EDITORIAL: Consoling Virginia Tech
Title
EDITORIAL: Consoling Virginia Tech
Description
By:Anonymous
Posted: 4/17/07
On one of the most celebratory Mondays on Boston's calendar -- a day when students forget about classes and hit the streets for a citywide party -- the Virginia Tech campus was in shock and mourning.
In the deadliest shooting in U.S. history, a gunman murdered 32 community members and wounded 15 others before taking his own life yesterday.
This page can barely begin to express its deepest sympathies to the Virginia Tech community. When Boston University loses any one of its members, the campus has a difficult time recovering. To lose 32 community members in fewer than three hours is unimaginable.
The most frightening element of this tragedy is that it was virtually unpreventible. No matter how much money a university pours into its security plan, no matter how often safety procedures are rehearsed, little can prevent a suicidal gunman from going on a rampage.
This mass murder is part of the violence this country has been forced to become accustomed to. Many may not consider Monday's shooting an act of terrorism, but that is exactly what it was. Ever since Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 12 of their classmates and a teacher in Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, this sort of terrorism has been part of our reality.
But that doesn't remove the distress and pain felt after it happens. Blacksburg, Va. may be more than 700 miles from Boston, but the emotions still hit close to home. College students have a connection to universities across the country. Most students know someone, or have a friend of a friend, or have some other tie to Virginia Tech.
Even if students don't have these personal connections, they have the bond of being college students -- going to class, sleeping in late, going out on weekends and being close to friends. And sadly the thought about the possibility of a gunman coming into their classrooms and opening fire is a concern that crosses many students' minds. But no one can possibly fathom what this horrific experience would actually feel, sound or look like. Hopefully, most never will.
Virginia Tech will likely never fully recover from what happened yesterday. Coping with the most destructive shooting this country has ever seen will be a slow and seemingly impossible task. Though it may sound insincere or contrived because it will be so difficult, this message isn't meant to be such: We wish the speediest recovery to the Virginia Tech community.
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Original Source:<a href=http://media.www.dailyfreepress.com/media/storage/paper87/news/2007/04/17/Opinion/Editorial.Consoling.Virginia.Tech-2846306.shtml>The Daily Free Press - April 17, 2007</a>
Posted: 4/17/07
On one of the most celebratory Mondays on Boston's calendar -- a day when students forget about classes and hit the streets for a citywide party -- the Virginia Tech campus was in shock and mourning.
In the deadliest shooting in U.S. history, a gunman murdered 32 community members and wounded 15 others before taking his own life yesterday.
This page can barely begin to express its deepest sympathies to the Virginia Tech community. When Boston University loses any one of its members, the campus has a difficult time recovering. To lose 32 community members in fewer than three hours is unimaginable.
The most frightening element of this tragedy is that it was virtually unpreventible. No matter how much money a university pours into its security plan, no matter how often safety procedures are rehearsed, little can prevent a suicidal gunman from going on a rampage.
This mass murder is part of the violence this country has been forced to become accustomed to. Many may not consider Monday's shooting an act of terrorism, but that is exactly what it was. Ever since Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 12 of their classmates and a teacher in Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, this sort of terrorism has been part of our reality.
But that doesn't remove the distress and pain felt after it happens. Blacksburg, Va. may be more than 700 miles from Boston, but the emotions still hit close to home. College students have a connection to universities across the country. Most students know someone, or have a friend of a friend, or have some other tie to Virginia Tech.
Even if students don't have these personal connections, they have the bond of being college students -- going to class, sleeping in late, going out on weekends and being close to friends. And sadly the thought about the possibility of a gunman coming into their classrooms and opening fire is a concern that crosses many students' minds. But no one can possibly fathom what this horrific experience would actually feel, sound or look like. Hopefully, most never will.
Virginia Tech will likely never fully recover from what happened yesterday. Coping with the most destructive shooting this country has ever seen will be a slow and seemingly impossible task. Though it may sound insincere or contrived because it will be so difficult, this message isn't meant to be such: We wish the speediest recovery to the Virginia Tech community.
--
Original Source:<a href=http://media.www.dailyfreepress.com/media/storage/paper87/news/2007/04/17/Opinion/Editorial.Consoling.Virginia.Tech-2846306.shtml>The Daily Free Press - April 17, 2007</a>
Creator
Anonymous
Publisher
The Daily Free Press
Date
2007-08-14
Contributor
Sara Hood
Rights
Matt Negrin <editor@dailyfreepress.com>
Language
eng
Citation
Anonymous, “EDITORIAL: Consoling Virginia Tech,” The April 16 Archive, accessed November 23, 2024, https://april16archive.org/index.php/items/show/1059.