Jason at Virginia Tech

The death toll from the Virginia Tech shooting spree is at 33 tonight. A young man at Virginia Tech spent a year at Hillcrest while he was on assignment at IBM. His name is Jason, and this was his "away" message today:

"Hi all,David, Jason, and Jared are fine. We have friends that got hurt by jumping out of building to avoid gunfire, please pray for safety. Shock. Its a word we use when we can't understand why things have occurred. Shock hits when you sit on your bed and read your instant message with a close friend sharing that a fellow engineer jumped out of a building moments before his professor was shot in the same room. Moments later the screen rolls that Jack got shot 3 times. Shock sinks in as you see faculty that you respect walking on CNN with tears holding their bleeding arm. Shock turns to fear as your calling your friends getting voicemails and not voices when the power in your house is going off and on with 50 mile per hour winds howling at the windows. Fear turns to anger as you yell at the shooter, cursing his blind hate. Anger at why things could not have been prevented before most college students wake up for that 10:05 class. Anger turns to sadness as you realize that class started as so many of yours have and you always take for granted that it will end. Tears flow as you realize that some students will never see their next 10:05 class, and you will live to see yours. Heading to the den to dry the tears and get away from the pain you turn your head suddenly to see and hear the gunshots that killed your engineers who will never have the chance to help the world with their inventions."