A week away ...

I haven't posted a new blog in a few days. I had 2 brand new ones to post a week ago yesterday. However due to the tragedy at Virginia Tech, I failed to post them.

As most Americans, I sat last week in disbelief. I sat in silence. I sat in mourning of 32 people I have never met.

I have lived in Virginia for almost 5 years now. I know a few people who go to Tech. I have been to Tech for a few football games. Though I directly have no ties with the University; only a mere t shirt I wore to the Tech/Miami game 2 seasons ago.

However, as an "educator" and as a father I watched the events unfold on my laptop as well as on my television. Is this the world that my 18 month old daughter Briley will have to grow up in? Will I nervously remember Virginia Tech and Columbine every day as I kiss her goodbye? Or will that day be the last that I see Lindsay, as we both work in public schools.

As I tried to keep pace with any new information that was coming out of Blacksburg something arose out of the ashes of the deadliest school shooting in American History. Something that defined us as a country. Something that proved to the world once and for all, why the United States of America can not and will never be broken.

What arose from the ashes like the mighty Phoenix ... Hope.

When your world is falling apart. When the very foundation your life sits upon begins to crumble and the ground you are standing upon begins to break away; all you have is hope.

32 lives were senselessly taken away. No one can truly speculate why. The most brilliant of psychologist cannot explain why a student would go on this rampage.
And no one will ever truly know the toll this will take on each individual family affected, even the family of the shooter.

But there is hope.

On Friday April 20, 2007, on the 8th Anniversary of the Columbine shootings, these United States of America once again would rise to the occasion. In a show of support from California to Maine, people everywhere were Hokies. In an act that will go down in American History, business men put their 3 piece suits in the closet instead choosing maroon and orange, teachers put away their ties instead choosing maroon and orange, and college students everywhere put away their school colors instead choosing maroon and orange. On that day we were one. We were united. We were Virginia Tech.

April 21 was to be a great day on the Blacksburg campus. As football fans would get their first glimpse of the 2007-2008 Hokie football team. However, Head Football Coach Frank Beamer cancelled the scrimmage saying that athletics is the last thing on his mind as well as the students minds. Though in an emotional showing of compassion, the Hokie Nation found itself in State College,PA., about 500 miles away from it's Blacksburg home. Instead of lighting up the stands of Lane Stadium in a brilliant array of maroon and orange, Beaver Stadium became the canvas for this masterpiece.

In a tribute that many sports fans will forever hold dear, the Penn State student section were in full "maroon effect." A university that proudly supports it's Nitany Lions wearing Blue and white, created a moment that would make anyone proud to be a fan of collegiate sports.



Will I get back to my snide comments about the Yankees? Yes

Will I second guess every move my Washington Redskins make? Yes

Will I continue to support Barry Bonds? Yes

Will I continue to predict the Pirates as a contender? Yes

Will I ever forget the compassion shown throughout this country toward Virginia Tech? Never

Famed poet and Tech Professor, Nikki Giovanni said it best,

"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 devastated 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."

To this day, I am still not totally sure what a Hokie really is but nevertheless,

LET'S GO HOKIES!


You stay classy Sportsblender,