This blog is mostly dedicated to the Boston Red Sox and some of my other interests, one of those being VT Football and VT in general, although I have not posted anything about either to date. The events on Monday in Blacksburg are tragic, sad, heartbreaking and leave more questions than answers.
It has taken me this long to be able to write this. I lived in Blacksburg in 1995 and 1996 just a few years before VT got “big”. Watching this tragedy unfold over all the news channels, the Internet and discussing with friends who attended VT will be with me forever. Watching armed police run through campus, ambulances pull away with the injured or those who did not survive are etched in my brain. It physically made me sick.
I transfered to “Tech” and one of my first jobs was delivering flowers for Karen’s Florist and I quickly came to know the campus as well as anyone. I was on campus three or four times a day. I was in the residence halls at least that many times a day. Seeing the residence hall names flash across the screen was eerie. Where all the news crews were camped out you could tell where they were on campus and remember things about those areas. Memories that now seem more idyllic than real and that are forever “lost” by current events.
I am sad for the families that lost a loved one, sad for the school that will endure scrutiny for some time to come and is now in the national spotlight not for academics, research, or success in athletics but for violence on a scale we have not seen before. We need to remember that this is not Virginia Techs fault, these are the actions of one troubled individual amongst more than 25,000 on campus.
Virginia Tech is now forever changed in the aftermath of Monday. It is up to us, the Virginia Tech community, to unite to support the families who lost a loved one, support the school that we love and support each other in the Virginia Tech community. Virginia Tech supported us and gave us so much and now it is time to give a little back.
