We Shall Overcome
Today, we are all Hokies.
It's taken me a few days to truly comprehend what happened at Virginia Tech, to walk around my own campus and think about how I would feel if that same tragedy had occurred here, on this tiny Allegheny campus, where the degrees of separation are one or two at the most. Thirty three people at Virginia Tech, and you might not know a single soul. Thirty three people at Allegheny, and you know every single one of them somehow. But that doesn't null the weight of the grief VT must be feeling right now--despite being a large campus, VT has a reputation for being a tight knit and extremely loyal body of people. The loss of a single individual can devastate a campus, but the loss of thirty three can cripple a campus.
I'm not sure why we immediately feel kindred with the people who die, why we almost wish we had known them and then are grateful that we didn't lose anyone ourself, or we spend hours watching the news for updates. I don't know if its because of the fear it could happen to us, the fear of the unknown, or the human obsession with something macabre. Or maybe its none of those things. Maybe it is a guilt complex, because we are the generation that seems to mark our lives by tragedy. We know about Columbine, how old we were and where we were and what our school did to react to it. We know about September 11th. We are shocked and fascinated by school shootings. Following on the heels of Holocaust Remembrance day, I remember what that speaker said, about how she knew the Paperclip Project was working. She said she sat down with a student who was upset, her mother had had a rough chemotherapy treatment the day before. The student held up a paperclip that represented one lost life in the Holocaust, and said quietly, "What if they knew the cure to breast cancer?".
How true. Every life lost, old and young, in any senseless act of violence is the loss of the potentiality for the greatest knowledge. We cannot predict what these kids, my age, your age, your grandparents' age, may have accomplished had they lived one more day, one more week, one more month, one more year, one more decade. But in their own right, they would have been great. And that, I believe, is what we mourn. That loss of greatness. So I wear a orange and maroon ribbon, not because I am a Hokie, but because it is a symbol of my mourning---everyone mourns the loss of life. It just strikes very close to home for those of us on a campus.
I walk around, I watch groups of students pour into Brooks Hall, and I wonder. Our campus is not designed to be 'locked down'. It's incredible open, and rather small. It takes ten minutes to run from the top of campus to the bottom of campus. Devastation could be caused in a matter of thirty minutes. Our security officers, while wonderful, are few in number and slow in speed. They are unarmed. Meadville police officers have never dealt with a situation like that. The nearest state police are likely in Erie. That's a forty five minute drive, even at the speeds they can go. The nearest SWAT team is probably in Pittsburgh. So how do we protect our students? We have the advantage that I mentioned before: everyone knows everyone else on this campus. The power of people, to reaching out to a student, can do more than we can imagine.
Tomorrow, Thursday April 19th, at 5:30 PM there is a Town Hall meeting in the CC Lobby at Allegheny, titled "What is the Allegheny Way?" to discuss reports of racial and sexual harassment on campus. Events like this one encourage an open forum of dialogue so that we may have a more welcoming, a more open and a tighter community on this campus. That, that is the best way of preventing these incidents. Instead of stepping away, breathing a sigh of relief, and remind yourself that you didn't know any of the victims, step closer to those around you. The person you draw into the fold may have needed just that to prevent his mind from flipping that switch.
I will be attending. I hope my four or five Allegheny friends who read this attend. And others on other campuses, here's to opening that next year is a more peaceful year for colleges and universities across the world.
We are all Hokies. We are all members of a wider, greater, college community than we will ever understand. This event could not be prevented by gun control laws, unless you repeal the Second Amendment completely, and should not be interpreted as such. Perhaps this event could not have been prevented in any way. Hindsight is twenty twenty, and best to stand together than to stand apart.