Tuesday, April 17, 2007

VA Tech tragedy ... the day after....

"Today, our nation grieves with those who have lost loved ones at Virginia Tech. We hold the victims in our hearts, we lift them up in our prayers, and we ask a loving God to comfort those who are suffering today."
President George W. Bush
Apirl 16, 2007

Today is a sad day in the Commonwealth of Virginia. A dark cloud hangs over us as the names of the victims from yesterday's shooting carnage are coming out ... names of students and faculty members.

Stories of herorism are coming out as well ... professors protecting students ... students protecting each other. This tale has just begun. Every corner of Virginia is touched by the horror because someone knows someone who knows someone. Virginia Tech's campus is two hours south of Staunton so many students are from the SWAC area.

Word is still trickling in from students but Johnathan Maxfield, a first-year college student, has stories of personal contacts with his friends who attend Tech.

Shepherd Smith of Fox News reported he had never seen anything like this before ... literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of news satellite trucks on the Tech campus.

President and Mrs. Bush will be arriving on campus later today. A memorial service is to be held this afternoon with the governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general of Virginia attending.

I've got to say that as my two college-age children left for school this morning I felt a moment's hesitation ... something I've not felt before. Yes, the campuses are huge and spread out and, in this post-9/11 world we're always aware that a terrorism event could occur. But the gunman at Virginia Tech was a student, it has now been discovered, which makes it even more chilling to me. He was among those students, those professors ... and yet in a cold-hearted way he was able to gun down and take the lives of dozens before turning the gun on himself.

If you've never been to Tech's campus you've missed one of the most beautiful schools in the country ... literally hundreds of acres of green lawns, school buildings, and dorms. Many buildings are stone ... my step-dad was a cadet there in the 1940s in one of the older stone buildings.
Blacksburg is located on a high mountain plain ... they have snow when it's not occurring in other parts of the state. The mountains surround it ... beautiful Mountain Lake is not too far away. Radford University where one of my sisters graduated is down the road.

Chris at Spank That Donkey has a comparison between the Tech tragedy and the shooting at Appalachian Law School in Grundy several years ago. Good piece.
May God bless the Virginia Tech Family....
This story will be front-and-center in the news for days to come because of the magnitude of the tragedy....

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