Virginia Tech...

The recent tragedy at Virginia Tech has caused immense sorrow across the United States and especially within the academic community. It's challenging to realize that we may not be as safe as we believe.

Several weeks ago, an alumni committed suicide on my campus (Rensselaer Polytech) by jumping down a stairwell. When officials arrived on the scene it looked like a gun-shot and they jumped to blockade campus and cancel all classes. SWAT teams cleared the building room by room. Afterwards, many people felt that these actions were too drastic for what we would later learn was a suicide. But after the events at Virginia Tech, all of us are wondering.... what if?

I was surprised by a comments on a post by Raees al Jumhuriyeh regarding foreign students. Coming from a community with a strong presence of foreign students, it's terrible to think of the lack of diversity. Keeping "foreigners" from being educated in the United States doesn't solve any problems and I'm glad subsequent comments demonstrate that.

Even further along those lines, Down on the Brown Side points out that yesterday was the 12th year anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombings by Timothy McVeigh. People didn't consider his race or religion in the same way that we appear to be making a big deal out of Cho's ethnicity.

Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi seems to claim that this event was a result of a deviation from God. I disagree with this as well. I think it's more important to recognize that Cho was deeply mentally disturbed. There are plenty of people with an enormous range of religious beliefs who find this event shocking and disturbing.

My sympathy and support goes out to all those that were affected by this tragedy...