Our NIU Alumni
Register Star staffers with ties to Northern Illinois University share their thoughts on the campus shootings Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008.

Posts filed under 'Tim Scordato'

Dealing with a delicate situation

Add comment February 15th, 2008

Early this morning, I watched the father of the NIU gunman on TV wave off a crowd of reporters saying, “Please leave me alone. This is a very hard time for me.” He declined any further comment about his son and told reporters he was a diabetic.

There is a very thin line reporters must walk when questioning victims and their families. And yes, I consider Stephen a victim. All too often, we become victims of our own doing. Anyways, I believe it is the job of the media to know when and what questions to ask. It must be very hard for Stephen’s father to speak to the media during this time. I’m sure he’s already been questioned by the police and FBI all morning.

This past summer, I was playing tennis with a photographer friend of mine. While we were playing, a huge butterfly landed in the middle of the court. He had at least a five inch wing span. My friend instinctively whipped out his camera and started taking pictures. The butterfly eventually started to fly away, but my friend hit him back to the ground with his tennis racket, so he could take more pictures of him. The butterfly slammed into the gound breaking one of his wings. It was at this point my friend realized the photo wasn’t worth tormenting this bug.

Sometimes, we just need to let these delicate creatures fly away until they are ready to have their photo taken again.

They can’t take that away from me

Add comment February 15th, 2008

As soon as I heard the news of the shooting, I called a friend and previous classmate at NIU. She cried while she walked past a man lying on the ground in front of the Student Center. His shirt was covered in blood and he was breathing heavily. She asked me why somebody would do this. Why would they do this on Valentine’s Day?

The truth is that these incidents can happen anywhere and anytime. Many people share a blissful ignorance of violence, which is a very good thing. I wish more people shared such bliss. However, people drastically lose their confidence in themselves and their safety when such incidents happen.

I hope the victims and their families can once again regain their confidence. I’m not talking about confidence in NIU or the police force, for they have handled the situation to the best of their powers. I’m talking about confidence in the future.

No incident, no matter how tragic, should take away the confidence in a brighter tomorrow. I hope no bullets, blood and tears take away the confidence of the victims of yesterday or else there won’t be any heroes of tomorrow.