As the news of the tragic massacre at Virginia Tech unfolded over the United States in the last couple of days, the public outpour of emotions and sentiments has been overwelming. Some mourn for this great lost, others question the effectiveness of the establishment's reaction and some have irresponsibly taken up this event as fodder for their own political agendas.
And yet, as people around the nation hold virgils and services for Virginia Tech, an simliar but much more massive support group is rallying online both through individual blogs and through social community sites like facebook, where a new group called "Today we are all Hokies" has been created and promptly amassed a large community of over 15,000 who come together to share information and support those in grief. The online medium has been used as a great support mechanism both for people from VT to pour out their emotions online as well as for others around the nation to read and gain more insights from the students and staff who are actually on the ground as a alternative to the repetative news updates from the mass media.
As the nation questions this incident in disbelief, colleges around the United States have been once again awakened to the possibility of such incidents occuring on their campuses and taken measures to prevent or mitigate the situation if it really did occur.
Being that the gunman was of Korean descent also sparked an outpour of reaction, partly due to his portrayal in the mass media. Some Asian-Americans are beginning to fear irrational retaliation due to this incident.
But in all the waves of heightened emotions and uncertainty, one thing is sure -- To all of the Virgina Tech family and those affected by this great tragedy, our hearts go out to all of you.
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