a firefights so i can put in my .02

 

[Mateo]

Wow, that is pretty cold hearted. I don't know, but there is a chance one of these brilliant minds going to a great school of engineering may have changed the world?

What you say is true also, but how many of the 4000 of our honoured dead could have done the same ? In the bigger picture, they are forgotten compared to these few albeit needless deaths. Is it because we value the students more than those who by chance circumstance, answered a call to duty ? I think and hope that we don't.

 

[thurley42]

What you say is true also, but how many of the 4000 of our honoured dead could have done the same ? In the bigger picture, they are forgotten compared to these few albeit needless deaths. Is it because we value the students more than those who by chance circumstance, answered a call to duty ? I think and hope that we don't.

well said.

 

[Geek]

What you say is true also, but how many of the 4000 of our honoured dead could have done the same ? In the bigger picture, they are forgotten compared to these few albeit needless deaths. Is it because we value the students more than those who by chance circumstance, answered a call to duty ? I think and hope that we don't.

It's horrifying because they were where they should have been safe. If you are speaking of our soldiers, they are heroes and deserve to be mourned and their courage celebrated.
No one sitting in a desk in class is supposed to have to be a hero. (Let's not forget the older gentleman professor who stood in the doorway taking bullets so his students could escape) They are supposed to listen and learn.

 

[edinsomd]

It's horrifying because they were where they should have been safe.

THIS! They weren't, and VT's administration is at fault for not allowing students and staff to be so.
Ed

 

[Geek]

THIS! They weren't, and VT's administration is at fault for not allowing students and staff to be so.
Ed

Yes, that's is true. But the horrifying fact of kids getting gunned down in school should mortify us. We should perseverate on it. I really hope we all never get used to it. Then it will be common.

 

[edinsomd]

Yes, that's is true. But the horrifying fact of kids getting gunned down in school should mortify us. We should perseverate on it. I really hope we all never get used to it. Then it will be common.

What mortifies ME is this tragedy was avoidable, or at least could have been greatly reduced, except for the actions of VT's administration. They are the ones who bear responsibility.
Ed

 

[C6R_Mag]

but that's just my opinion....and yes i've been in many a firefights so i can put in my .02

what the hell does a firefight have to do with a gunfight??? on top of that its not even a gunfight..its one man pointing a gun at you while you approach him with your hands, chair, bottle, etc...

 

[Mateo]

You all have valid points.
I agree that VT's admininstration is at fault and hence the problem should be dealt with but not overdone. The cup runneth over in their case and it tends to make one weary of hearing about it to the point when someone says enough. If anyone should be a hero, it is the one professor who placed his life in harm's way so that others may live.
However, my point is where is that same press coverage when it comes down to the people who have been placed in Harm's Way? Sure, it can be argued that is what they signed up for. Well, that is true, and that is the nature of a soldier, but like VT's administration, it was the decisions of others who placed them there. I am not faulting the students anymore than am faulting the selfless warriors who go where we the American people send them.
The students and instructor will be remembered....I doubt our honored dead will get a piece of the same. That is the shame of it all.

 

[sommpd]

What you say is true also, but how many of the 4000 of our honoured dead could have done the same ? In the bigger picture, they are forgotten compared to these few albeit needless deaths. Is it because we value the students more than those who by chance circumstance, answered a call to duty ? I think and hope that we don't.

I think many of the Honored 4000 dead could have changed the world. I think collectively they did! I feel every life is valuable, and has effects, which probably can never be measured on the rest of the world. I especially feel that people who are in the military or people who are being trained in fields such as medicine, science, technology, and as many of these students, engineering, may have a vast impact on the lives of our children’s children.

 

[sommpd]

If this is about who is a hero, or who should be honored more, well I don't know if I can say who should be honored more.

I give my appreciation, respect and admiration to those who serve our country first and foremost. But when a life is taken suddenly and violently, then it's tragic. I am an advocate of victims. I think all those who live a good life and that life is taken from them should be honored.

 

[AndyMarquisLIVE]

I think many of the Honored 4000 dead could have changed the world. I think collectively they did! I feel every life is valuable, and has effects, which probably can never be measured on the rest of the world. I especially feel that people who are in the military or people who are being trained in fields such as medicine, science, technology, and as many of these students, engineering, may have a vast impact on the lives of our children’s children.

If it weren't for the Military fighting overseas in Iraq, these kids wouldn't have gotten the opportunitty to attend a college and get a good education.

 

[beerlover]

I don't think Iraq has a history of preventing our kids from attending college.

 

[beerlover]

I don't think anyone believes that we should honor our fallen soldiers any less than we do our fallen students. But the ceremony was for the specific VT incident where unarmed students with no expectation of danger were murdered. Why WOULD the speakers bring up the war dead? They may not all have rushed the gunman in a heroic last stand, but there are also plenty of stories of students and teachers sacrificing themselves to do what they could to save the others. Also, I recall the doors were locked by this nutcase, so they could not just run away out of the building, either.

The thing that made the VT shootings more shocking than the death of 4,000 soldiers over 5 years overseas is that the students were going about their day attending class in an environment where that kind of violence was totally out of place. They had no expectation of danger or that they would have to defend themselves from a killer. The soldiers are armed professionals trained in offensive and defensive maneuvers and they were in a combat zone where they COULD reasonably expect to be attacked. That doesn't make their deaths any less tragic, but it's just a different scenario entirely.

 

[Mateo]

I don't think anyone believes that we should honor our fallen soldiers any less than we do our fallen students. But the ceremony was for the specific VT incident where unarmed students with no expectation of danger were murdered. Why WOULD the speakers bring up the war dead? They may not all have rushed the gunman in a heroic last stand, but there are also plenty of stories of students and teachers sacrificing themselves to do what they could to save the others. Also, I recall the doors were locked by this nutcase, so they could not just run away out of the building, either.

The thing that made the VT shootings more shocking than the death of 4,000 soldiers over 5 years overseas is that the students were going about their day attending class in an environment where that kind of violence was totally out of place. They had no expectation of danger or that they would have to defend themselves from a killer. The soldiers are armed professionals trained in offensive and defensive maneuvers and they were in a combat zone where they COULD reasonably expect to be attacked. That doesn't make their deaths any less tragic, but it's just a different scenario entirely.

I agree with you that it is a different scenario. I just believe that the VT event is a private event for VT, the families and who ever else is concerned , but it is time for the media to let it go..there are more important things . We honor in our hearts, the Americans who brought down Flight 93, but do you hear about them all the time ? The media needs to move on......
We mourn ALL our dead in our hearts, but we honor them by living honorably.

 

[BuddyLee]

because of the fifty million accounts they took from people that were in the rooms to the people who were ten blocks away that thought they heard shots. They said that they were trying to get under desks or sitting there in shock...they were in a major university tons of people he was one person...someone should have sucked it up and taken him down....

but that's just my opinion....and yes i've been in many a firefights so i can put in my .02

I'd probably take cover or flee myself. I don't know about you but I wouldn't be so dense as to walk into a bullet.

If only you were there...

...then you could have been the one knowledgeable calm and cool hand Luke soul to dodge these bullets and take this one threat out. You could even flex your brawny muscles to the student body after it was all over. Not your cerebral muscles, of course.

By the way, in these firefights you say you had...

...you had a weapon, right? Lucky you.

 

[BuddyLee]

what the hell does a firefight have to do with a gunfight??? on top of that its not even a gunfight..its one man pointing a gun at you while you approach him with your hands, chair, bottle, etc...

Exactly.