The Night Before the Day.
I remember that the night before the day seemed so much darker than usual. It may have been because of the wind. Living in Blacksburg I had seen strong winds before, but this, this was stronger. Yes, maybe that’s why it seemed darker. I stayed awake listening to the wind beat the tree against my window. Tomorrow was the big pharmacology test – THE ONE that I had to pass. I finally went to sleep, but only to be awakened several times throughout the night by sounds of this distinctively strong wind.
The Morning of the Day.
The alarm went off. In and out of the shower. Throw on the clothes. Quick pharmacology review. Pencils sharpened? Yes. Out the door. Wham, a gust of wind “helps” me close my front door as I rush into my car. “Good grief that wind is strong!” Muscling my way, I got out of my car and made my way through this wind into class. All I could think about was my dumb test while little did I know, 32 people were being gunned down a mile away as I penciled in the bubbles on the scan-tron. Finally, I finished and by that time he had finished and it was all over – but the mourning had just begun. I was one of the last ones finishing my test (as usual). I would later find out that several classmates who were First Responders had finished their tests early and responded to the shooting and proved to be vital in the crisis. I came back to my house to grab some food and relax after the test before we ere supposed to be back in class.
Was that somebody on a bullhorn outside? I couldn’t tell because the wind was drowning out the noise. There it was again but I swear I could not understand what they were saying. I remember wondering if the SWAT team was in my apartment complex. And then I had a flashback to earlier in the year on the first day of classes at VT when a kid escaped from police custody, stole the officer’s gun, evaded capture for a day or two and killed several people including a police officer in the process. “I wonder if there has been a shooting.” I flipped on the TV. “Shooting at Virginia Tech, 2 killed.”
I remained glued to the TV for the rest of the day as the story unfolded. At one point early on VT announced a convocation service for the next day. It was at this point I knew that the situation was worse than what we thought. No one knew how much worse, and when it was all said and done there were 33 fatalities including the killer. I remember the many comments on the news about the winds grounding the helicopters. My apartment being on one of the main streets into campus I remember the sirens which did not stop all day. I don’t think I had ever seen that many police cars in my life put together. The line of state police cars coming into town did not stop all day. Later that evening a few of my friends and I drove through Blacksburg. There were state police all over campus standing, looking, with shotguns in hand. It was real. I will tell you, the wind did not let up that day, and in fact it even snowed a bit.
The Mourning of the Day.
Almost immediately Matt Drudge’s siren was sitting on top of Hokie Nation, questions were being formulated, Geraldo was making unfounded ignorant accusations, and Brian Williams and Matt Lauer were on planes to Blacksburg. We awoke the next morning to a sea of media. The President was coming to town and the line into Cassell was insane. My friend and I were able to make it inside for the service and I remember the now famous chant, “We will prevail, we are Virginia Tech”. I came out of the service feeling frustrated and grieved at the best consolation secular humanism had to offer. There was one ray of light that broke through during the service, a random Joe in the crowd spontaneously led the stadium in the Lord’s prayer, and for a brief moment we looked outside of ourselves and our Cassell for answers.
The Following Days, Weeks, and Months After.
Bodies were buried. Vigils and memorials were held. Cards were signed. The campus was filled with makeshift memorials from around the country. I found out that one of my neighbors was a victim. Everybody knew somebody who knew somebody. There is one scene that I will never forget. I waited 2 or 3 days before I walked down to the crime scene with my brother and our friend. It was evening when we walked. They told me about classes they had had on that floor in Norris and described the layout of the rooms. We walked around the building in disbelief. We walked on the sidewalk across which rescuers carried the bleeding injured. As we walked on that sidewalk in front of the building I said hello to the officer and looked down at my feet. I gasped when I realized what I was looking at—it was a bloodstain.
One Year Later.
Ecclesiastes 1:6 The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.
Today is one year later and the violent winds continue to blow through our country as I saw headlines just this week of school closings due to threats. I fear we have not learned from Virginia Tech just as we have not learned from Jonesborough, Paducah, Columbine, Northern Illinois, and others. As a culture we have destroyed the ideal of the absolute dignity of human life. Our culture has indoctrinated us in the Church of Darwin which tells us that we are just warts on the face of a random universe that somehow came into order out of a disorderly nothing (which has existed for eternity) and continues to randomly progress against the principles of entropy. Why are we so shocked that there are those who logically conclude from this that human beings have no more absolute intrinsic value, meaning, worth, or dignity than any other speck of matter? We are just molecules, a clump of cells.
Matthew 7:25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.
The questions raised must be answered with truth. We must seek to cultivate a culture of life founded upon the rock. We must seek to recover the ideal of human dignity and restore its emphasis in all of our institutions. Dignity is bestowed and endowed by the Creator and we must as a culture acknowledge that there is a Rock** which our house must be ultimately be built upon.
**For more information on this Rock:
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