No! Not Again ....

[yvonne]

i've been glued to the television all morning... i can't comprehend the gravity of what's going on at Virginia Tech today.

i can't even begin to imagine what those kids ... and thier terrified parents are going through right now.

[joyofspin]

I know. I can't watch. So scary. I cannot imagine the anguish and the pain.

[Pink]

What the heck? I'm clueless. I've been bailing water out of my basement most of the day...off to check CNN...

[joyofspin]

Pink Stay in your basement - trust me - you really don't want to see it.

[Pink]

How is it possible to make sense out of these situations? What makes someone's brain go so wrong that they can commit something so horrific? So terrible.

[jsejt]

Yes, keep them in your prayers-please. :cry:

[megale3]

I have been in awe all morning. Is it weird that I am mad because they could capture this animal alive?
M

[abby_b_fit]

I have been in awe all morning. Is it weird that I am mad because they could capture this animal alive?
M

I can't even think about this. I have a client who's son was kill in a drunken accident at VT last year. I have two step children who are going away to school soon and I am totally FREAKED out right now. :cry:


---A

[BFSpin]

I have been in awe all morning. Is it weird that I am mad because they could capture this animal alive?
M

Mike, I thought the same thing. While I can't begin to imagine what these families must be going through, I would think at some point their need to know what exactly happened must be overwhelming. How will they ever get answers??

Unbelievable.

B

[AC]

I am very close with my friends from Bayonne, where I grew up..we usually get together every year for dinners and other occasions. This one is one that should interest you all...

"Josephine's close friend,Caitlin Hammaren was murdered yesterday at Virginia Tech. I want to tell you about her. I have a need to.Everyone here knows who she is-there is no one to tell what a nice girl she was-the kindest of Joey's friends.Everyone truly liked her. She was also my student . She was talented and very focused.She was a real partner with her mother-an only child and for years it was just the two of them-what will Marion do now?
The news is bad but so much harder when it wears the face of some one you love and will never see again.

When the story comes up as it inevitably will today-please take a minute and tell them about Caitlin and how she will be missed."

Adrienne

[y-guy]

Uncanny how we brush up against death. We have a son in college and a daughter looking to go away in a year. Our son goes to school in town here. This pales in comparison to what happened in Blackburg however I feel it is worth telling.

Yesterday we had a violent wind storm come through in the afternoon. On a road we all travel down numerous times a week as he headed to class about 300 yards up ahead my son watched a gigantic tree fall across the road. As he got closer he could see that it landed dead center across the roof of a car very similar to the one he drives in the oncoming lane. As there was nothing he could do outside of calling 911 he immeadiately called my wife. As composed as a twenty year old could be he tried to explain to his mother what he saw. As soon as he heard her voice he began to weep uncontrolably to the point she asked him to pull over to get composed.
As he suspected, we confirmed on the late news that the driver was killed.
Horrible stuff.

ytown

[NJspin]

Yguy, after hearing all the news from VA on the computer etc... as soon as I was done at school I picked up the phone and called my daughter away at college in MA. I just needed to hear her voice. My wife did the same thing when she got out of school yesterday also. Of course my daughter was like " It's ok you guys.. I am fine. Can I get back to studying now? " Uncanny how we brush up against death. We have a son in college and a daughter looking to go away in a year. Our son goes to school in town here. This pales in comparison to what happened in Blackburg however I feel it is worth telling.

[jsejt]

I am very close with my friends from Bayonne, where I grew up..we usually get together every year for dinners and other occasions. This one is one that should interest you all...

"Josephine's close friend,Caitlin Hammaren was murdered yesterday at Virginia Tech. I want to tell you about her. I have a need to.Everyone here knows who she is-there is no one to tell what a nice girl she was-the kindest of Joey's friends.Everyone truly liked her. She was also my student . She was talented and very focused.She was a real partner with her mother-an only child and for years it was just the two of them-what will Marion do now?
The news is bad but so much harder when it wears the face of some one you love and will never see again.

When the story comes up as it inevitably will today-please take a minute and tell them about Caitlin and how she will be missed."

Adrienne

Thank you for sharing this. So many personal stories. I know so many people that have gone or go to VA tech thankfully everyone I know is safe. I feel so bad for the families left behind. One story hits close to my school, we have a lady here that son goes to VA tech, he was supposed to be in that classroom the morning of the rampage but he had an early morning appointment and missed the early morning class. (((chills)))

My heart is so heavy today.......

