Campus outrage as Penn State students dress as Virginia Tech massacre victims

[truthpusher]

Source: New York Daily News

Two Penn State students have re-opened a wound after they costumed themselves for a Halloween party as victims of last spring's shooting massacre at Virginia Tech.

Photos of two Penn State students, partying in Virginia Tech paraphernalia marked with bullet holes and fake blood, made their way onto the social networking site Facebook.

(snip)

"It's not that it was funny," the student said of the costumes. "It's that we are notorious and infamous and very popular in the state college, so we have to do things that push the envelope just for shock value," he said.

He went on to imply that Virginia Tech students' public displays of grief less than a year after the massacre are at least partly for show.

"This is a group of college students who now think it's trendy to be upset about their friends being killed," said the Penn student.

He said those who objected to the costumes were blowing things out of proportion.



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2007/12/08/2007-12-08_campus_outrage_as_penn_state_students_dr.html?ref=rss

[virginia mountainman]

1. I have been fuming about that for a while...

We (my family) are huge Virginia Tech folks, have been for generations.....

And to say the least, I am not impressed.

[DemKR]

2. I think its disgusting

but we have free expression, if I find something vile or sick I look away.

[Fierce]

20. Hey, part of free speech is that

you can tell them you think they're vile and sick and disgusting. You don't have to look away and just let them do it without repercussions.

[Mojorabbit]

3. Kids that age

think they are immortal. Nothing bad will ever happen to THEM.

[Turbineguy]

8. With the way things are going

in this country you really have to do something incredibly stupid and shocking to get noticed.

The stupid have to compete with George Bush who has nearly unlimited funds and the backing of major media.

[DU9598]

4. Of all the problems in this world ...

we are to be concerned what two frat boys dressed as for Halloween? Goodness. There are jerks everywhere, figure it out.

[onenote]

27. and if a bunch young repubs dressed up as dead iraqi children

would you just dismiss that as not worthy of criticism?

Yes, there are jerks everywhere. And why shouldn't they be called out for being jerks?

[CurtEastPoint]

5. Why?

"we have to do things that push the envelope just for shock value"

Who raised these little sumbitches?

Stupid kids. Rolling someone's front yard = pushing the envelope. Mocking tragedy = idiotic.

[madmom]

6. poor taste to say the least..I suppose they would think what happened at Kent State and

the subsequent film footage was a cause for mocking also.

[msongs]

7. you can see worse things on saturday morning cartoons for kids..get over it nt

[Darth_Kitten]

11. Yeah, never say ANYTHING to so-called human beings........

showing such callousness and stupidity? Right, there is always something worse. :eyes: WHY mock something that is causing so much grief for people you may know?

I say speak up if you have the chance to. Maybe stupid people need to be reminded that they are really not that fascinating or interesting.

[Gormy Cuss]

14. Yep. One person's stupid shock value is someone else's grief.

The male student seems to be missing an empathy gene, based on the quotes in that article.

[Darth_Kitten]

18. It astounds me the total lack of empathy and understanding of others'

feelings. :(

[LostinVA]

22. YOU get over it

I lived in Virginia at the time and worked with people who had friends and family murdered and injured during the massacre. I spent that day -- and many afterward -- feeling shattered, and listening to my employee cry because one of her best friends was shot in the face and died that day.

YOU get the fuck over it. And, while you're at it, learn compassion.

[Pavulon]

9. Tacky, distasteful use of their 1st.

amendment rights.
People are so easily offended these days.

[tabasco]

17. Oh yeah. Being offended by jokes about mass murder is sooooo PC.

Piss off freeper.

[Pavulon]

21. No jokes on mass murder..

man you took all the fun out of my day :(

Maybe we should expel them from school, fine them 10,000 for being offensive, and then jail them for 5 years.

get over yourself.

nasty little bit of name calling from the mind police.

[JBoy]

10. Proof that Ann Coulter had a kid in the late 80s. n/t

[skypilot]

23. You beat me to it.

"This is a group of college students who now think it's trendy to be upset about their friends being killed," said the Penn student.

