Damn the torpedoes! Full Speed Ahead!

I can obviously say nothing that will come close to making sense out of what happened in Blacksburg yesterday. Some others to your right have already written rather eloquently, so I won't.

I would like to comment on the approach that these particular victims have taken in contrast with the way many seem to meet negative events these days. On an almost daily basis, I worry about my colleagues in whatever generation it is we find ourselves classified. And when I do, I worry most that I am one of a generation of quitters. I worry that we all too frequently walk away when things get rough, that we choose termination of a person or experiment over forgiveness and the opportunity for redemption, and that we would prefer a sterile, safe, and fearless existence to one of engagement, intense pleasure and pain, and the opportunity for progress. (For the record, as this principle concerns one's dating life, I could probably stand a dose of my own medicine).

I think the surest route to that sterile existence is the removal of every offensive, dangerous, and risky element from our lives. When no one speaks, none can be offended. When there is no sun-bathing, there will be no skin cancer. When no one drives fast, there will be no speed-induced accidents. When there are no guns, there will be no shootings... or so the extension of this thinking goes.

For that reason, I couldn't have been more pleased to see the Virginia Tech community respond the way it did. While there are a few (mostly press) people pointing fingers, most are trying to find a way to recover - to be honorable of the memory of the dead, to grieve appropriately and without self-serving public demonstrations of emotion, and then to move on with life with a greater appreciation for its brevity and value. Few are placing the blame on guns, the administration, the police, or anything else. They know that no sense can be made of this tragedy, and that any attempt to place blame is rooted in falsehood and empty symbolism.

But they also seem to know that the freedom that makes things like this possible is the same freedom that makes an American life so full. The freedom of speech that facilitates a person's being offended is the same freedom of speech that brought us Vonnegut, Woodward and Bernstein, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," and "South Park." The freedom from unreasonable search and seizure that makes the safety of our skies tenuous at best is the same freedom that keeps Rosco P. Coltrane from "finding" some blow in your glove compartment. And yes, the right to bear arms that allows a loner to take 32 innocents with him is the same one that keeps individual agents of the government in check and makes the prospect of foreign invasion ridiculous.

Like it or not, the leading cause of death is life itself.

I had a bit of my confidence in my generation restored when I heard the determination in Professor Giovanni's words:

We are alive to the imagination and the possibility
We will continue to invent the future
Through our blood and tears
Through all this sadness
We are the Hokies
We will prevail
We will prevail
We will prevail

We are Virginia Tech.

I admit that I lost it when the crowd began to cheer, and then to chant, "Let's Go Hokies."

Someone got hurt and decided not to quit. Someone suffered a horrible wound, and decided it wasn't worth laying down over. Someone decided to live, in spite of the fact that living guarantees more pain.

These days, that's news.