Afterthoughts... And Saying Prayers

I can't help but cut short my blog week vacation to post this one after the very tragic events that happened this week. One is the horrific event that occured in the campus of Virginia Tech, Virginia USA. The other, as Howie's blog pointed out, a journalist from the same state of Virginia turned Peace Corp volunteer back home in the Philippines who suddenly was reported missing and now found dead a few days later.

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I can't express enough condolences and shared sadness for the families and friends of those victims of last Monday's deadliest civilian shooting in US history (so far, but God no more of this). I can only say prayers at the moment.

I'd like to condemn and say hellish things to Cho for his psychotic motives in killing innocent lives but I know there's no point anymore now that he's gone too. All I could see from this kid (based from the videos and plays I've read in the Internet) was confusion, seething anger, and bitter outrage to those he deemed "privileged" and "rich" individuals of his school. Which makes me think, since during my college years, my university has a lot of very affluent students. I came from an average middle-income family who can (sometimes) barely pay for my tuition fees and that my parents had to work hard, even to the point of incurring huge debts just to ensure their son is educated. So yes, I'm not a rich person. And yet a lot of these affluent students were friends of mine. Some of them I still communicate and enjoy their company after graduation. While Cho's bitterness towards these "rich" kids caused his supposed hatred and rage, I never let the fact that my college friends are "richer and more comfortable" affect my perspective in making friends and enjoying their company. I never let myself be isolated and locked up in one's world. Cho made up that decision to do so. It's his choice. He paid for it with his life. The bad thing is he has left innocent people dead in his wake.

I don't know if the fact about Cho's life in Wikipedia is true or not, but from what was written, his early life was full of isolation and discrimination. Sadly, there will always be discrimination any where, no matter how hard developed countries want to get rid of it.

Let's not dwell anymore to this personified nightmare.

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Interesting read on how Cho lived and died as an American in 8Asians.com.

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I'm also saddened about the news that the missing Peace Corp volunteer Julia Campbell was found dead in Banaue, Ifugao.

Thanks to Howie's post, I visited Julia's blog and read her last post. It was poignant and truly moving. She wanted to offer any help that she could provide to the poor people like those in Padang, as she stated. In her last entry, she has full of hopes, as she indicated that a new relief group from America would be coming to lend volunteer work here. In the midst of disaster, she knew the risk of her calling, and yet she brushed those risks aside, as she became fond of the local phrase Buhay pa tayo (We're still alive) to keep her spirits up and look at things positively. That phrase keeps warmth and sanity to anyone who loses everything in life except themselves and their families - at least we are still alive and kicking. I remember Mom would also say that to us children, whenever she thinks that catastrophic events would happen like losing our house to a fire. What's important is we are alive. Alive to fight for another day.

Such hopes from a truly kind soul.