When I read that quote I thought that it sounded exactly like something Coulter would say.

[Wcross]

12. Being in college doesn't mean you are intelligent.

Proof.

[tomreedtoon]

13. And HOW LONG AGO was Halloween?

Isn't it kind of late to get upset? Or was this a slow news day and the New York National Enquirer couldn't find its Batboy pictures, so they dug a story out of the bottom of the slush pile?

[Peace Patriot]

15. NY Daily News. Hm-m. The purpose of digging this out of the slush pile

--if there was any rational thought behind that editorial decision at all--was probably to encourage suppression of free speech.

All but the rightwing knuckledraggers would understand that this ghoulish display is a way of handling fear. That's what Halloween is all about, really. Expressing and facing our worst fears, and making a joke out of it. Why else would we be dressing up our children as ghosts, ghouls, vampires, skeletons, monsters of every kind, and the proverbial "bad witches"--the most used and traditional costumes for this fall ritual? It's good for the kids (the way scary fairy tales are good--helps them face their fears), and it's good for us. Horror movies are another example. College kids are not that far removed from childhood. Campus shootings are a real scary thing. You have congregations of 18+ year olds, many away from home for the first time. It's no wonder at all that some would act out their fears with mockery. And, in fact, suppressing such behavior because it isn't "tasteful" would be the worst way to handle it. Ignoring it would be the best way. And if it's particularly artful and creative, maybe an appreciative laugh. Adults couldn't do it. They would be condemned. So maybe some adults, too, breathed an inner sigh that the fear was out there, depicted, seeable, objectified, acted out.

I remember when "The Dead Kennedys" band first got going. I was very traumatized by the JFK and RFK assassinations, and I was at first shocked by anyone choosing such a name. But when I thought about it--especially with regard to the younger generations that came just after mine--I realized that it was a way of dealing with fear, disgust and powerlessness, during the Reagan regime. (And that is certainly born out by the Dead Kennedys' lyrics and themes.) They had been born circa 1960, and were young children when our country was blown away by three successive assassinations of progressive leaders (1963-JFK, 1968-MLK, RFK--and in between, in 1966, the first "senseless" mass killings with the Texas Tower Sniper randomly shooting students). The mass grief among adults may well have affected them. In any case, they audaciously laid out it--in their "tasteless" name and in their lyrics--what it all meant to THEM.

Offensive to some. Not to me. I lost someone in the Texas Tower shootings, and I wonder how I would have felt, had someone mocked that horror on Halloween a mere year later. I don't know. But I'm thinking now that maybe I should have done so myself--because what I did do was form an ice cube in my heart around those events that took many years to unfreeze. I was 21 when that happened. Fear of being randomly shot was among the things I sealed over. Mockery--or reaction to mockery--would have been healthier.

[MrSlayer]

16. Black humor.

It's in poor taste certainly but harmless at the end of the day. My buddy dressed as Osama bin Laden on the Halloween after 9/11. Made a lot of people cringe but also got a lot of laughs.

[Darth_Kitten]

19. Yeah, but who cares about bin Laden?

they were mocking regular, normal people who can't defend themselves anymore.

I hope what goes around comes around for those spoiled, petulant brats.

[izquierdista]

24. Kids that age are insensitive clods

Although, when I dressed up as Ricky Nelson's pilot for one Halloween, that got a few laughs.

[boricua79]

25. a bunch of attention-needing losers doing something dumb

a product of affluence and boredom.

When I was in college, I paid my own way with my own money, scholarships, and loans. No daddy and mommy for me. I had to work study too.

I was too busy, too well-taught (in manners and decorum), and to needy and focused to be wasting time dressing up like massacre victims at some stupid costume party.

For the record, I enjoy a very fun nightlife and have lots of friend, and have had many girlfriends.

It IS possible to enjoy yourself and not be a total loser.

[ellie]

26. Awww, isn't he precious

One day he'll have to deal with grief. Everyone does. Let's see what he has to say then.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

28. Meh.

Big deal.