Matters of Truth

The Night Before.

I remember thinking that the night before seemed darker than usual. It may have been because of the incredible wind. Living in Blacksburg I had seen strong winds before, but this night the wind was stronger. I stayed awake listening to the wind beat the tree against my window and studying for a pharmacology test – the big one that I had to pass. I eventually went to sleep, but only to be awakened several times throughout the night by sounds of this distinctively strong wind.

The Morning.

The alarm went off and the morning rush commenced. I was in and out of the shower with clothes thrown on and with time to spare for a quick review before the test. I went through the normal pretest routine and checklist.  I had the timing down pat.  I could be out of my front door and in my classroom seat ready to test in three minutes! With my pencils freshly sharpened I was out the door. A gust of wind slammed my front door closed as I rushed out to the car. I remember thinking, “Good grief that wind is strong!” I quickly found a parking space and muscled my way out of the car and into class.

Little did I know, 32 people were being gunned down a mile away as I penciled in the bubbles on the scan-tron. The test was long and when I had finished he had finished and morning was over – but the mourning had just begun. I later found out that several classmates who were first responders had finished their tests early and responded to the shooting and played vital roles in the crisis.  I returned to the house to grab some food and relax after the test and before we were scheduled to be back in class.  I remember hearing an odd noise and thinking, “Is that somebody on a bullhorn outside?” I couldn’t tell exactly what it was because the wind was drowning out the noise, but the noise came and went over several minutes. I remember wondering if the SWAT team was in my apartment complex. I then had a flashback to an event on the first day of classes of the 2006-2007 VT school year when a prisoner escaped from police custody, stole an officer’s gun, evaded capture for two days and killed several people.  My next thought was, “I wonder if there has been a shooting.” I quickly turned on the TV and heard the headlines: “Shooting at Virginia Tech, 2 killed.”

I remained glued to the TV for the rest of the day as the story unfolded. There were many comments on the news about strong winds grounding the helicopters. At one point early on VT announced a convocation service for the next day. It was at that time that I knew that the situation was worse than what we were being told. However, no one knew how much worse. There were 33 fatalities including the killer.

My apartment was located on one of the main streets into the campus.  In my mind I can still hear the sirens and see the line of state police cars pouring into town which did not stop at all that day.  Later that evening a few of my friends and I drove through town.  The Virginia state police were all over campus.  They were imposing figures who stood surveying the scene with shotguns in hand. It was real.

The Mourning.

Almost immediately Matt Drudge’s siren was sitting on top of the 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. We were told that the president was coming to town.  Though the line into Cassell Coliseum was insane, my friend and I were able to make it inside for the service.   The service was nice, but I remember coming out feeling frustrated and grieved at the consolations which were offered. The message communicated was that Virginia Tech would seek and ultimately find its solace and healing within the strength and power of its community – within ourselves. Amidst the empty chants of “We will prevail, we are Virginia Tech” and “Lets go Hokies” there was a ray of light that broke through the dark service.  As one person in the crowd spontaneously spoke out the Lord’s prayer, an entire stadium joined in, and for a brief moment we looked outside of ourselves for answers and healing.

The Following Days, Weeks, and Months After.

In the days that followed bodies were buried, vigils and memorials were held, and 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. Her cat kept coming to my front door. Everybody knew somebody who knew somebody. This indeed was a headline which hit home.

There is one scene that I will never forget as long as I live. I waited 2 or 3 days before I walked down to the scene with my brother and our friend. It was evening when we walked, and they told me about classes they had once had on the second floor in Norris Hall and described the layout of the rooms. We walked around the building in disbelief. We walked on the front 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 winds of violence continue to blow through our country as I saw headlines just this week of school closings due to threats. Next year at this time we will be marking the 10th anniversary of Columbine. I fear that there is still a critical lesson to be learned from Virginia Tech, Jonesborough, Paducah, Columbine, Northern Illinois, and others. As a culture we have abandoned the ideal of the absolute dignity of human life. Our culture indoctrinates at an early age with a dogma that tells us we are a clump of cells without transcendent meaning.  The dogma leads us to conclude that we are warts on the face of a random universe that somehow came into order out of a disorderly nothing and continues to randomly progress against the principles of entropy. We should not be shocked when there are those who arrive at a conclusion that human beings have no more absolute intrinsic value, meaning, worth, or dignity than any other speck of matter. Disregard for the dignity of human life sown, disregard for the dignity of human life reaped.

The issues we are now facing need to be addressed with truth. We must seek to cultivate a culture of life that will recover the ideal of human dignity and restore its emphasis in all of our institutions.

Please take time to listen to following responses to the events of 4/16/07.

• Louis Giglio at Virginia Tech on the week after the shootings.
• John Macarthur on Virginia Tech.
• Ravi Zacharias at Virginia Tech.