Cardinal Points

Issue date: 4/20/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Holly Boname The American and Plattsburgh State flags fly at half mast April 18 to honor those killed in the shootings Monday at Virginia Tech.

Nicholas Temeles was working out at Memorial Hall's fitness center Monday afternoon when something on the TV caught his eye.

The Plattsburgh State junior slowed his pace to get a better look. The newscaster was going on and on about a breaking-news story from Blacksburg, Va. Utter chaos seemed to have broken out at Virginia Tech. Students and faculty were running, panicking, screaming, sobbing. Nothing about the picture on the screen in front of him looked normal.

What's going on here, Temeles wondered.

Then the picture changed. Now, the news showed information that made Temeles "feel downright sick in every part of my body." Information about dead bodies. A suicidal gunman. Thirty-two lives cut short with a barrage of bullets. College students and faculty gunned down on what was once a normal Monday in Virginia.

No! Temeles' thoughts screamed inside his mind. This can't be happening! Not again!

He stopped his machine entirely, walking up to the TV to get a closer look. The images were horrible, but Temeles found he could not tear himself away. For 15 minutes he stood there, the horrific news from a college 631 miles away suddenly seeming very close to home. Images flooded his brain, too much to handle at one time, a world of hurt invading his mind as the exercise machines whirred and clicked around him.

I can't deal with this, Temeles thought. I can't even believe this is real.

He finally managed to tear himself from the screen, walking out of the gym and heading for his Court Street home. Yet the images riddled his mind like gunshots, one terrible memory after another. That night, he found he was still haunted by the sights he had seen on the news that afternoon.

Twenty-four hours later, he made sure everyone on the largest Internet community for college students knew about it.

"I had to do something," Temeles said. "I wanted to show Virginia Tech that people at SUNY Plattsburgh cared about them, that we would stand with them during this difficult time."

Continued...

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