Podcast of the story that Michael Bishop wrote for his son, Jamie, killed in the Virginia Tech shooting
Aural Delights No 82 Michael Bishop (Thanks, Tony!)
Michael Bishop says:I wrote "Vinegar Peace" -- in August of 2007 -- because I had to. Our 35-year-old son, Jamie, died on the morning of April 16, 2007, as one of thirty-two victims of a disturbed shooter on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.
Jamie, an accomplished digital artist who did lovely covers for four or five of my books, was holding forth in Room 2007 of Norris Hall in his German class more than two hours after his eventual murderer had slain two students in a dormitory on another part of campus. The administration failed to issue a warning -- a warning that might well have saved many lives -- in a timely fashion. However, some of its members secured their own offices and notified their own family members of this initial event; and so the worst school shooting in the history of the United States claimed our son, four other faculty members (including a man, Dr Librescu, who had survived the Holocaust and who held a table against his classroom door until all own students could escape), four of Jamie's students, and twenty-one other young people in Norris Hall, not to mention the first two victims in West Ambler-Johnston dorm. Another twenty-eight students were wounded by bullets or injured leaping from upper-story windows. Some of these young people will live with their injuries the rest of their lives.
In any case, "Vinegar Peace" grew from this disaster and from a grief that I can't imagine ever laying totally aside. Jeri and I mourn Jamie's loss every day in some private way, and we think continually of all the other parents and loved ones of the slain and injured who will carry a similar burden with them until they die. We think, too, of the parents and loved ones of the dead and wounded from the United States's optional war in Iraq, who long for their dead and who pray for their injured with an intensity not a whit different from our own. How ironic that our son died on American soil. How sad the wasted potential and disfigured lives resulting from violence everywhere. And forgive me the inadequacy of these remarks. Clearly, I wrote a story because I could not address either my outrage or my grief in any other way. Mike Bishop
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i'm sure it's lovely, but someone needs to charge Ed Bell for Crimes Against Eyes! horrible cover art there 8(
As much as I understand the need for Mr. Bishop to find a surviving guilty party, I really wonder what anyone could have done so much better. Sounding the alarm, really?
Was there a contengency in the security planning for those circumstances? How do you prepare one for such an unpredictable course of events?
Having 20 000+ persons panicking all at the same time would have helped?
What really was there to do to keep the shooter from finding other targets, anywhere, but for the police to hunt him as well as possible, which wasn't easy anyway?
Here on BB we so love to stick it to whoever we find in charge, to 'The Man' (quite often this makes Cory the target BTW...) but, at the end of the day, those people reveal themselves to be just what they are: humans like everyone else.
I hope for Mr. Bishop that he will, one some day not too long to come, realize that this was nobody's fault, only a crazy shooter's doing and then... I don't know: from my own experience we never forget, we just learn to live with our wounds.
I am so sorry for everyone's lost.
I was lucky enough to get to know Jamie over a few years when we worked together in IT services at UNC. I will always remember him as a kind and compassionate guy who inspired others with an always-positive attitude. He was a mentor for many others around him, even though he probably would've never acknowledged it.
His death reached me in a way I didn't know was possible, and was a tragedy for others who knew him. However, the message of his life was clear to others and Jamie has continued to inspire me to be a better person. I wish I could express my gratitude to Jamie, and to his family and Stefi for being a part of such an amazing life. Jamie was a "no regrets" kind of guy, and I hope that inspires everyone the same as it has me.
@#1 - The cover of a[n audio]book, like the facade of a building, is part of a whole. Gut reactions are all well and good, but all that one may not like may make sense when put in the context of the rest of the work. This image strikes me as jarring, discombobulated, and causes me to get a faint lump in my throat that I immediately assign to retching over crying (this may change). I may not like this, but it may be suitable for the work.
I am eager to read and listen to this work. I hope that the catharsis I achieve through enjoying others' art may contribute to the catharsis of the artist.
#2 "I don't know: from my own experience we never forget, we just learn to live with our wounds."
From this quote, I am going to guess that you might have your own related experiences. If so, I respect whatever conclusions you came to from your own experience- but you shouldn't try to export your own coping mechanism onto this author. Mr. Bishop, after months of thinking about this and presumably researching things as he tried to find some sense in at all, is finally finding fault with the administration- and dismissing that conclusion in a cavalier fashion might be seen as being a little arrogant.
"...might be seen as being a little arrogant."
If you know so much.
#5 I'm sorry- I am unable to complete your thought. Could you finish it for me?
Allen,
I don't even know why I bother answering your question: the total sum of your argumentation was an attack ad hominem.
IAMINNOCENT
I'm sorry that you thought I was attacking you. I tried very carefully NOT to attack you, because I thought you were coming from a place of vulnerability. I suspect I am just having a hard time projecting the respect I feel for you through text.
I wasn't trying to argue. I was cautioning you about being insensitive towards the way one person is processing the death of their son. Especially since I wouldn't be surprised if he reads your post.
I'm trying to stick out of this one, because I've actually been through a school shooting- and have seen a father ripped apart with grief. So I'm not objective- I just wouldn't want my friend's father to have to deal with someone telling him off the cuff that he was processing his tragedy the wrong way, and should really do it a different way.
For the record- when I was experiencing a school shooting, knowing that one was occurring was useful information, and it may have contributed to the fact that there were only two deaths. So alarms aren't a bad idea. Hunkering down and presenting a harder target while the police do their thing is a good idea.
I am too uncomfortable that this has become about me to discuss it any further.
Sorry. No bad feelings towards you from my part.
I was friends with Jamie at UGA and was extremely saddened by his death. He introduced me to his dad's writing and I really enjoyed it. Thank you for the link.