[nichpr]

Please allow this Virginia Tech alumnus a moment to share with you my grief, my wonderful memories of the years I spent in Blacksburg and more importantly the healing and hopeful words of the University Poet Emeritus - Nikki Giovanni:

We Are Virginia Tech
We are Virginia Tech
We are sad today
And we will be sad for quite a while
We are not moving on
We are embracing our mourning
We are Virginia Tech
We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly
We are brave enough to bend to cry ...
And sad enough to know we must laugh again
We are Virginia Tech
We do not understand this tragedy
We know we did nothing to deserve it
But neither does a child in Africa dying of aids
Neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by a rogue army
Neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory
Neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water
Neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of night in his crib in the home its father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destablized
No one deserves a tragedy
We are Virginia Tech
The Hokie nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds
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 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

She was the last to speak in what was a very somber memorial. After she finished, the 10,000+ students, parents and officials in attendance broke out in applause and then a spontaneous cheer rose from the crowd - the same cheer we use to urge on our sports teams - Let's go Hokies..........Let's go Hokies........ Let's go Hokies............

Sunset at Virginia Tech:

[Dabhand16]

Paul - I'm sure that everone who has heard about this dreadful event will be sharing your grief. It has been constantly in our news in the UK and has been featured daily on the radio where in phone-ins, everone will express how it has impacted on them.

I heard part of the address that President bush gave today, and in it he said that all of America was hurting along with the friends and families of the victims. He was wrong. The hurt is far wider than America. It extends across the world, but probably moreso here in the UK, where no matter how much we might critise your politics, when the chips are down we stand shoulder to shoulder with the american people.

Be assured, we are hurting too.

[Boofers]

Be of good cheer,,for tomorrow we live again. go Virginia Tech.....

[P-E]

As well as it been the main news over here in the UK it has also been the main news locally as it has emerged we have four students frown Sheffield doing their studies at the Virginia Tech.

[stepheno]

Our thoughts are with you.

[fionaB]

I think the world mourns with you. Although many people do not see eye to eye with certain American policies, this is a world apart from that kind of thing. At the end of the day it was people........... yep just people..... like everyone of us here.
I can feel deeply and can understand a little of how folks must be feeling, living none to far away from Dunblane when we had a similar incidence in a primary school where kids under 11 were slaughtered for no reason. the area was in shock but what was more amazing was the messages that came in from all over the world in sympathy....... the same goes in this incidence. we all mourn with you and we all hurt. we are ALL just people after all!

Fi

[CathieT]

Hurting with you here in Australia too, as well as Aussie students, there are two Australian lecturers teaching there, and as Fi said - these were just people, young people caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

*hug*

Cathie

[nichpr]

Thank you for your kind words. This sickening event just hit too close to home. My wife lived in the dormatory on the same floor as the first shooting and I had several classes in Norris Hall. Although it has been 30 years since we graduated, we still feel very much a part of the Va Tech family.
I appreciate each of you in the Pixalo community allowing me this space and time to share - it has helped in the healing process.
- Paul

[garys]

Paul, living in NC with all my in-laws grads of an ACC school makes this event as close to home as it can get. Many flags are at half mast right now. Are thoughts and prayers are with you all.

[Angela]

My thoughts are with you and anyone affected by this terrible tragedy.