By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

THE University of Guam faculty and students will gather on campus tonight for a candlelight vigil to sympathize with the Virginia Tech community and mourn the ill-fates of 32 people who died in what is described as the most tragic shooting in America’s history.
A candle will also be lit for the disturbed campus gunman, Cho Seung-Hui.
“It could happen anywhere. The guy just happened to be Korean,” said Hannah Kook, a junior student of political science at UOG, who chairs the event.
“I was disappointed when I found out that it was a Korean who did that. But I realized such tragedy could happen in any culture and in any society,” said Kook, who was born on Guam to Korean parents.
Cho, a psychologically disturbed English major, opened fire in a Virginia Tech dorm and then, two hours later, shot up a classroom building across campus, ending the tragic drama by killing himself on April 16.
“The reaction of people in the mainland is different from how we in Guam would have responded to the same situation. The people in the states are worried; here, we live on an island where people live harmoniously and where people are forgiving,” said Kook, who proposed that UOG hold the vigil to pay tribute to massacre victims.
Holding a vigil, Kook said, would be an appropriate gesture to show Guam’s support for the Virginia Tech community.
“This is an issue that goes beyond racial and cultural background. I’m not doing this because I am Korean but because this is an issue that can affect anyone anywhere. We have people like Cho in our own community,” Kook said.
Tonight’s candlelight vigil starts at 6:30 p.m. in front of the RFK library on campus. UOG president Dr. Harold Allen, other university officials and representatives from student organizations will deliver remarks at the ceremony.
Joan Swadell, event coordinator, said when Kook came forward with the suggestion for UOG to pay tribute to the shooting victims, university officials agreed that “it would be a nice thing to do, so we all helped her in getting it organized.”