[joyofspin]

This is so sad and frightening on so many levels. All these parentw sho sent their kids off to school expecting them to do stupid stuff occasionally but always wishing they would remain safe. I can't imagine the pain, the violation, the immense fear at not only what happened but that it could happen again and having no control over it. I am sorr y for all who have lost and for all whose lives will be forever changed.

[monical1]

My oldest son in nineteen. He was in middle school when the Columbine shootings occured. One day he broke down in tears and told me he couldn't concentrate in school because he was in constant fear of it happening at his school. That wasn't the part that really shocked me, as I know that must have been how every child felt on some level after that terrible, terrible day; however, he continued to say that he was in constant fear because he knew what it would do to me. I tried to stay composed, but failed.... miserably. He was right. AC, I can't imagine what your friend is going through; my mind won't let me go there. I will definitely relate Caitlin Hammaren's story to anyone who will listen here in my neck of the woods; and I will say a prayer for her mother, Marion as well. I'm very sorry. :(

Monica

[AC]

One of victims in Virginia Tech shooting rampage Monday is Prof Liviu Librescu, senior researcher at university. Librescu was killed after he stayed behind his class to block door and protect students. Massacre claimed lives of 32 people. Prof Librescu and his wife are both Holocaust survivors who immigrated to Israel from Romania in 1978.

WASHINGTON – Prof Liviu Librescu, a senior researcher and lecturer at Virginia Tech, is among the 32 people who were killed during a shooting rampage at the university Monday.

His wife, Marlina, and two sons, Arieh and Joe, have already begun making arrangements for his burial in Israel.

Prof Librescu at his grandson's brit, three years ago (Reproduction: Yaron Brener)

One of Prof Librescu's students, Alec Calhoun, who was with him at the classroom when the shooting started, told AP that at about 9:05 am, he and classmates heard "a thunderous sound from the classroom next door, what sounded like an enormous hammer."

When students realized the sounds were gunshots, Calhoun said, they started flipping over desks for hiding places. Others dashed to the windows of the second-floor classroom, kicking out the screens and jumping from the ledge of the room.

Calhoun said that just before he climbed out the window, he turned to look at the professor (Librescu), who had stayed behind to block the door.

Students morn the loss of friends after Virginia Tech massacre (Photo: AP, Sam Dean)

Librescu's wife drove him to work on Monday, and he was killed about an hour later. His daughter-in-law Ayala, who is married to his son, Joe, told Ynet: "I heard he blocked the door of the classroom he was teaching… he must have realized that the murderer was approaching. He saved his students and was killed by gunshots."

"He has been teaching there for 20 years, and was a senior, world-renowned lecturer. He is the professor with the highest number of publications in the history of Virginia Tech. In the past, he taught at Tel Aviv University and the Technion," she added.

Ayala said that her father-in-law was passionate about his research and a dedicated family man.

A true gentleman

Prof Librescu and his wife are both Holocaust survivors who immigrated to Israel from Romania in 1978.

Librescu was an accomplished scientist in Romania, and the Communist regime had tried to prevent him from making aliyah to Israel. He was allowed to leave the country only after the Israeli prime minister at the time Menachem Begin appealed the matter to President Nicolae Ceausescu.

Several years later, Librescu left for a sabbatical in the United States and has remained there since. His first son, Arieh, lives in Israel, while his other son, Joe, resides in the US. "I understand from friends that my father was a hero," the son Joe told Ynet. "In fact, by blocking the door with his body he saved all the students who were in the classroom."

Joe said that his parents were very happy in the United States, where they have been living since 1984. "He and my mom led a simple life, at a pastoral place in West Virginia, between hills and mountains, and he loved the school in which he taught."

"He is scientist who did not work for money, but for the pleasure he got from his occupation," he added.

[AC]

I was a little disconnected from this whole thing yesterday for various reasons and sitting for innumerable hours in traffic around the area yesterday, but I got my friends email this morning and frankly I was heartbroken.

I'd prefer to read and learn now about the people who were slaughtered now, a bright young decent young lady from New York, and for goodness sakes, a Holocaust survivor? A 78 year old professor who stood holding a door so that some young ones could possibly live. What else should this man have to go through in life? He'll make his alliyah now.