April 16, 2007 – We Remember

I am not a Virginia Tech Alum. I did go to school there, but my degree is from a small Christian school in Kentucky. While I would not trade that degree or my experience at Asbury University, I would still love to have that VT degree after my name. I did attend there, but not long enough to be considered alumni. I am, however, a Hokie at heart, having grown up only 25 minutes away. Truth be told, when I was growing up it was more like an hour away. At least until the four-lane road was built.

Today, April 16, 2012, marks five years since that fateful day when 32 students and faculty were killed by a deranged madman.

I remember that day. When the news first broke that morning, we clung to the Internet and news outlets trying to find out what was going on. A friend on another website spoke of being locked down in his building for hours. But he was safe. I remember watching as the intern in our office and later my high school aged son tried in vain to reach their friends, to reach anyone. Before it was over 32 students and faculty were dead in what remains one of the most horrific shooting attacks in our nation’s history.

We grieve in different ways. Some have called for tighter gun control. But gun control will not stop the actions of a madman. Reality is that guns were already forbidden on campus. It’s senseless to speculate about what could have been different if over students or faculty were armed. They could have saved lives. They could have caused more deaths.

And much has been said about the response of the University. Court cases continue, although thankfully the fine from the U.S. Department of Education was overturned. It was, after all, none of their business.

Whether or not they did the right thing is not for me to decide. But University officials made their decisions with the information that they had. They were not purposefully negligent. After all, what happened was unthinkable, it was inconceivable. It was something we would not have imagined in our worst nightmares.

Pundits will argue, debates will rage. But today, we remember:

Emily J. Hilscher, 19, a freshman from Woodville in Rappahannock County, Virginia

Ryan Clark, 22, a senior from Martinez, Georgia.

Ross Abdallah Alameddine, 20, a sophomore from Saugus, Massachusetts.

Brian Bluhm, a graduate student from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Austin Cloyd, a freshman from Blacksburg, Virginia.

Matthew Gwaltney, from Chester, Virginia, United States.

Caitlin Hammaren, 19, a sophomore from Westtown, New York.

Jeremy Herbstritt, 27, a graduate student from Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.

Rachael Elizabeth Hill, 18, a freshman from Richmond, Virginia.

Matthew La Porte, 20, a freshman from Dumont, New Jersey.

Jarrett Lane, a senior from Narrows, Virginia.

Henry Lee, a freshman from Roanoke, Virginia.

Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan, 34, a postgraduate student from Medan, Indonesia.

Lauren McCain, 20, of Hampton, Virginia.

Daniel Patrick O’Neil, a graduate student from Lincoln, Rhode Island.

Juan Ramon Ortiz, 26, a graduate student from Bayamón, Puerto Rico.

Minal Panchal, 26, a graduate student from Mumbai, India.

Daniel Pérez Cueva, 21, a student from Lima, Peru.

Erin Peterson, 18, a freshman from Centreville, Virginia.

Michael Pohle, 23, a senior from Raritan Township, New Jersey.

Julia Pryde, 23, a graduate student from Middletown, New Jersey.

Mary Karen Read, 19, a freshman from Annandale, Virginia.

Reema Joseph Samaha, 18, a freshman from Centreville, Virginia.

Leslie Sherman, 20, a sophomore from Springfield, Virginia.

Maxine Turner, a senior from Vienna, Virginia, United States.

Nicole White, a junior from Carrollton, Virginia.

Christopher Jamie Bishop, 35, Instructor, Foreign Languages and Literatures.

Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, Instructor, Foreign Languages. A French instructor from Montréal, Quebec, Canada.

Kevin Granata, 45, Professor, Engineering Science & Mechanics.

Liviu Librescu, 76, Professor, Engineering Science & Mechanics, and Holocaust survivor. Killed while holding off the shooter so his students could escape out the window.

G. V. Loganathan, 51, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering.

A Proclamation by Governor Robert F. McDonnell

Virginia Tech Remembrance Day

WHEREAS, on the morning of April 16, 2007, a tragedy of immense magnitude and senselessness befell the campus of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; and

WHEREAS, the lives of 32 individuals from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University were hastily taken, leaving absences that will never be filled and a profound sense of sorrow in the lives of those impacted; and

WHEREAS, the community continues to mourn those who perished, we also honor those individuals wounded as they individually and collectively strive to prevail through this tragedy; and

WHEREAS, we recognize and thank local, state, and federal first responders who courageously answered the call of duty in an effort to prevent the further loss of life; and

WHEREAS, the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia join with those from across the country and around the world in their thoughts and prayers to honor the cherished memories of those who lost their lives and those wounded; and

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Robert F. McDonnell, do hereby recognize April 16, 2012, as VIRGINIA TECH

REMEMBRANCE DAY in the COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, and I call this observance to the attention of all our citizens.

I should be writing this down

Wednesday after work my youngest and I took off for a visit with family in Giles County, where I grew up.  We took a slightly different route and headed west on Route 60 cutting over at Appomattox to finish the drive home on Route 460.  That took us by McLean Courthouse in Appomattox.  It was too late to stop, but we got a pretty good glimpse from the road.

I’m still not quite sure what was so different about the drive, but I had a strange sense of nostalgia remembering back to the first time I came to Appomattox as a seventh grader more than forty years ago.  I remember our teacher talked for what seemed liked days about a bridge carved with the Confederate stars and bars.  And I remember that when we saw it we said, “that’s it?” This time I was relieved to see it still there.

As we’re getting ready to head back to Richmond this morning I realize that this is a trip I need to make more often.  None of us, myself included, is getting any younger.

Because of the death of a family acquaintance, a prominent man in the community, I also heard lots of stories.  It’s a common practice around funerals to tell stories and share memories.  I’m at the younger end of my generation in my Dad’s family, so I missed a lot of the stories, or people, over the years.  I had to stop the conversations and ask “I know Wirt married Zenobia, but how was Alice related?  And what about Snow?”

I am not making those names up.

My son and I also took a walk “around the mountain” to the site of the home place built by my great grandfather and where his youngest daughter lived churning her own butter and raising most of her own food until, as an old woman, cancer finally took her.  Oh, to have a drink of that spring water that ran off the mountain.  The house is gone now, destroyed by fire long after Aunt Clara died.

What I’ve been realizing over and over is that there are stories to be written.  There is history to be told.

And perhaps I need to tell it.

I didn’t really come prepared to write this weekend.  In fact because free wifi is non existent here except for McDonalds, I didn’t even take the laptop out of my bag.  I’m writing this from my phone in the only corner of the house where I can get to 3G.  And I’m afraid to even stand up before I post for fear that I will lose it.

What I know is that I need to write more.  And I know that all the inspiration I need is right inside.

Or it’s here in the New River Valley at the foot of a mountain I call home.