"America's HOKIE Email"......From our friend Sherrie Kirby
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> Subject: FW: Hokies, letter to Cho
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> April 20, 2007
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> Dear Seung-Hui Cho,
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> I know you're dead, but I have to write to you. I guess that must
> sound silly, really silly. But then, we're hardly in the position
> to discuss irrationality at this point, and you didn't give anyone
> the chance to say anything to you while you were still alive. My
> name is Emily and I am a 30-year-old alumnus of Virginia Tech. I
> graduated in 2000 with an English degree, just as I believe you
> were attempting to ascertain before all of this. I went on to earn
> a Master's degree in Secondary English Education in 2003, and I now
> teach English in a Virginia high school outside of Richmond. You
> killed my student's cousin, Matt Gwaltney. Since April 16th, we
> have discovered two guns in the hands of children in our school. If
> I'm looking for a positive to this, I guess it would be that we
> found the guns before anything as terrible as your efforts
> occurred.
>
> So, here I sit at my computer, four days after you killed 32 people
> and yourself on our campus, writing you, a total [dead] stranger.
> And I'm thinking that you're not really a stranger. Isn't that
> crazy?! I mean, we've never met, we never had a class together, and
> I didn't directly know anyone you hurt or killed. But, the truth is
> that we were both Hokies and we were both English majors and maybe
> we have both been hurt by incidents in our lives. But the
> difference is that I worked through being poorer than my wealthier
> peers by working at coffee shops in Blacksburg through college. I
> just didn't have much of an academic drive in high school, maybe
> you felt that way too with a sister at Princeton.
>
> I remember sitting alone in my apartment in Blacksburg in the fall
> of 1998 wishing I had had the experience of living in a dorm,
> because maybe then I would have friends. But do you know where I
> made friends in a matter of a few weeks after moving to Blacksburg?
> Not in a sorority, not in a Mercedes dealership parking lot, not in
> a jewelry store buying a gold necklace, but in a coffee shop making
> just enough money to pay the rent and buy some groceries.
>
> Death and brutality have a way of leaving a stench about the places
> they hit. Long after a place is cleaned up, long after they carry
> away your carelessness, people are afraid to walk the paths that
> you walked around campus. People are afraid to enter the post
> office you used to deliver your hatred nationally. It's almost like
> we're afraid to walk through some evil cloud you may have left,
> some contagious insanity you may have littered our streets with.
> But do I hate you for it? No. Don't get me wrong; I won't make
> excuses for you. I won't say, "Well, maybe he came from a bad
> home," or "Maybe something happened to him that wounded him so
> deeply," because nothing that happened before April 16th warranted
> what you did. But I won't let your darkness cast a shadow on my
> heart, because I won't let you win.
>
> See, what you don't realize is that your plan failed in so many
> ways. First of all, if your intentions in delivering the package to
> NBC were to explain to us from the grave why you did what you did,
> you didn't. I think I can speak for every Hokie when I say that we
> still don't understand who you were speaking to in the video, who
> your hatred was directed towards, or why you rambled on endlessly
> about your children that you yourself made impossible to have.
> Whatever impression you wanted to leave in our minds, unless it was
> pity and disgust for the dissertation of a madman, it didn't
> happen, Seung. And you ended your life so quickly that you can't
> come back to clarify, you can't answer your audience's questions,
> you can't take responsibility for your "work" if that's what you
> saw it as. You can't even revel in the aftermath of your mess.
>
> Virginia Tech has always had the reputation of being a "good ole
> boy's" school; I guess because we have such a well-known
> agricultural program, or maybe it's all of the cows in the fields
> that surround our campus, but Virginia Tech is a school with a
> fantastic reputation for academic excellence without the
> ostentatious attitude often associated with some of our
> counterparts. Which is why it is so hard to believe that you chose
> Blacksburg as the venue for your jealous tirade! You shot and
> killed people who rode horses, who played in the marching band, or
> who were learning foreign languages. You senselessly murdered
> people that didn't know you, that had no idea why you were angry
> with them, that probably worked jobs or earned scholarships to pay
> for their education because they too were not particularly wealthy.
