A need for the entire W&M campus to come together

To my dear friends and colleagues at W&M,

For those of you who have not heard, a terrible tragedy happened today at Binghampton, NY, a tragedy that took the lives of 14 people, including the shooter who shot himself. The man was Vietnamese American and for some reason nobody knows at this moment, he opened fire at an immigration office. More details in the news links provided below:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7982444.stm

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/04/03/binghamton.shooting/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/hostage_shooting

Words can't express the emotions that I'm going through right now except that it served as a wake up call for me to take this action and call upon all of you to have an open forum. The media may or may not blow this out of proportion, but I have emailed all of you and the organizations that you stand for to come together to discuss this event. Many of you I have talked with directly, some who I haven't (and others who don't know who I am but I'm emailing you anyways), but I believe this issue affects us all. It raises serious questions about the status of America that involves the issue of immigration, a recent trend of Asian American men wreaking violence upon people with little emotion, and the recent increase of distressed men in general who are killing people (as evidenced by the Alabama shooting that happened last month).

While this event directly affects the Asian American community in terms of the identity of the gunman and where the violence took place, the issue of immigration and people who are perceived to be perpetual dangerous foreigners is not unique only to Asians. And in the grand picture, the recent increase of violence occurring in school shootings, to family members, and to people who did not deserve such violence show that this NY incident is another one in a string of mass killings that makes me question if people have lost hope in this world, regardless of their ethnicity and where they come from. In the last month, these string of attacks in the U.S. left 44 people dead in all.

My goal is to bring as many organizations and community leaders together in one room to talk about all of these issues. Whether if it's the Student Assembly, MSA, MAC, or ASC, this NY shooting is only a reminder to have a conversation together because I believe we are all affected by this.

I know this is an incredibly short notice but please let me know as soon as possible if you and/or your organization would like to participate. My proposal is that we talk about this as soon as possible and ASC has agreed to lend their meeting time to have this forum.

April 6th Monday 7pm @ Washington 305
Thank you all for taking the time to read this and once again, please get back to me quickly if you are interested. I wish you all only the best and I hope you all have a wonderful day.

-Originally written by Eddy Hong

Congratulations to Newly Elected ASC Officers 2009-2010

Co-chairpersons: Agatha Kang & Kristian Obcemane

Treasurer: Jade Park