<p>Our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Virginia Tech community. What a terrible, terrible thing</p>
<p>I can't imagine what those poor parents of all of those children are having to go through right now. Please add my prayers.</p>
<p>My two best friend's sons are students at VT and we have many, many students from our high school attending the university. This is just too horrible to believe.</p>
<p>Sending my prayers to all those affected by this tragedy. </p>
<p>FYI, flags at half-staff through Sunday. Just received this notice at work:</p>
<p>THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
*
For Immediate Release April 17, 2007
HONORING THE VICTIMS OF THE TRAGEDY AT VIRGINIA TECH</p>
<hr>
<p>BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
Our Nation grieves with those who have lost loved ones at Virginia Tech. We hold the victims in our hearts. We lift them up in our prayers, and we ask a loving God to comfort those who are suffering.
As a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated on Monday, April 16, 2007, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, Sunday, April 22, 2007. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this seventeenth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-first.
GEORGE W. BUSH</p>
<h1>#</h1>
<p>Our local news in Roanoke just announced that an AFROTC cadet was among the victims.</p>
<p>From CNN "Matthew La Porte, 20, of Dumont, New Jersey, was studying political science and French at Virginia Tech. He was also a member of the Corps of Cadets, the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets band, the Highty-Tighties and the U.S. Air Force ROTC, according to his MySpace page."</p>
<p>Also, a holocaust survivor .. "Liviu Librescu, 76, was a Holocaust survivor, who his son said, will be remembered as a hero. He "blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Joe Librescu told AP. "Students started opening windows and jumping out." The elder Librescu, a professor at Virginia Tech, was recognized internationally for his research in aeronautical engineering, the head of the Engineering Science and Mechanics Department at Virginia Tech told AP. He was born and received his advanced degrees in Romania."</p>
<p>And that is just the beginning of a list of 32 fascinating people that lost their lives.</p>
<p>When was that CNN message posted. Link to letter from the Commander of ROTC at VT:</p>
<p>Dated today.</p>
<p>Unfortunately MOM2Lola is correct. Saw it on the news last night. RIP to Matthew LaPorte and the rest of the victims.</p>
<p>From the New York Times:</p>
<p>At the Carson Long Military Institute in Pennsylvania, a flag in the middle of campus flies at half-staff today in honor of 20-year-old Matthew La Porte, a graduate of the school who went on to Virginia Tech University.</p>
<p>Mr. La Porte, a freshman attending Virginia Tech on an ROTC scholarship, loved art and music and planned to join the Air Force after college, hoping to become an officer.</p>
<p>Brian A. Venezio, the police chief in Mr. La Porte's hometown of Dumont, N.J., said he remembered Mr. La Porte as a former Boy Scout who played Little League and attended the local public elementary school.</p>
<p>After sixth grade, he left for Carson Long in New Bloomfield, Pa., where he played cello and served for four years on the Drum & Bugle Corps, eventually becoming the school's drum major. But his skill was also evident in the classroom. Graduating third in his class, he was a member of the National Honor Society.</p>
<p>In an oration Mr. La Porte wrote before graduating, he said he arrived at Carson Long as a troubled student who ultimately "found himself."</p>
<p>That troubled student, he wrote of himself, "learned how to be responsible for himself and eventually, also for others. He changed so much, that I am not quite sure if that boy and I are the same person. Now, I know that Carson Long was my second chance, and nothing could make me more proud than to be standing here today, at the end of this experience -- this journey on which most don't even dare to embark."</p>
<p>As a cadet leader, Mr. La Porte was often calm and calculating, displaying an ability to deal with challenges that "was just phenomenal," said Lt. Colonel Rodney P. Grove, the school's commander of cadets.</p>
<p>"I know that as an air force officer he would have been outstanding," he said. "I also know that he was looking for something in his life that would allow him to really make a difference in other people's lives. He was desperate to make a difference."</p>
<p>Mr. La Porte's family was first notified of his death by the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets, of which their son was a member, and then later by the Virginia state police. Chief Venezio said he spoke with the La Porte family this morning, and described them as a private family "who are suffering greatly."</p>
<p>In his oration, Mr. La Porte spoke of them -- his mother, father, and sister Priscilla.</p>
<p>"You've been relentless and persistent, putting your all into me," he wrote. "I love you. And Dad, I hope that I've become a man in your eyes, and that whatever I do in life, you are proud of me."</p>