Midnight, our sons and daughters
Were cut down and taken from us
Hear their heartbeat...
We hear their heartbeat
In the wind
We hear their laughter
In the rain
We see their tears
--u2
I was getting into my car to go home this afternoon when I heard the bell tower at my university begin playing chimes.
And then I remembered ... at 4 p.m. the bell tower was to play the Virginia Tech alma mater. Such a beautiful song played for such a tragic purpose.
Somehow, traffic and parking cooperated and I was able to get to the quad in something like one minute. I was glad to have an opportunity to send my thoughts and prayers to the families.
Teaching in a university setting helps me understand how powerless the VT community must have felt. Last night, our local news was interviewing our campus police, who wanted to assure the us that "there is a plan in place." I really did not care for their "this could not happen here and if it does we have a plan attitude." It is unrealistic. What, do they have a Batman logo to put in the sky? Some magic box that can predict what is going to happen before it does?
Mothers of the Disappeared lyrics can be found here.
2 comments:
Great post! Working on a University campus has also made me think about how vulnerable we all are. It is impossible to imagine the pain and hurt that the individual families and the University family must be going through.
I completely agree. I don't care what you try to plan for. There is no plan for when a lunatic has a gun and is hell-bent on killing people.
Post a Comment