Reader Joshua Jones, who lived through the Virginia Tech shooting rampage and attended the campus memorial where President Bush spoke, e-mails his response to the whooping and hollering during President Obama’s memorial tribute to the Tucson massacre victims at the University of Arizona tonight: Mrs. Malkin,
My background:
I was in the audience in Cassel Coliseum on April 17, 2007. I heard President Bush speak after a crazy b@st@rd (Seung-Hui Cho) shot up my college.
In a few days I would bury a man whom I had last seen when he came up to me the week earlier to congratulate me on my baptism and entry into the Catholic Church over Easter Weekend. It would be my first military funeral, but not my last.
His name was Matthew Joseph La Porte.
I was a sophomore member of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets (VTCC). Several of my friends and the woman I love most dearly were supposed to be in Norris Hall. Thankfully none of them were due to being late, ill, or simply choosing to skip classes. I was sequestered in the Pamplin College of Business building during the attack.
President Bush spoke for barely 10 minutes if that. He was solemn, dignified and respectful-although the microphone that broadcast into the rest of the coliseum was barely working and we could barely hear and understand him as a result-we got the point he made.
President Obama’s disgusting attempt at what appears to be a political rally in the wake of a similar massacre is beyond reprehensible.
Joshua sends a video reminder that there are young people — taking their cue from solemn adults — who know how to act appropriately at a college campus memorial for victims of mass murder. Flashback:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zdvpw86_qkg#!
