A coordinated One Day Blog of Silence is scheduled to be held today on April 30, 2007 in honor of the victims of Virginia Tech. Instead of leaving comments, please post this picture on your blog to uphold the silence and solemn remembrance. Please use this day to meditate and pray for the victims, families, and effected area surrounding the horrible incident that took place at Virginia Tech earlier this week. Thank you.
9 comments:
Thank you for the reminder...
I grew up during the cold war and one of the most important lessons I learned in my childhood was learning to seperate a country's government from its people.
I also grew up with Japanese people living in my home and learned about the beauty of their culture while at the same time hearing about the horrible things that Japan did to other countries during WWII and witnessing the reactions of other cultures to my friends.
I grew up in a part of the United States where there were few blacks and I had to learn slowly over time the courage and power behind Martin Luther King's message of peace. I am so impressed with his vision.
MLK learned his EFFECTIVE form of leadership and change through studying Ghandi who also brought peace and freedom to his people.
Life is precious!
Demonstrating no concern to a tragedy through insensitive remarks leaves little sympathy or empathy for others to feel your personal pains if you are unwilling to grieve with others, thereby rejecting the cooperation from others to feel ones plight and also closing the possibilities to a productive dialog which in turn validates a government to act in the way that it does.
I forgot that this was taking place! I want to say thank you though since you did remember and did this. Don't let others get you down for what they say.
I posted this comment stream on a forum to get feedback from other people on how best to handle a negative blog linking this post to the question for responce. Some people have told me to ignore and delete the negative comment. I have decided to leave it posted to be used by any criminal investigations that may take place regarding this future terrorist. I really liked the comment and point from Stella at mayasmom.com regarding this issue:
"Wow. Pretty ruthless. That is like saying that until all life is cherished then no life should be. It reminds me of a story of an old man walking along a beach where thousands of fish had been washed ashore and they were slowly dying. As the old man walked he bent over and picked up a fish and threw it back in the water. He would take a couple of more steps and bend over and repeat his rescue mission. A younger man walked up and said "Old man, you will never save all of these fish. What is the point? Why even try if you can not save them all, why does it matter?" The old man took a couple of more steps and picked up another fish and as he tossed it into the water he said "It mattered to that one".
No matter what soap box you are climbing or what injustice you want remembered it is the fact that you are spreading knowledge. You are spreading peace. I find it sad that the person who commented on your blog could be so selfish to think that he should pick and choose whose life deserves mourning. The brave men and women who defend our country, signed up for that duty. These kids at Virginia Tech were simply going to school. I am not trying to minimize the importance of either situation. In war you expect casualties and loss of life not in trying to achieve higher education.
Finally, at least you are making an effort. There is nothing I hate more then someone who wants to critize you and then offer no suggestion of change. After reading this comment I would have honored a day of silence for the soliders, or written a blog in their memory, I would have signed a petition, written a letter or done anything else I was instructed to do. But, sadly the comment author just wanted to critize the fact that the world is not perfect nor is it fair and your blog got caught in the cross fire."
after the comment by sholom ilovedcblog said "I have decided to leave it posted to be used by any criminal investigations that may take place regarding this future terrorist."
That strikes of communism, and mccarthyism all wrapped up in one.
sholom made no terroristic threat, but is clearly disturbed by the propensity of the American people to be so easily distracted to their own pain and suffering while ignoring the larger problems they and their government are causing. The point is right, why do we not weep as a nation as profoundly for every soldier that is lost. Was not April 2007 the worst month so far for Americian casualties?
Who cries for the blood of innocent Iraqi women and children whose blood is spilt in vain.
Seriously, ilovedcblog seems to have a special interest in abused women and children. Is not the U.S. government abusing, neglecting and murdering hundreds if not thousands of women and children? Why do you not direct some of your energy to helping them have a better life, one free from daily terror and with some security as to how they will eat and where they will sleep.
The main point that sholom was making for those of you that missed it was that the American people tend to be hypocrites, very self centered and do not balance the pain of their personal suffering with the suffering that they cause on a global scale.
Everyone is upset at the VT massacre but does that give us the right to ignore all of the other pain in the world. We should mourn all with equal opportunity.
ilovedcblog you seem to be a very good example of a hypocrite.
Many enlightened people that have successfully run blogs hold several ideas regarding anonymous comments. It is thought that they are left only by cowards who lack the self esteem or moral compass to answer a blog with their own signiture. I have more respect for a negative blogger than a negative nobody - which is what they are in the reality of their own lives.
The point that the negative bloggers seems to be missing is that all life is precious and united we can stand to protect all people.
Yesterday was a special day for a certain group of victims and their families - they asked to be honored with this posting several days ago. As a responsible and sympathetic person I honored thier request, especially since I currently live within a certain distance of Virginia. I was also close to Columbine (less than 5 miles) on that tragic day.
Diminishing other people's grief and refusing to show support and empathy is no less than denying the truth of any tragety for any tragety. The negative comments reflect back on the lack of thought or sympathy for all tragedies including the ones they purport to propose as being worse.
Embracing that all life is precious and allowing others to hold that day of rememberence is a good way to open a dialog with remembering other groups instead of closing the discussion as a non-intelligable mumbler.
If you look at the profile of the negative blogger you will find that this person commented on people's site remembering that day, not because he was trying to make a point, but only to selfishly bring attention to himself. On a site where I posted a request for feedback on opions of the innapropriate comment I really liked this one posted by Mom on Coffee:
"He visited many sites and left the same comment... He's a complete ass and has obviously not lost anyoen in Iraq or he would have an ounce of compassion.
Sorry, I just had to get that out, didn't want to feed him in someone's comments section. You have the ability to delete the comment, do that instead of feeding his negativity."
I don't follow how you came up with sholom being a terrorist but... I think the best way to respond would be to address it. If we silenced all opposition, then we wouldn't need to show why we're right. Without that important discussion and dialogue, nothing is learned.
If I said the sky is green and no one said otherwise, I would believe the sky was green. If others disagreed and we discussed it, I may learn that the sky is blue. Or I may stay stubbornly stuck in my ways, believing the sky to be green, but you would have learned more about why you feel the sky is blue.
Use sholom to teach yourself why you believe what you believe.
The purpose of this blog post was to show respect and memories of those lost at Virginia Tech.
Sholom wanted to disrupt the event on many blogs that had coordinated this day for rememberance in order to put forth his own selfish agenda of promoting his own blog.
George asked the question, "I don't follow how you came up with sholom being a terrorist . . ."
The following is a definition of terrorist from infoplease:
ter•ror•ist
Pronunciation: (ter'ur-ist), [key]
—n.
1. a person, usually a member of a group, who uses or advocates terrorism.
2. a person who terrorizes or frightens others.
3. (formerly) a member of a political group in Russia aiming at the demoralization of the government by terror.
4. an agent or partisan of the revolutionary tribunal during the Reign of Terror in France.
Disrupting the peace of people remember others in order to self promote your own views is an act of terrorism.
The definition of a terrorist at Yahoo! Education:
ter•ror•ist (trr-st) KEY
NOUN:
One that engages in acts or an act of terrorism.
ADJECTIVE:
Of or relating to terrorism.
Many people chose to delete the "terrorist's" posts and I respect their decisions. I chose to leave it up in order to address the irreverent and insensitive actions of a person lacking any life experience to recognise that this blog post is about and only about rememberence and honor of Virginia Tech.
Please post rememberences for other people on your own sites, but refusing to allow others to grieve in peace is an act of terrorism and incredibly immature.
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