ESC and CCSC Presidents Peter Valeiras and George Krebs announced an event honoring the life of Eric Harms, the Columbia student who recently passed away. The remembrance of Harms’ life will be on Monday, February 9th in Low Plaza and is open to the Columbia Community. Full email after the jump.                    

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It’s been seven years since 9/11, and the city’s firefighters still come here, to Firemen’s Memorial on 100th St. and Riverside. The Ground Zero memorial is restricted to those from FDNY 343 and their family members.

“It’s sad that an event like this has to bring us all out,” said Officer Pat McNeely, from Ottawa, explaining that the force comes together when someone dies in the line of duty.  “Word always travels really fast in this job. Someone somewhere in the city always has the pulse on some other department.” 

Hundreds of blue-suited firemen gathered, talking in low voices, with bagpipe strains in the background.

For more memorials in the city, check here.

- LBD

In case you haven’t checked your email within the last hour – or tend to disregard student council announcements altogether – Columbia’s student councils have joined forces to schedule a candlelight vigil for victims of the Virginia Tech massacre. The ceremony will take place tomorrow (Wednesday) night at 9PM by the Sundial. CCSC President Seth Flaxman has told Bwog that, although the councils will be providing candles, they are unsure they will have enough for all, and students are encouraged to bring their own.

UPDATE: Ana Ortiz writes: “Because of univesity policy, all lit candles have to be in glass containers… Bring your own if you have a glass container, otherwise we’ll do our best to provide enough for everyone.”

UPDATE: There are also plans to hold a moment of silence for the Virginia Tech shootings on the Steps tonight at 8PM.

Seth also encourages everyone to participate in Take Back the Night this year, which holds special resonance for the Columbia community in the wake of Saturday’s brutal events in Hamilton Heights.

Whacko Alums Who Amuse and Inspire

Wayne Allyn Root, C’83, is considering running on the Libertarian ticket during the next presidential election. More importantly, he has gotten rich by peddling crap, and he knows it. Nevertheless, after a career involving sports news, TV production, gambling, and writing best-selling books such as Millionaire Republican (part of subtitle: ”Why Rich Republicans Get Rich”), Root has remained true to his… background and feels comfortable admitting he’s a real “S.O.B. (Son of a Butcher).” We wish we could make this stuff up.

PLUS: Read the first paragraph of Wayne’s bio to see what he thinks of his former classmates at “the most liberal college in America”.

Like Real Life… With More Gun Violence

Apparently Law and Order have spent too much time in Morningside Heights: art is starting to imitate Columbia life. Guess which events of the past semester have inspired an upcoming episode of the show, at least until the embryo part, in the following synopsis from the official site:

STUDENT SHOT DURING ASSEMBLY FOR RIGHT-WING POLTICAL SPEAKER – Judith Barlow (Guest Star Charlotte Ross), a controversial speaker participates in a Question and Answer at Grammercy College when the stage is mobbed. Someone in the crowd fires a gun, leaving one student dead. Detective Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin) and Nina Cassady (Milena Govich) question the victims friend Malcolm Yates (Guest star Louis Cancelmi), an older PhD student who creates human embryos to harvest stem cells. It is discovered that Yates has Parkinson’s disease and finds Barlow’s tactics as a direct threat to his job and life. Yates’ attorney, Bernie Adler (Guest star Ron Silver), is from the ACLU, during the trial Silver infuriates the jury by calling everyone racial epithets, which angers the judge. S. Epatha Merkerson, Sam Waterson and Fred Dalton Thompson also star. TV-14 DL

And Now Something Legitimate

On a sobering note, Bwog received a bit of solemn news over the weekend regarding the death of a GS student. Apparently Eric Posner, GS’06, one of the most outspoken MEALAC defenders during the controversy several years ago, was in Jerusalem visiting family when he passed. Rest in Peace.

Beginning at 8:30 today, Students United for America, “a nonpartisan organization promoting community service and global debate” have been holding their annual sundial reading of the names of 9/11 victims. 

A reading of the number of people who have died in their names since then, anyone?