Today, we are all Hokies

[Anonymous]

Today marks the 7th anniversary of the what remains the worst shooting incident by a single gunman in U.S. history. I, like many in the DC area, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and across the country, am a VT alum and am never prouder to be a Hokie than on this day. For each time I stood on the drillfield under the first makeshift, now permanent, memorial during the annual candlelight vigil, I was humbled, amazed, and always brought to tears by the enormous showing of support from the Virginia Tech community. It frequently saddens me when I hear in passing of someone who discourages their kid from Virginia Tech or makes jaded comments about the university because of the horrors that one twisted individual wrought in Blacksburg on that day.

I'd like to share with you all what remains one of my favorite pieces on the tragedy from Chris Fowler, the host of ESPN's College Gameday:

"You don't arrive at Virginia Tech accidentally. You have to work to get there, journeying into the Blue Ridge Mountains. It's lovely … picturesque … and seems very far away from the dangers of the outside world. [...] The official name is Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. It's not a curriculum or a setting for everyone. But most students who are there want to be nowhere else. That spirit seems to endure long after leaving Blacksburg. Once a Hokie, always a Hokie. [...] Unfortunately, much of the world always will associate this campus in the mountains only with this massacre. Many will conclude from this senseless, psychotic act that the current college generation in America is warped by violence … and hopeless." http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/columns/story?id=2842707

I have heard these names and read about these souls so many times that I feel like I knew them. Today, I remember:
Ross A. Alameddine
Christopher James Bishop
Brian R. Bluhm
Ryan Christopher Clark
Austin Michelle Cloyd
Jocelyne Couture-Nowak
Kevin P. Granata
Matthew Gregory Gwaltney
Caitlin Millar Hammaren
Jeremy Michael Herbstritt
Rachael Elizabeth Hill
Emily Jane Hilscher
Jarrett Lee Lane
Matthew Joseph La Porte
Henry J. Lee
Liviu Librescu
G.V. Loganathan
Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan
Lauren Ashley McCain
Daniel Patrick O’Neil
Juan Ramon Ortiz-Ortiz
Minal Hiralal Panchal
Daniel Alejandro Perez Cueva
Erin Nicole Peterson
Michael Steven Pohle, Jr.
Julia Kathleen Pryde
Mary Karen Read
Reema Joseph Samaha
Waleed Mohamed Shaalan
Leslie Geraldine Sherman
Maxine Shelly Turner
Nicole Regina White
https://www.weremember.vt.edu/

[Anonymous]

Thank you. I am a Hokie Mom and wife. That drawing ministered a lot to me 7 years ago. Very proud of my son who knew several of those lost on this day. it was horrible and I still think about the parents who got a very different call than I received. One never gets over such a loss. those of us of faith work to put things in His plan and heal.

[Anonymous]

"I ask each of you to take the time to be a Hokie this week. Appreciate life a little more, take in every moment around you, count your blessings, tell the people around you that you love them, slow down, remember what's truly important in life. And live for those 32 that do not have that chance."

[Anonymous]

Nikki Giovanni: "We Are Virginia Tech!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-Qx9dIr-68

[Anonymous]

From a fellow Hokie, thank you for posting this.