> And even though I'm grateful that you didn't go to the English Hall
> that day, I realize that you chose Norris Hall and the poor souls
> in it because you were a coward who couldn't kill people you knew.
> You couldn't be Evil in the face of familiarity, and your
> convictions weren't strong enough to let you face the consequences
> of your actions. You were nothing more than a little boy with a
> hand gun, some chains, and a digital camera; a spineless child who
> lost site of the distinct line between reality and a video game,
> between humanity and a Stephen King novel.
>
> So let me tell you what your legacy is, Seung-Hui Cho. Let me tell
> you the ending since you missed it. We are better than before! We
> are stronger, more united, and better known! Show me someone now
> that hasn't heard of Virginia Tech! You brought the President of
> the United States to Blacksburg in a Hokie tie! You gave our school
> national attention, you let everyone know what a Hokie is, what our
> school colors are, what we stand for, and what a beautiful campus
> we have and are so fortunate to call home! Dr. Phil is talking
> about our resiliency on national television! Oprah Winfrey wore
> Hokie colors today! Virginia Tech was mentioned on American Idol! I
> saw people from the other side of the globe praying over candles in
> the shape of a VT. Our athletic
> competitors have sent us flowers, thoughts of love, and signs of
> faith in our ability to overcome all of this (and we will overcome
> this). You even caused UVA to paint their bridge in support of us
> and they're our biggest rivals! Money and well wishes are flooding
> in from all over the world, and people aren't talking about you;
> they're talking about us. You gave us cause to revisit our alma
> mater, to contact our old friends, to proudly boast that we are
> Hokies and that we love our school.
>
> Everyone you killed was given a degree and a first-class one-way
> ticket to a place even more beautiful than Blacksburg; a place
> you'll never know. And no one will remember your name in a year. In
> fact, I have to keep looking at the top of this letter to get your
> name right as I write this. You will be a footnote in the history
> of our success as a university. All you did was emphasize how
> truly alone you are; the very antithesis of your plan occurred. We
> stand together, a Hokie Nation, and you have been written off as a
> maladjusted lunatic who apparently flipped out because you couldn't
> get a girlfriend. What a legacy for your family to have to bear, or
> did you even consider them?
>
> Two days ago I branded myself a Hokie. That is to say I now have a
> tattoo of a little Hokie bird on my foot. Not a sad Hokie bird.
> There's no tear in his eye or black ribbon behind him, because I
> don't want to remember you. I just want to reaffirm my love and
> pride in my school. And last night my husband and I sat up making
> Hokie ribbons for people to wear today, a day determined to be
> HOKIE PRIDE, NATION-WIDE. Today I made VT buttons and key chains
> and sold them for money to donate to the Hokie Spirit foundation,
> and guess what? I sold out! I couldn't be prouder of where we are
> today. So, thanks whatever-your-name-is.
>
>
> I'll leave you with this last thought and then I promise I will
> never speak your name again. As a writer, I'd say you walked off
> stage before it was over. As a critic, I'd say your manifesto is
> incomplete and incoherent. As a teacher, I'd say the lesson you
> tried to teach was irresponsible and immature. As a mother, I'd say
> your actions were impulsive and embarrassing. And finally as a
> Hokie, I'd say I'm ashamed of you and I disown you. No Hokie would
> behave that way.
>
> Go Hokies, both in heaven and here on Earth!
>
> -Emily (Pruitt) McDaniel
>
>
> WOW....Thanks Sherrie and Emily...AS a Wahoo fan I know we all are
'Hoos for Hokies ..And that VT Nation is HUGE and strong...As for
this cold blooded...Heartless...Evil Killer...He won't be seeing any
Hokies where he is at.....He went straight to HELL..And may be too
evil for even Satan...God Bless EVERY PERSON at VTech and
Blacksburg...And as Todd Beamer brought us hope from death....Let's
Roll!!