 There are just some things that shouldn't happen. Even several days later, the shock still hasn't quite sunk in. I don't think it will fully. I am still wondering why. I think I always will. I'm not wondering why at security or the school officials or at professors or students who saw the troubled future gunman Cho Seung-Hui and weren't successful at reaching out to him. There is so much that can be speculated from hindsight.
The Tragedy at Tech is the deadliest campus shooting (32 people killed in a dorm and classroom; the gunman died) since Charles Whitman pointed a rifle from the observation deck at the University deck at the University of Texas on August 1, 1966. 16 were killed and 31 were wounded in 96 minutes during his rampage.
Many have moved past Kubler-Ross' Stage One of Grief (Denial) and on to Stage Two -- Anger. Fingers are pointed at University President Charles Steger and VT Campus Police Chief W.R. Finchum who have been busy defending their actions for closing off a dormitory after the first shooting, thought to have been an isolated incident, not knowing that a second shooting was mere hours away. Again -- my editorial -- it's easy to offer our grand wisdom on what should have been done as we look back.
It's difficult to separate strong emotion from these horrific events when we know our sons and daughters were stolen from us at such a promising time in their lives, that answers will never come and our sense of justice will never be satisfied. We hurt and we need someone else to feel this pain instead of us. We long to know why. It bleeds from our souls. We want to know when and where and how and why why why. There are no words and so we are forced to wait, speechless, knowing we have to listen to pithy sayings from people who mean well, and we are left left wondering why.
Don't get me wrong. I haven't let this go or moved on. It's just become part of who I am. Just another part that I can't understand.
Visit Virginia Tech's April 16 Memorial Website and share your condolences with the friends and families who tragically lost loved ones on That Monday.
We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears
and through all our sadness ... We are the Hokies ... -- Nikki Giovanni, University Distinguished Professor, poet, activist Labels: forgiveness, general |
