April 17, 2007
My heart, prayers and thoughts go out to the families, friends, and colleagues of any student at Virginia Tech–especially the victims in yesterday's tragedy. I'm stunned and angry and horribly distressed.
I found out about it when I walked into a restaurant yesterday and saw a silently-playing CNN coverage: BREAKING NEWS….
At first, it said 1 killed.
And then 7-8 casualties.
By the time my husband and I were done with lunch, it was 21.
And then later that day I was talking to my friend on the phone who said 31.
Where were you when you found out?
Where were you when you found out about Oklahoma City?
I was sitting in a car dealer, waiting for my vehicle to be fixed, and I saw it on television…after my husband phoned to tell me to watch.
Where were you when you found out about Columbine?
I honestly don't remember. I must have been at work. It was before the Internet was fully accessible at my job.
Where were you when you found out about 9/11?
I was home on maternity leave with my youngest, and I called my sister–who lived in Astoria and worked in Manhattan–just to chit-chat. I had no idea what I was calling into; and looking back, it's amazing that I actually got through at 9:00 on that Tuesday morning.
Where were you? How did it change your life?
And then I remind myself that this kind of violence, with the taking of dozens of innocent lives, happens every day in places like Iraq. Every day.
April 17th, 2007 at 7:21 am
I was at my Grans house in DC yesterday and heard the news. My heart broke.
I was driving to the Airport to go to CT on Sept 11th and broke down.
I was eating my Birthday breakfast when I saw the horrors of Columbine.
My prayers go out to the world everyday that these things never happen again.
April 17th, 2007 at 8:02 am
I don’t remember where I was for Oklahoma City, I do remember seeing it on the news, though.
For Columbine, I was on a trip to Texas.
For 9/11 I was in math class and another teacher came in and told our teacher what happened, so we just sat there and watched newsbroadcasts.
Yesterday I swear I lived in a box. I had the tv on, but I guess the wrong channels because it was the afternoon before I heard about what happened.
April 17th, 2007 at 8:26 am
I first heard about Virginia Tech on sugarfused.net while checking my blog reads;
Where were you when you found out about Oklahoma City? I was at work in Japan; the general had the tv on in his office, and called us all in to see what was going on.
Where were you when you found out about Columbine? At work in my current job
Where were you when you found out about 9/11? Again, I was at work and a friend emailed me to ask if I’d heard that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I immediately thought that some poor person had suffered a heart attack or something while flying a small Cessna-type plane. How wrong I was. That whole day was spent at work…not getting much done, just following the events as they unfolded. I remember such a sense of shock.
April 17th, 2007 at 8:30 am
Oklahoma City: I was in college, the last semester of my senior year. I didn’t have very many classes so I heard about it when my alarm woke me up to news radio.
Columbine: I don’t remember. I do remember driving past Littleton a few weeks later on a cross-country road trip and feeling kind of weird about it.
9/11: I had just started grad school and I was completely alone in a new city. Tuesdays were my day off school, and I hadn’t found a job yet. My phone rang at a little after 8 AM and I sure was pissed off about that. It was my mom, letting me know what happened. At the time, my boyfriend (who is now my husband) was working in downtown Chicago, and my father was working for the state’s terrorism task force. My family lied to me about my dad’s whereabouts–I was so worried that something was going to happen in Chicago, and he was one of the few people left downtown. The days after 9/11 were very strange for me. I had little contact with anyone the day it happened. At around 6 PM, I finally got up off the couch and went to the public library just so I could be around people for a while.
I found out about the shootings yesterday when I fired up my Bloglines right before leaving work for the day. I live in a college town. I can’t imagine something like that happening here. My heart goes out to everyone in Blacksburg–students, faculty, staff, and the community. I have no idea what they are going through, but I hope they are able to recover and return to their lives.
April 17th, 2007 at 11:11 am
Very nice post. I was living in Tulsa and was in my office when Ok City happened. I spent the day listening to the radio, watching tv, and talking with my clients about it. Same thing with 9/11. This was an awful tragedy that just got more awful as the day went on and the body count got higher and higher. I feel so terrible for the families and friends of those who lost someone in this way. There are no pat words to comfort them. All I can say is how very sorry I am. Incidents like these really make me stop and look at my life and appreciate each and every moment, from the rough, tedious ones at work to those spent with family, friends, or a good book. Life is for living and incidents like these shine a spotlight on that fact so clearly.
April 17th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Ok City: I don’t know where I was. Probably at school.
Columbine: I was at my desk in my dorm room. I remember recognizing the school and not remembering how. A while later, my parents and I remembered that it had been the school where I took my SAT test (we’d been in Colorado at the time).
9/11: I was on a plane scheduled to land at Kennedy Airport in Queens about 15 minutes after the first plane hit. I found out by accident (called my mom on the seat phone to tell her that there was a problem at the airport), since they weren’t announcing it on the plane.
Va Tech: In my apartment with my fiance.
April 17th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
OKC: I was in OKC. The bomb woke me up, not the news.
Columbine: I don’t recall where I was, I just remember being glued to the T.V.
9/11: Glued to the T.V. at home in Florida, reliving OKC.
VA: At home here in TX, glued to the T.V. Husband is in VA on business.
April 17th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
For OKC and Columbine, I don’t remember where I was but I remember watching the news, reading the papers, just sickened by the loss of innocent lives. Yesterday I had the day off, and didn’t see until later when I was home.
9/11: I worked for UAL at the time and was at the headquarters when it happened, in a meeting. Some of us headed over to the crisis center to volunteer - we took phone calls for the families of those on the UA flights. It was completely heart-wrenching.
April 18th, 2007 at 8:22 am
My cousin knew the Puerto Rican student who died in the shootout. It was terrible. I don’t know what the world is coming to if the answer for everything is pulling out a gun.
April 18th, 2007 at 8:28 am
I found out about this when I turned on my car radio for news about the weather. We have been w.out power for two days.
Columbine: not sure, but my son was in kindergarten. I did not want him know about this. But, some parents let their kids watch the news at a very young age.
Oklahoma City: Not sure, must have been at work.
9/11: I was w. my best friends husband. We were discussing what to do about the twins reading or lack of reading. And, we just watched the news horrified and never did dicuss what to do about their reading. Then my friend came home. Everything was shutting down. ALl I wanted to do was go get my kids.
I cannot imagine living in a place where this happens everyday. ANd, yet it does. I am not sure why we are so determined to kill each other. All this hatred doesn’t make any sense to me. Do we hate ourselves so much that all we can do is kill other people?
April 18th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Know what’s weird? I hadn’t heard the news the other morning but was driving home from a class at the gym with a CD in the player (really out in my own world) and I suddenly had this paranoia that someone was going to storm my daughter’s preschool. Whoa. I’m a bit witchy like that…
April 20th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
I don’t remember where I was for the OK City bombing - probably in class. Was it before or after Columbine?
Columbine, I was teaching 5th grade in my old school. We had cable in the classroom. A bunch of teachers watched the coverage in my room after school.
9-11, I was teaching music. The nurse came in to look at my TV because a parent had told her something was happening in NYC. I had a PreK class and didn’t want them to see, so we turned the TV around. It looked like the whole city was on fire. I watched through every break, praying for survivors.
I didn’t know about VT till I got home and saw an email.