I rarely comment and even more rarely write diaries, but as a very recent Virginia Tech alumnus I've of course been affected greatly by yesterday's events. But even that alone isn't enough to get me to begin writing. It takes a special kind of disgust and a special kind of fatigue with what I see on TV that get me to write.
After watching and reading, I only have one thing to say. Leave us alone. Let us heal as a community. Don't search for a person to blame. Don't try to divide us. The students and the extended Tech community will come out on the other side of this tragedy, if you let us.
It helps to understand a little bit about what we mean when we describe the Hokie Nation. I've never been able to explain it that well, it's something that you truly have to experience to understand.
The Hokie Nation means having a wardrobe half consisting of maroon and orange, claiming that those colors go with everything you own. It's working your ass off to get the chance to cheer and yell at a football game, spending four hours in the stands on a Saturday without sitting down once. Spending time studying in buildings covered in 'hokie stone' and fighting the winds to make it across the drillfield.
The Hokie Nation means being part of a close-knit community. Not just a community within the town of Blacksburg, but a community consisting of alumni, students, families and many others. That community is large - it consists of people from every walk of life, every profession, every everything. It's only united by one idea - we are all Hokies, we are all Virginia Tech. But that's all we need to unite us, in times both good and astoundingly awful. See this video of Nikki Giovanni's closing poem and the audience reaction to get an idea of what I mean. See the standing ovation that the President of our university received before he spoke at the convocation.
So imagine how it feels to have this united community attempting to be ripped apart? Blaming everyone from the administration, the police, and the shooter's teachers to the regulations on campus. Trying to goad students and parents into lashing out at everyone and everything. Speculating on "when the grief will turn to anger with those who failed to protect them." As the media has pointed out so far, that's not how the students have responded by and large so far, and hopefully they will stay united far into the future.
I just heard on MSNBC that the students are "comforted" by having one of the largest news media groupings ever assembled planted there. Comfort comes from Facebook groups showing support from students in thousands of other colleges and communities, from orange and maroon ribbons and shirts being worn in solidarity, from vigils being held throughout the nation. Comfort comes from collective grief and mourning, and from knowing that we are all together as Hokies.
Comfort doesn't come from having cameras pointed at you constantly, trying to divide us and point fingers at who has responsibility for an ultimately inexplicable tragedy. Comfort doesn't come from turning this into a debate about gun control, or Iraq, on Bush's leadership or lack thereof.
So please leave. Or if you're going to stay at least shut up. You can watch the amazing students that attend Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and see how they work through and overcome senseless violence, but don't try to tell them how to do it.