Posted on 04/21/2007 12:27:09 PM PDT by wagglebee
BLACKSBURG, Virginia (Reuters) - Students at Virginia Tech university prepared for funerals on Saturday for nearly a dozen shooting victims and extended a note of forgiveness to the gunman who killed 32 people on campus.
A small tribute to Seung-Hui Cho, who shot his victims then himself on Monday, has been added to a growing memorial of stones in the center of the sprawling university in southwest Virginia.
"I just wanted you to know that I am not mad at you. I don't hate you," read a note among flowers at a stone marker labeled for Cho. "I am so sorry that you could find no help or comfort."
The note, one of three expressing sorrow and sympathy for the gunman, a mentally disturbed English major, was signed "With all my love, Laura." A purple candle burned and a small American flag stood in the ground nearby.
Other memorial stones were decorated with objects including flags from Canada, Peru, and Israel for victims who came from those countries.
Nearly a dozen funerals and services for victims were planned on Saturday in Blacksburg and across the United States.
Mourners wearing the school's orange and maroon colors wandered the campus, adding flowers and scrawling messages of grief on makeshift memorials on the university grounds.
Graduate student Chris Chabalko, 29, said adding a stone memorial for Cho was fair.
"He was a student. Thirty-three people died," said Chabalko. "There's nothing anyone can do about it now. We've got to remember them equally."
Cho's family issued a heartbroken apology on Friday for the actions of the 23-year-old, who moved to Virginia with his family from South Korea when he was a child.
"He has made the world weep. We are living a nightmare," the family said in a statement.
(The order of Cho's name has been changed in line with his family's practice. He had been previously identified by police and university officials as Cho Seung-Hui.)
QUESTIONS, HEIGHTENED ALERT
Questions remained about how Cho, who had been investigated after stalking complaints in 2005 and treated for mental illness, was able to buy the two guns he used in the rampage.
Under federal law, Cho should have been barred from buying a gun, but wording differences with a Virginia law allowed him to legally get a weapon, a state law professor said.
"A person who has been found in a commitment proceeding to be a danger to himself and committed to out-patient care ... is disqualified from purchasing a firearm under federal law," Richard Bonnie, chairman of the Supreme Court of Virginia's Commission on Mental Health Law Reform, told Reuters.
But under state law, he said, the prohibition only appears to extend to people who have been committed to a hospital, which Cho was not.
As a result, his details would not have been captured by an FBI background check system used by gun sellers.
"It is not a new problem. It has been festering for many years," Bonnie said.
The United States remained jittery following several security scares, and a hostage-taking at NASA in Texas on Friday that left two people dead.
Authorities in Minnesota said a U.S. veteran of the Iraq war was hospitalized after two pipe bombs were found in a pickup truck on Friday at a college in New Ulm.
The discovery on Friday prompted a brief evacuation of the Martin Luther College campus, while the bombs were removed.
The bombs did not appear related to the Virginia Tech shootings, New Ulm police Sergeant Steve Depew said.
First lady Laura Bush said in an interview with Fox New Channel scheduled to air on Saturday that despite the pain of the shootings, "Virginia Tech will be able to move on from it, and there will be a day there where everyone won't think every moment about their loss. But it's tough."
Happened all the time. The woman taken in adultery. The paralytic who was lowered through the roof by his friends.
But that was a power unique to Jesus. It freaked the Pharisees out, as you can see in the story of the paralytic in Mark 2:
5When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.Jesus delegated this power to forgive (or not) the sins of others to His apostles -- but not to everybody.6But there was certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts,
7Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?
8And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?
9Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?
10But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,)
11I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.
12And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.
Laymen can only forgive wrongs done to themselves.
A most unfortunately accurate observation.
I've got to agree wagglebee, ain't no way in hell I'd be that understanding I know the Lords Prayer says "forgive us trespasses (sins) and we forgive those who trespass (or sin against) us but this is too much!
I'm pretty sure God has that kind of 'forgiveness', but I'm only human, and in't no way I'd want to remember someone who murdered my family or friends like that.
Talk about PC run amuck
Why are you interested in where he goes? It is where you go that counts and hate will not get you to the best place. The most powerful force in the universe is Love. THAT is where your focus should be - not on the garbage of this temporary human experience.
That is disgusting!
What it also does it perhaps get into the minds of anyone else who is contemplating such an act that he or she will be likewise "honored", so it really won't be that bad if they go ahead and do it.
I would agree with you. Jesus is God and thus can forgive sins. Someone said on the Dennis Prager Show the other day, (maybe by Dennis himself) that although Jesus forgave those who crucified Him, He is never shown going around to other crucifixions (a not uncommon practice in Jesus’ time) and forgiving those Roman soldiers putting other Jews to death. Also, when he forgave sins during his earthly life, it was often in response to a person’s great faith in Him. Also, after forgiving one’s sins, He would tell the sinner to go and sin no more.
As to the VT massacre, I could see legitimate forgiveness coming from the victims’ families. However, I don’t see where it is my place to ask for anything other than God’s mercy AND justice be accomplished. IOW, it’s in God’s hands, now.
Very true.
OK. But personally with me, it's not so much hate, more than finding it incredible and almost incomprehensible that people are capable of doing such deeds. And yes I realize evil or bad people have always existed. I guess it's just reassuring if it's possibly he can make it to the best place, most of us shouldn't have any problem. Of course, I am not an expert here.
A note from the creator of the universe to all those who believe in Political Correctness:b'shem Yah'shuaIsaiah 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Isaiah 5:21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
And clever in their own sight!
Isaiah 5:22 Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine
And valiant men in mixing strong drink,
Isaiah 5:23 Who justify the wicked for a bribe,
And take away the rights of the ones who are in the right!
What you say is true but nothing in my Bible says anything about building a monument to a monster.
I don't recall anyone asking for Jesus' forgiveness as he hung on that cross. Yet his words were "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."
No....this isn’t part of the “feminization”....this is part of the IDIOCY Brigade.
There is “forgiveness”.....but it comes when redemption is asked for, doesn’t it. And, also this is about “REMEMBRANCE” NOT forgiveness.
Thanks for that.
How can we make things better? We can make the good, the true, the enduring more prominent, more interesting, more entertaining. We can expect and demand that our media focus on these things. We can cease our support of the garbage which is now so prevalent. We can look for alternatives which support our progress.
And, we can demand a change in our political, military and economic paradigm or model. Our country is now "of the money, by the money and for the money". That must change - we must get the people back into the process. This is beginning to take the form of another thread. Maybe that is the way to go. More to come.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
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