No one deserves a tragedy.
It has been 3 years and I still remember every detail of that day.
I have yet to spend an anniversary of that day in a place where it seems to matter, and yet being at an even further distance than usual is making it all the more difficult. A day like today brings me back to craving the familiarity of home, of the compassion that I would otherwise be surrounded with. Here, I am the only one who cares, the only one who remembers a day when the Hokie Nation cried. I will never forget.
"This is a tragedy in American history. So for today, forget any and all of your college affiliations. For today, we are all Hokies." -CNN
"Two shooting incidents on the Virginia Tech campus Monday, April 16, 2007 left 33 dead. Thirty-one, including the gunman, died at Norris Hall; two died at West Ambler Johnston Hall. Fifteen other victims from Norris are being treated at area hospitals."
This still effects everyone, everywhere, regardless of whether or not you knew someone by name.
We are a Hokie nation, and Virginia is an orange and maroon state.
"This is a tragedy in American history. So for today, forget any and all of your college affiliations. For today, we are all Hokies." -CNN
"Two shooting incidents on the Virginia Tech campus Monday, April 16, 2007 left 33 dead. Thirty-one, including the gunman, died at Norris Hall; two died at West Ambler Johnston Hall. Fifteen other victims from Norris are being treated at area hospitals."
This still effects everyone, everywhere, regardless of whether or not you knew someone by name.
We are a Hokie nation, and Virginia is an orange and maroon state.
Live for the 32.
Coleman Collins posted a blog comment reflecting back on that day:
APR 16 10:43 AM ET
Former Virginia Tech and D-League player Coleman Collins plays professional basketball in Germany, has a blog, and contributes semi-regularly to TrueHoop. Today he writes about the tragedy that shaped his college days, three years ago.
We Are Virginia Tech
By Nikki Giovanni
We are Virginia Tech.
We are sad today, and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.
We are Virginia Tech.
We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly,
we are brave enough to bend to cry,
and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again.
We are Virginia Tech.
We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did nothing to deserve it, but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by the rogue army, neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory, neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water, neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.
We are Virginia Tech.
The Hokie Nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong, and brave, and innocent, and unafraid. We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imaginations and the possibilities. We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and through all our sadness.
We are the Hokies.
We will prevail.
We will prevail.
We will prevail.
We are Virginia Tech.
No comments:
Post a Comment