Another Tragedy

I experienced a phenomenal event at the Inauguration. But I returned to a tragedy in Blacksburg. Police found Xin Yang, an graduate student in accounting, decapitated in a cafe in the GLC. Hiyang Zhu, doctoral student in agricultural and applied economics, was charged with death.

As much as I want to report on this as a journalist, I'm going to refrain. The night of the murder I was in Squires, a building right next to the GLC, and could see flashing lights of police cars parked outside of the GLC. The GLC and Squires are close to downtown Blacksburg, so I figured they were regulating parking as they usually do around that hour. It was not until I got home and checked my messages that I saw the VT e-mail alerts. My inbox was filled with text messages from alumni and colleagues wondering where I was and what was going on. I turned on the news and even still the story was in such an infancy stage that there was not much to report except that there was stabbing.

The first thing I thought about was why here? Why now? Reminded of the reputation VT has for the tradgedy. The media called it a massacre without any regard how it affected those who share a big part of their life here in Blacksburg. As more information was released, I learned that both the victim and the accused were international students from China. A colleague pointed me to a blog where people were saying harsh things about Asians and our school.

That was when I got upset. Someone was murdered. Decapitated! And there are people out there being so insensitive to say things like "They must have been Obama supporters" or "Virginia Tech is murder university." Are you serious!! It takes a tragedy to see people's real ignorance. All I can do is choose what I will and will not let affect me.

I woke up to an e-mail saying that a co-worker witnessed the incident. She went out of town fearing for her life. I eventually heard the story of all that she saw and all I can do is pray. This is an event that may go under the radar with all the hype from the new President. For me being here it really damages our community. We stand on edge wondering what the next news outlet is going to say about us. This can't be real.

Comments

Anonymous said…
this is really a tragedy.. I attend West Virginia University and alot of our students were affected by the past events at VT and now this... My heart goes out to the entire campus..

on another note i enjoy your thoughts Mr. Gordon
February 4, 2009 at 8:21 PM
Gordon M. Curry said…
Hey, thanks! Nice to know people do read my blog.
February 10, 2009 at 8:21 PM
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