Half Mast

The Virginia Tech massacre is to Universities what ___________ was to New York City.

It often takes a tragedy to bring people together and the out-pour of support for Virgina Tech this past week has been incredible.

USF has decided to lower their flags to half mast this week, and when I was downtown yesterday I observed that the Hotel Intercontinental had also lowered theirs. Many other Universities and Cities across the US have done the same, Mayor Bloomberg, of NYC, ordered all flags in his city be flown at half mast through the end of the week.

On the Facebook, the online friend networking site, many people have changed their profile picture to that of the Virgina Tech VT logo, and have also created events in a show of support for the school and community who have, like the nation as a whole, been blown away by sadness and shock over what happened there this week.

I am proud of the solidarity Americans have shown for VT, and am equally proud that this event has not prompted racial violence or hatred. While some Asian authorities have expressed fear at the possibility of such violence, others have called into question the importance the media seems to have placed on the ethnic origin of the shooter, Cho Seung-Hiu, of South Korea.

This horrible event will no doubt add new fuel to the fire on debates such as gun control, campus security, and scrutiny over who is to blame for not preventing such attacks. Will students in the future have psychological advisers they way many now have academic advisers?

For me the most serious question is ,will their be copycat attacks like their were after the Columbine shootings? College students face high rates of depression and some turn to suicide, Ceung-Hiu turned to violence and killing, will more follow in his footsteps?

My simple conclusion is this: Students who don't have a group of friends or other group or community to belong to are more likly to have these kinks of problems. An a future Resident Advisor and active community member at USF, I challenge myself to reach out to more people, to be a supportive friend, and to encourage others to get involved with what interests them. I ch allege you to do the same in your community, be it USF, another college, or other community.

If some outgoing student had dragged Cho Seung-Hiu out to a bar for trivia night, or convinced him that they needed his unique insight on the debate team, or multicultural experience for model UN, maybe, maybe, this would not have happened.