12 Comments Heated Arguements About Silencing the Blogosphere

1. Justin

   April 17th, 2007 at 8:47 pm

   1

   A day of silence will do no good. There should be a movement of a day of speaking out. Tragedy is nothing new. Every time something like this happens in America, we call for a day of silence. We should not be silent over subjects like these.

   Of course, there’ll be plenty of days of people speaking out. The blogosphere is already overrun by it.

   I think it is a matter of personal choice. However, blogs are not for keeping silent. They are for voicing our opinions. It is our way of not being silenced.

2. brendan

   April 17th, 2007 at 9:46 pm

   2

   An entire day of silence doesn’t pay any form of tribute, imho, but listening and learning from it, does.

   Violence comes in all forms, from domestic to international terrorism.

   Imagine the reaction if every blogger stopped for 5 minutes and posted something simple and clear against violence.

   Then again, imagine if everyone stopped for 5 minutes to listen to someone else to learn, rather than act violently out in fear.

   Just a thought.

3. Armen

   April 17th, 2007 at 9:48 pm

   3

   I’m not 100% sure what to think Justin. For this reason, I’m running a poll on my blog. There are various ways of looking at it, most of which are voiced in the comments of Lorrelle’s blog it would appear.

4. ThomasPaine

   April 17th, 2007 at 10:15 pm

   4

   Empathy and sympathy aside, once you begin with symbolism (which does have its place and is the language of the soul), where do you end? How about one day of silence — maybe an entire decade would be more apropos — in memory of an unelected president and an unconstitutional war for a reason that turned out to be a lie? How about one day of silence for the victims of mercury poisoning, victims of the dental industry. How about….

   But wait a moment. Can’t we combine symbolism with substance? And action! I contend that we can.

   Let’s dedicate a day to appreciating the right to keep and bear arms. On this day we will write and post an essay or comments on our favorite blogs. We will stress two facts.

   One: If even one of the students or university personnel in Norris Hall had been armed, this tragedy might not have happened. If two or three had been armed, this tragedy certainly would not have happened.

   Two: The federal and state constitutions guarantee us that the right to bear arms will not be infringed. However, the lofty seat of higher education in Virginia state has a policy forbidding bearing arms on campus. Such rules are a discrace. The university would not be allowed to banish people based upon race, gender, national origin, religion, or disability. Would they? Why not? Because federal, state, and local laws forbid that type of “rules” because they violate the rights of the people involved. Then how is it that a university, or any other institution is allowed to make and enforce a “rule” that goes against a right that federal and state governments have pledged to support? The bottom line is: if a university can ban guns, it can ban African Americans, or Mormans, or children with Down syndrome. And that’s not right!

   Those who really want to go all out in memory of the men and women who were recently murdered will not only write and post. They will purchase a fire arm and carry it concealed in the face of the so called “rules,” and when challenged, expelled, or arrested, they will fight it in court. They will fight it offensively, to the full capacity of their financial and intellectual resources.

   That’s called refusing to ride in the back of the bus!

5. ourman

   April 18th, 2007 at 1:45 am

   5

   In all honesty I have a problem with it. I am not American - if this was stated as a day for America to mourn then I would respect that. However…

   There have been 600,000 deaths to date in Iraq. Whether or not you agree with that war, where is their day?

   Where is the day for the people of Darfur?

   Does the blogosphere believe that American deaths are worth more? Why does the world have to stop because Americans have died.

   The people killed represent only 1/1000th of all the deaths there will be from guns in the US this year.

   If someone suggested a day of silence for victims of guns everywhere and arms sales then I would appreciate that and conform to it.

6. J David

   April 18th, 2007 at 10:26 pm

   6

   I feel like speaking out and discussing things is great. We should definitely be doing that and perhaps that will help to prevent future tragedies.

   Nevertheless, I still feel like a day of silence is also a very nice thing to do. It is about paying respect to those lost. In some cases, silence can be far louder than people talking.

   If anything, I would argue that you should participate in both ways. I know I will.

7. Jack

   April 22nd, 2007 at 2:09 am

   7

   I actually blogged today about another gun murder at Nasa. As I stated in my article, in the UK, knives are more widespread than guns, yet you rarely hear of a guy going nuts and knifing people to death in England. Especially at work or at university.

   A friend of mine once told me that the reason for this is that a gun is an easy kill. Almost no connection. With a knife, there is resistance, tactile feedback, you are an integral part of the kill. The US consitution may back the right to bear arms, but would the murder rate be lower if “arms” meant knives, not guns…

   My two cents…

8. Nessa

   April 28th, 2007 at 11:13 am

   8

   I took some classes at VA tech before I started going to a different tech school around the same area….i have a lot of friends there, but unfortunately they’ve put some visiting restrictions ever since what happened. I guess no more form parties…

9. website reviews

   April 28th, 2007 at 4:09 pm

   9

   The professor that was killed saving the others originated from Romania, and I’m Romanian. I feel terribly sorry for what happened there, but I don’t think that silence is a way to pay tribute. It is like sending that incident into the unknown.

   Speak up people!

10. Paul Enderson

    May 3rd, 2007 at 8:10 pm

    10

    I’m quite relieved that I wasn’t alone in finding the whole thing a little inappropriate! My viewpoint:

    http://paulenderson.com/2007/04/30/preventing-another-virginia-tech

11. paradise philippines

    July 17th, 2007 at 6:05 am

    11

    If I were the blogger, I’d rather post some words about those people who did the massacre than to be silent and pretending that I was paying tribute.

12. B. Lee

    July 25th, 2007 at 1:49 pm

    12

    the word blogosphere nauseates me more than the idea that people with blogs would join forces to do nothing together …because that is redundant

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