The [Virginia Tech] Massacre
Within hours of Monday's shootings at Virginia Tech University, Wikipedia.org, a free, open content, on-line, community-built encyclopedia, which cites traditional news sources as well as citizen journalists, created a new page in its digital database to chronicle the carnage, entitled "The Virginia Tech Massacre."
Most of the citizen journalists who've contributed to the page are college students, who text-messaged eyewitness accounts, captured digital images of each other cowering in classrooms, and recorded the unmistakable sounds of multiple gunshots — all by using their newfangled cell phones. Wasn't it just last week that these expensive gadgets were being used by college kids to text inane things to each other, or photograph hot coeds, or call home to ask for money?
But the Virginia Tech massacre managed to changed all that.
With 33 dead, including the deranged shooter, it's the deadliest school shooting incident in the United States, surpassing the 15 deaths of the Columbine High School massacre of 1999 and the 16 deaths at the University of Texas massacre of 1966.
Virginia Tech canceled classes for Monday and Tuesday and asked off-campus visitors not to come onto the school grounds. The university is offering counseling assistance for bereaved students and faculty. The Red Cross dispatched several dozen crisis counselors to help them cope with the tragedy.
And, a group calling itself "Hokies United" posted this message on its website Monday:
On Tuesday evening, all [Hokies] are invited to the [drill field] where they can stand united in remembrance of our fallen classmates. There will be a wall for students to share memories and honor those who have passed. Candles will be made available for all attendees. Please wear [Orange and Maroon] if you can. Please feel free to bring pictures, flowers, stuffed animals, or anything else to help remember the victims.
Looking back, did you notice that most of this editorial can be recycled?
By changing the name of the school and the number of victims, it can be used over and over again.
Unless we find some way to curb the culture of guns and violence in our nation, especially among young people, and to better safeguard our schools, we will be using these words to lament the tragic [site of the next senseless school shooting] as well.
— GRANT OVERSTAKE
