Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Editorial: A day of sorrow
There will be time to heal. Today we mourn the dead and support those who have lost so much.
From the RoundTable blog
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No words can encompass the horror of Monday's events at Virginia Tech. Tech President Charles Steger called it "a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions." It was that and much worse.
As we write this, the details continue to unfold. At least 30 people, including the alleged gunman, are dead. Nearly as many are injured. It is already the deadliest shooting in U.S. history.
These times test the character of a campus and a community. Families have lost sons and daughters, brothers and sisters; students have lost friends; all have lost shining young people full of promise for the future.
We mourn that loss. Our profound sympathy goes out to the families of the victims and to the Tech students and faculty. And our gratitude goes to the law enforcement and emergency services personnel who faced the horrors firsthand.
The community still feels the pain from the killing of a hospital security guard and a Montgomery County sheriff's deputy last fall. The subsequent manhunt locked down the Tech campus on the first day of classes. People's nerves are still on edge from the recent bomb threats that shut down a campus building. And now this tragedy tears open deep, new wounds.
The community has begun to express its profound grief with a multitude of prayer vigils and impromptu memorials. Today's convocation on campus will also offer an opportunity for the university to come together to begin to understand the magnitude of this tragedy.
In coming weeks and months there will be time to heal. A community that has dealt with so much already will pull together again. It will show its strength in the face of adversity. The people of the New River Valley and beyond will come to terms with an incomprehensible tragedy.
There will be time, too, for questions and answers, discussions of what happened and how to rebuild Blacksburg's shattered sense of safety and security.
Today, however, there is time only for shock and grief and to support those who have lost so much.
