Monday, April 16, 2007

Campus Horror

What a terrible tragedy we face today after the mass murders at Virginia Tech. It's hard to comprehend how so many young, fresh lives can be ended so quickly and so senselessly. Imagine how those parents must feel - they send their kids off to college, they think they are safe, and then they are faced with an unbelievable horror. Imagine hoping your child is one of the safe ones, and then finding out the worst. Imagine that agony.
My city endured a similar tragedy in 1966, when an individual, from the observation deck of the University of Texas Bell Tower, began sniping individuals walking on campus. Ultimately, he killed 15. The scars from UT's tragedy remain even today.
My heart goes out to those whose own hearts ache.

2 comments:

El Jefe Maximo said...

I was trying to explain this to my son this evening. I wasn't as easy as I might have been about it: he is of an age to learn that the world is not always a safe place, much as we would like it to be.

He did not really understand why someone would even conceive of doing that, which makes two of us.

I cannot begin to imagine the horror of families dealing with that kind of utterly unexpected, completely random bereavement.

Anonymous said...

It's hard enough when you lose a loved one like a parent or a grandparent; one who has lived a live, albeit one that may have been cut short. But to have to be the parents of those children whose lives were snuffed before it even began, it's something you can't even wise on anyone; and something that scares me as an expectant parent.

I've personally started thinking about things like this more & more as my wife progresses with her pregnancy. Thinking about the terrible things like this that could happen at any time, I can't even begin to verbalize the fear that strikes me. El jefe, I admire you that you would even try to tackle the WHY.

I hope that God pays extra special attention to them as they face their grief. They definitely need it