April 18, 2007
We Are Virginia Tech
There has been a lot of discussion over the past few days about Virginia Tech's response in the early hours of Tuesday's tragedy. Did they take the matter seriously enough? Did they respond quickly and effectively enough? Did they really have the best interest of their students, faculty and staff in mind?
Those issues can and will be debated for some time. They should be. What can NOT be debated though is just how impressive the Hokie nation has turned out to be. Almost immediately after the disaster, the community rallied around itself and started addressing their own problems. If there's anything that can be learned about Virginia Tech from all of this is that the school, the administration, the students and the alumni have built an incredibly supportive and united community. How could anyone watch the way they've responded and still think that the university doesn't care about its own students and employees? You can't watch the obvious love that those people have for their school and not be incredibly impressed.
I mentioned in my previous post that incidents like this always make sports seem so inconsequential. Well, maybe I need to reconsider. Virginia Polytechnic University is NOT just a football team, but it's clear that the football team, along with all the other athletic teams, IS a huge part of the school. A huge part of the culture. A hugely positive part of the culture, experience and pride of being a Hokie. Students, alumni and fans everywhere - including the Washington Nationals - have been wearing the maroon and orange all week. They repeatedly refer to themselves as Hokies. That unity and common identity comes directly from the athletic teams.
Sports do matter.
Finally, to wrap up the two points I'm making, you need to watch this video from yesterday's convocation in Cassell Coliseum. An English professor gives an incredibly stirring speech that clearly inspired everyone in the crowd. Watch the whole thing and see what spontaneously erupts near the end. I promise you, you'll get a bit choked up. And you'll see why sports can be so important.
We all are Virginia Tech.
Part of the problem here is that the shooter had the good sense to kill himself. Unfortunately, the "Commonwealth" now will be unable to do one of the show murder trials that it is so good at and now has to find some other place to foist blame. Hmm, the guns appear to be sold legally and we can't admit that the "Commonwealth's" permissive gun laws might have had something to do with this tragedy, so why don't we blame it on Virginia Tech.
Murders happen all over the country and blocks of cities are seldom shut down in the interim unless the accused is directly cornered. As sad and tragic as this is, Virginia Tech made the best choice they could given the information that they had. Obviously in retrospect they would have acted differently, although it is not entirely clear whether that would have changed the outcome or not.
Let's not let the politicians' desire to shift blame, shift our focus from remembering the entire Virginia Tech community and communities around the South and the country, including North Carolina, Georgia, New York and others, who have lost sons and daughters.
Dave's site has a focus on the ACC and Virginia Tech is one of our newer members, but I think that we can all agree that this week, we are all Hokies in spirt.
As a Tech alum I'd like to thank you for an outstanding post. You are 100% correct. Sports do matter, especially to us Hokies. At times we've felt a little shortchanged by some of the schools around us (especially our neighbor up north), but in the past few days we've been humbled by the support and selflessness demonstrated by those schools (especially our neighbors in Charlottesville). Others, like yourself, have begun to see and experience what we have always known. That is we love our university, not just because Michael Vick was faster than the wind, but because of walks across the drillfield on crisp October afternoons, poetry class with Nikki Giovanni, organic chemistry with Neal Castagnoli, bike rides up Brush Mountain, and oh yes, Beamerball. Welcome to Virginia Tech.
| william wrote: |
| Ryan Zimmerman wearing a Virgina Tech baseball cap pretty much says it all. |
I saw that. I think it's pretty cool that he and many other Virginia fans/alumni are putting aside the petty rivalry and becoming Hokies at least for a while.
William, you make a great point on the "lockdown." Although Virginia's gun laws are more lenient than some, if the information about the whack-job's mental condition had been available, he couldn't have legally purchased the Glock.
Continuing on the mental condition issue, I'm all for privacy. But, when someone is dangerous, the greater good needs to figure in the equation. Can you imagine finding out your roommate just murdered 32 people?
I couldn't find a burgundy and orange bowtie in Tidewater, so I stopped in at Dick's Sporting Goods to see if they had something unobtrusive to wear tomorrow. There was no VT merchandise in the store, so I guess a burgundy ribbon on an orange shirt will suffice. Tomorrow, there will be a Hokie Nation.
http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=123204&ran=246269
Fred Phelps, the hateful "minister" who is famous for his "God hates fags" signs (and who has recently been picketing military funerals) is planning on disrupting the funerals of the fallen VT students.
There's already been a large student movement against this, but ultimately we think only the Governor can provide state police details with instructions to keep this jackass as far from mourners as possible. If everyone here took a few seconds to write Gov. Kaine a letter asking him to do just that it'd be hugely helpful. On this issue it's ok if you're not from VA.
Here's his comment website: http://www.governor.virginia.gov/AboutTheGovernor/contactGovernor.cfm
I can't imagine what I would do if I were at my child's funeral and some assholes were carrying signs and yelling that my kid deserved it. I'm not sure I could keep from committing a homicide of my own. I hope somebody at least beats the everloving hell out of them if they do show up. Seriously. I hope that happens.
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