April 17th, 2007 - Candlelight Vigil on VT's Drillfield
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Nikki Giovanni's VT convocation address
April 17, 2007
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 we are sad enough to know that 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 the rogue army, neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devestated for ivory, neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water, neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. 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 imaginations and the possibilities. We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and through all our sadness.
We are the Hokies.
We will prevail.
We will prevail.
We will prevail.
We are Virginia Tech.
We Will Prevail - We Are Virginia Tech!
From the Virginia Tech alumni vigil at the University of Richmond's Cannon Memorial Chapel
April 17, 2007
We are Hokies United, we are one Hokie nation, one family, one community united by Ut Prosim - “That I May Serve."
The Virginia Tech community has recently been attacked and wounded by horror and affliction that none of us asked for. We were tormented last semester, teased with bomb threats and now deeply wounded by a sword of torment and misery.
Think of Virginia Tech as one body who just got attacked and we’re lying in the hospital bed. We need to use all the energy of our body to heal our wounds. What does a person go through who has just been maliciously attacked? Shock, vexation, confusion, anger, sadness, grief, disbelief, denial, etc. We’re trying to survive and make sense of what happed and gain clarity and perspective. Many questions are asked and some we will never have the answers to.
Some people are at our bedside asking us “shouldn’t have Tech done this or that? Why didn’t someone do their job?” I hope people are not intentionally trying to cause more distress but we need all white blood cells on the wound, we do not need to be wasting energy dealing with more confusion and second guessing.
We need love, healing, comfort, consolation, forgiveness, and service to each other.
The worst thing we can do as a Hokie Nation is to let the toxicity of the second-guessing and doubt to invade our own body and have our own community turn against itself. In a time like this where community members have confusion, vexation, and anger, it’s easy to mistakenly want to place blame. We cannot blame the administration or ourselves; Virginia Tech did NOT ask for this tragedy nor bring it upon herself, it’s not our fault. I believe our administration and police leadership did the best they could, but that is beside the point. Right now we need to band together and support EVERYONE in our Hokie Nation. Please encourage each other to serve one another and come together.
The spirit and love that is found deep within the wisdom of our motto Ut Prosim—“That I May Serve” cover over a multitude of the toxic inundations that could seep into our community.
Let’s also reflect on the wisdom of our 8 Pylons which is what has made us who we are today:
Brotherhood |
Human relationships “love” |
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Duty |
Obligation/responsibility to each other |
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Honor |
Respect for each other |
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Leadership |
Positive influence |
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Loyalty |
Faithful to Ut Prosim |
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Service |
Helping others |
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Sacrifice |
Offering of self, carrying each other’s burdens of loss |
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Ut Prosim |
“That I May Serve,” and right now that means, each other. |
Right now my Hokie family needs me to be supportive and serve them. I need to support Dr. Steger and the entire leadership and not let anything divide us against one another.
Let’s not be remembered as the massacre university, but the university who embodied her to her motto, Ut Prosim and came together as community. I hope and pray we can serve one another in patience, kindness, goodness, forgiveness, and gentleness in our time of great need and agony.
Permission: Denied.
Written by Leigh Anne Coverstone
4/18/07
Permission: Denied.
Along with the deadly shootings that occurred on the Virginia Tech campus on April 16, 2007 come questions. The deaths were senseless and tragic… but how was everyone supposed to act?
- I don't know any of the victims.
- Do I have the right to be shaken just because I once lived in West AJ?
- Because I walked that campus for a few years?
- Does the fact that I know that all four corners of McBride Hall point exactly North, South, East and West entitle me to feelings of grief?
- Just because I can recite all eight inscriptions on the pylons above the War Memorial Chapel can I anguish over the thought of a lone gunman? (They are: UT Prosim—"That I may serve"; Brotherhood, Duty, Honor, Loyalty, Leadership, Service and Sacrifice.)
I walked around at work and looked into the faces of co-workers as they stared blankly at television screens. Those expressions led me to believe that I was not the only one that felt empty and unsure of how to react. After the events of 9/11 it was common to see people openly weep… that was different, right? Or maybe that was just what we were telling ourselves.
Last night that changed for me. My friend Tami and I attended a Memorial Service sponsored by Virginia Tech Alumni. We were two amid a vast sea of Orange and Maroon. At that service a particularly well spoken Rabbi asked all of us to 'take a deep breath' and as we exhaled we were told to let out all of the emotions that we had stored away for two days. It was only then that I felt like I had the right to cry. Judging by the echoing sounds in a dimly lit Chapel, apparently I wasn't the only one who felt conflicted.
I now feel like I have the ability to be emotional about such concepts as:
- What if it was my sibling who died?
- Or my father?
- Or my mother?
- Or me?
- Or, God forbid, my child?
Sitting in the Chapel on the campus of University of Richmond I listened as a Methodist minister spoke about a grieving Hokie Nation . I looked around and saw pinched faces and red eyes. I saw alumni in their 20's and alumni in their 70's. There is truly something comforting about being in a room full of people who know exactly how you feel-- who have just been told that it is ok to feel.
We filed out of the Chapel into the night, 1000 people clutching wax dripping candles with not a sound to be heard. No shuffling feet, no ringing cell phones, no idle chatter. Just candles lighting the way to a large VT logo. A final prayer, a sigh of relief, a "Let's Go Hokies" chant and the night became still again.
Hokie Nation will heal. I will get past this event. I have that right.
Permission: Granted.
Tributes
Today, We Are All Hokies!
Frank Beamer
The following is a segment of the USA TODAY article on 4/17/07 (link)
Beamer and athletics director Jim Weaver canceled the spring football game, scheduled for Saturday, as well as practices.
"It's a two-way street," Hite says of the cancellation. "Our football program is one of the things that really brings all the Hokies together, and I think a lot of people would probably like to see the spring game to be played, from that standpoint, kind of like a rallying thing.
"But at the same time, how can you have a football game when parents are burying their child?
"It's an easy answer: You can't, and we won't."
Similarly, Beamer pointed to the bigger picture.
"I've always talked about people coming together at our football games, and they should, but this is on a completely different scale," he says. "What I'd like to see now is all people, all people associated with Virginia Tech, come together and become stronger than ever as a university, with more caring, loving and respect for one another than ever before.
"And that's what I think we'll do."
"On the main campus lawn stood a semicircle of stones — 33 chunks of locally quarried limestone to remember each of the dead. Someone left a laminated letter at Cho’s stone, along with a lit purple candle. “Cho, you greatly underestimated our strength, courage and compassion. You have broken our hearts, but you have not broken our spirits. We are stronger and prouder than ever. I have never been more proud to be a Hokie. Love, in the end, will always prevail." Erin J. |
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Campus Memorial
April 23, 2007
Not a word was spoken during the student-organized ceremony Monday on Virginia Tech's Drillfield that served as a memorial to the 32 people killed on campus a week ago. The ceremony on the Drillfield included a ringing bell for every victim and a release of white balloons. Then nothing but silence for about two minutes -- save for a few sniffles and some birds chirping -- as 1,000 orange and maroon balloons were released.
