This is the candlelight vigil which took place last night in Washington Square Park to honor the victims, families and friends of those affected by the Virginia Tech massacre last Friday. The vigil was organized by the Greater New York City Chapter of the Virginia Tech Alumni Association (Manhattan Hokies). All were welcomed to attend. I will not recount the details of the event as there are better sources than this site for those interested. My condolences to all those affected by the tragedy ...
Friday, April 20, 2007
Virginia Tech
This is the candlelight vigil which took place last night in Washington Square Park to honor the victims, families and friends of those affected by the Virginia Tech massacre last Friday. The vigil was organized by the Greater New York City Chapter of the Virginia Tech Alumni Association (Manhattan Hokies). All were welcomed to attend. I will not recount the details of the event as there are better sources than this site for those interested. My condolences to all those affected by the tragedy ...
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14 comments:
A lovely photo. Thanks.
Brian, thanks for the photo. It is so senseless this terrible tragedy, and so frightening!
Wonderful of you to have this post.
Unity... Peace to all.
carol, kate, heidi - Thanks.
Brian
I'm sorry, it may be my calvanistic upbringing, but I find the outpouring of 'public' grief somewhat nauseating. And I'm not being anti-US here, the UK reaction to Princess Di's death was probably even worse.
I don't want to minimise the effect on those directly involved - I cannot even begin to comprehend what they must be feeling. However what the rest of us should be doing is not beating our breasts in public, but working very quietly and very seriously on ways to prevent such occurrences in future.
Honest Man: Well, I agree with you! I hate the way that public grieving and expressions of "senselessness" have sublimated any real action.
It's not senseless. A mentally ill person with ludicrously easy access to guns snapped and killed a whole lot of people. There's nothing incomprehensible about that.
30 000 people die from gunshot in the US every year.
PS And I;m not being heartkess, just angry. As a parent, I held my dear son closer to me when i heard of it, and cried for what all those dear parents are going through. Just as I did for Columbine, Dunblane and Port Arthur. and 200 people died in Iraq the same day. No newspaper printed their photos on the front page.
Sally: Ugh. Comparing innocent people not in a war to a war situation. Tacky.
My condolences as well to all those affected and to all the VT alumni that felt the effects as well. I don't a problem with their wanting to show respect.
Sally: Ugh. Comparing innocent people not in a war to a war situation. Tacky
What??? Do you mean the hundreds that die a day in Iraq some how don't need a prayer vigil becuase they are in a War and that is different? Wheres your head at?
fritz,
Where's YOUR head at? Not to mention where is your heart?
Turning this into something political is cruel.
It's not political, it's about trying to turn this tragedy into positive action.
Collective mourning such as the vigil shown here is important, there is a time for grieving.... but then there should be a time for acting. How are you/we going to ensure this never happens again?
But this is the question most Americans don't seem interested in. So the violent culture continues, the guns are still available to every nutcase in town so after this tragedy it's just a matter of waiting till the next one comes down the road...
and there will be another vigil like this one...
and still nothing else done...
Like Sally this makes me angry.
PS - and I don't think it's irrelevant to mention the hundreds of innocent people killed by suicide bombers on marketplaces in Bagdad either
Nice way to capture the moment. A very sad tragedy.
Right on Nathalie You said it better than I did maybe Susan sees it from this angle now....
I think it's a beautiful photo. I also think it's an important event. I'm temporarily living in Spain at the moment, but I normally live just off Washington Square Park. It's important for the rest of the world, and for the rest of the US too, to know that not all Americans agree with the gun policy in the US. To some extent, these public events may help to indicate that.
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