At this point I am unsure of how to say what I am feeling ... my community has been rocked. I don't live in Blacksburg, VA but I might as well ... I live in a sleepy college town and I spend all of my time in higher education. I know these kids -- not the ones from Tech, but students just like them who are too young to really know what is going on around them ... but yet old enough to know all too well what they are feeling. I feel for them and I want to find a way to reach out to them all.
I am hurting and I am saddened by the images I see on TV. I am dismayed at the lack of answers to the questions our media is asking and I have to ask myself how can this happen to so many innocent people. Several of my colleagues here at PSU have said that they haven't felt this way since 9/11 ... I haven't either. What terrifies me is that we have a reference point for this kind of feeling.
I look into the eyes of my two children, babies really, and am horrified that they have to grow up in a place like this. A place where violence and death is real. A place where hate is palpable ... a place where going to work in the greatest city in the world or attending classes in the Blue Ridge Mountains has become deadly. I am just at a loss for words and thoughts. My heart goes out to all the families of the victims ... my heart goes out to all the students, faculty, and staff of VA Tech ... my heart goes out to all of us.
I hope we can all look down the road and decide it is time to think differently about things like mental health, gun control, privacy, protection, service, and so much more ... I am sick of political perspectives and I am sick of apathy. We are all members of our communities -- higher education, towns, cities, whatever ... it is time to step up. I am not sure if this is the last post I make on this subject, but I can guarantee it will not be my last thought. I am sorry to go off topic here, but at this moment, writing is the only thing that is keeping me from crying.
The greatest thing I have heard through all this is, "today, we are all VA Tech Hokies."
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