This is so sad, so many young students who had their lives ahead of them, professors who would have loved going on teaching them … This is a time for grief, not a time for teaching lessons to the Americans. Still there are comments in the German media immediately blaming US laws for the massacre. Even in my favourite newspaper DIE WELT I am reading that America now reaps what it has sown. But the very, very strict laws in Germany have not prevented the massacre that took place in Erfurt five years ago. And who knows, if the Israeli professor who saved his students` lives had had a weapon, maybe he would still be alive. We will never know.
But I am sure that the Virginia Tech Family is going to keep the promise made by Zenobia Hikes, the university`s vice president for student affairs:
“We will eventually recover, but we will never, ever forget!”
And we here in Darmstadt will terribly miss Professor Jamie Bishop and the students of his German class who would have attended a summer school program at Darmstadt Technical University this year.
Tragedy at Virginia Tech, the University`s website
“Die Blutspur von Blacksburg” von Uwe Schmitt, DIE WELT, S. 3, 18. April 2007
I wanted to link to this article, but could not find it online, so here is the last paragraph:
Es gilt im Parlament nichts, dass Amerikas Tragödien von einem gewaltverliebten und waffenverhätschelnden Klima ausgebrütet, mindestens begünstigt werden, in dem Sturmgewehre so leicht zu kaufen sind wie Regenschirme. In den USA töten eher Schüler in Schulen, im Ausland morden eher Erwachsene. Jeden Tag sterben in Amerika 80 Menschen an Schusswunden. Die Opfer verdienen tiefstes Mitgefühl. Amerika, so sehr es heute über sich erschrickt, erntet, was es sät.
Maybe it is not online because DIE WELT now feels ashamed of it. At least, I would hope so.
“‘We will prevail,’ school vows” by TENILLE BONOGUORE AND ANTHONY REINHART, Globe and Mail Update