Things...

I have received shocking news from my dear old friend Chan-Won. There was a murder on Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg. On Wednesday evening, January 21, 2009, a male Chinese graduate student has murdered a female Asian graduate student. The incident took place where I am very familiar with. My old friend Sabin lived in that building in her senior year, and I attended my freshmen orientation. The Graduate Life Center, also known as the Donaldson-Brown building is a place among many other places where I have good memories of my student life at Tech.

What a shame… Couple of years ago, a nation-wide tragedy breaks out, and before long enough to bury those bad memories into our past, another shocking news follows. Wednesday’s incident wasn’t reported on CNN, so I am assuming that it isn’t reported nation-wide. However, it happened, and people will start to know about it at some point.

Considering that Blacksburg shares variety of culture among many international students from all over the world, the murder which took place on Wednesday is quite unexpected and surprising. The recent happening and the massacre of 2007 are both hard to accept emotionally because it seems like there were no social or political issues related to them. Both events were resulted from someone (or among people) with personal issues. Since when has Virginia Tech campus become such a dangerous place to live??? What happened to the Hokie spirit of Ut Prosim, which means “That I May Serve” in Latin?

Shame on you Hokies… Especially on the Asian Hokies !!!

Think about it both, incidents were caused by an Asian -- One from a Korean American, and one from a Chinese. I know that the university is putting a lot of effort in taking care of the minorities. Under the motto Ut Prosim, the university has done a great job for a long time, and the Virginia Tech staff has pride for it. And I bet all the students know it too. With all the services that the university is providing, I bet they also have expectations on us. Why don’t we live up to their expectations?

I hope that people will not form any negative stereotypes whatsoever towards the Asians as a result of the two tragedies we have gone through in the past two years. While negative stereotypes might form among the people about Asians, we Hokies should at least look for one another among us. Perhaps it might be the Hokies that the public will start building negative stereotypes on and we are all Hokies aren’t we? I strongly urge the Hokies to reunite as a result of the tragic event and live by the university motto Ut Prosim.