A sick young man with what one reporter called a "hole in his soul" killed thirty-two innocent people at Virginia Tech last Monday. One of them was a French professor, Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, formerly of Montreal.
Another was a 76 year old professor, Liviu Librescu, a Romanian who had survived the Holocaust only to die in his own classroom. But he died a hero, blocking the door for as long as he could while his students escaped out the windows.
Most, of course, were students who died tragically and far, far too young.
There are so many issues to write about: Should guns be better controlled, even outlawed? (Virginia has some of the laxest laws in the U.S., but who are we in Montreal to cast stones after the École Polytechnique, Concordia, and only months ago Dawson.) Should NBC have aired video footage that the killer sent them? (Absolutely not, in my opinion; it only gives him the publicity and attention he craved and maybe even inspires other deranged individuals to follow suit.) Were the police as efficient as they could have been - two full hours elapsed between the initial two murders in a dormitory and the classroom carnage that followed.
One thing I have to say I admired immensely, though, was the way the school - the nation - dealt with the aftermath. The next day there was an incredible memorial ceremony including the president of the country and a huge candlelight vigil. The depth of the faith of those involved was clear and clearly was a help and a comfort. I think that's something we've done poorly here. We don't create a sense of community and fellowship; people are left largely on their own to mourn and to cope as best they can.
And I particularly liked poet Nikki Giovanni's address (and also learned she is neither male, Italian nor especially old - possibly dead - as I had thought). The lines that most moved me were these:
We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly,
we are brave enough to bend to cry,
and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again.
We are strong, and brave, and innocent, and unafraid.
We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be.
We are alive to the imaginations and the possibilities.
We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears
and through all our sadness.
we are brave enough to bend to cry,
and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again.
We are strong, and brave, and innocent, and unafraid.
We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be.
We are alive to the imaginations and the possibilities.
We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears
and through all our sadness.
May all the innocent victims and their families be comforted and blessed. Amen
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