Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Editorial: Today we remember lives lost at Tech
Tomorrow we look to a future in which remembering is less painful.
From the RoundTable blog
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It's spring, the season of new beginnings, a time to look forward. Warmer days, budding daffodils and chirping birds all herald a rapidly approaching summer.
This spring, however, we look back. One year ago, it was cold. On April 16, flurries fell on the Virginia Tech campus. A troubled young man killed 32 students and faculty, then himself. It was a day of endings, not beginnings.
Today the Tech community, Blacksburg, Southwest Virginia and the nation remember the lives lost. We mourn again. We comfort the families of the dead. We support the injured. We mark the occasion on the Drillfield where a permanent memorial stands as constant, silent reminder.
Today the pain is less than a year ago. The wounds have begun to heal.
There is some solace to be found in the changes enacted over the last year.
The Tech community, students especially, devoted itself to service. VT Engaged organized more than 400,000 hours of volunteerism.
Lawmakers responded to the shootings. They bolstered state mental health policy by improving commitment criteria and custody rules as well as enabling greater information sharing about potentially dangerous individuals.
Other challenges remain. Though lawmakers closed one loophole that allowed a deranged person to buy guns, they left the so-called gun show loophole open.
Meanwhile, university administrators implemented an emergency alert system and other safety precautions at Tech. Other schools took similar measures, and college campuses across the commonwealth are safer.
Hard lessons learned a year ago did not go unheeded.
This year, there are no snow flurries, but today it is not spring. This one day we do not look forward. A gunman took away that privilege.
Tomorrow, though, the Tech community, Blacksburg, Southwest Virginia and the nation can and must look forward again. We must look to a time not far off when the Apri 16 shootings have receded in memory. The memories will never disappear, but they will grow more distant with each passing year.
We will never forget the friends, colleagues and bright young people with so much promise for the future, but we will move on, stronger for having persevered.
