Hokie Hokie Hokie Hi Tech Tech VPI!
Most of you reading this are Hokies. Most (all) of us have been totally embarrassed by that stupid moniker for well over 15 years now, but I think the fact that most of you reading this are Hokies, and all of us in our 30s, speaks volumes about the place and what it meant to us all.
I was telling
tagonist (not a Hokie, but still a Virginian) that immediately following graduation I was pretty critical of all things Virginia Tech. In the years since the Real World has proved to me that the quality of the education I received there was really very good. It was a rigorous school. I learned a lot and still remember a lot. And I had really really good times. Only in the wake of this nightmare to I appreciate how special and significant those days were.
And Blacksburg. oh Blacksburg. $3 Pitchers at the Cellar, Darts at ton-80.
thejscheck's and
phaedrusstew's assorted nights in jail, the Meltdown house, house next to the Meltdown house, 908 South Main, 506A Harrell, 506B Harrell, the Barger St. house, Bargerfest, Kent street house, Scurvy Dawgs, talking shit about the Pietasters. It was good times, whether we knew it or not.
So now I'm confronted by the amplified sadness I feel at this senseless bloodbath. I want to call Blacksburg and tell it that I love it.
telie13's most recent entry on the subject really drives a lot of it home for me.
WHY is this the option that people in this culture and society opt for? How does anyone arrive at the idea that killing dozens of people at random is an appropriate response to anything?
The administration now has to receive the bewildered anger and grief of 60-odd devastated parents, hundreds of family members, and tens of thousands of students. I hope the rush to judgement is kind to them. I really don't think they could/should have handled the situation much differently. It's very easy to point fingers in hindsight. It's very hard not to if your child is one of the victims. But I think that most of the decisions they made were decisions that most anyone would have made given the information that they had at the time. And of course if they had locked down the entire campus after the first shooting, (like thats something easily undertaken) people would be up in arms about their overreaction and hypervigilance. And 30 people would be alive without even the faintest inkling that it could have gone differently.
SO, my dear Hokies here's to us all. I'd like to meet up with all of you and drown it over a few pitchers at the Cellar. I'd like to stagger back to Northview along that backyard alley path illuminated by tens of thousands of fireflies and wake up with a bad headache and no memory. But not even Chip's bartending will erase this one.
I was telling
tagonist (not a Hokie, but still a Virginian) that immediately following graduation I was pretty critical of all things Virginia Tech. In the years since the Real World has proved to me that the quality of the education I received there was really very good. It was a rigorous school. I learned a lot and still remember a lot. And I had really really good times. Only in the wake of this nightmare to I appreciate how special and significant those days were.
And Blacksburg. oh Blacksburg. $3 Pitchers at the Cellar, Darts at ton-80.
thejscheck's and
phaedrusstew's assorted nights in jail, the Meltdown house, house next to the Meltdown house, 908 South Main, 506A Harrell, 506B Harrell, the Barger St. house, Bargerfest, Kent street house, Scurvy Dawgs, talking shit about the Pietasters. It was good times, whether we knew it or not.
So now I'm confronted by the amplified sadness I feel at this senseless bloodbath. I want to call Blacksburg and tell it that I love it.
telie13's most recent entry on the subject really drives a lot of it home for me.
WHY is this the option that people in this culture and society opt for? How does anyone arrive at the idea that killing dozens of people at random is an appropriate response to anything?
The administration now has to receive the bewildered anger and grief of 60-odd devastated parents, hundreds of family members, and tens of thousands of students. I hope the rush to judgement is kind to them. I really don't think they could/should have handled the situation much differently. It's very easy to point fingers in hindsight. It's very hard not to if your child is one of the victims. But I think that most of the decisions they made were decisions that most anyone would have made given the information that they had at the time. And of course if they had locked down the entire campus after the first shooting, (like thats something easily undertaken) people would be up in arms about their overreaction and hypervigilance. And 30 people would be alive without even the faintest inkling that it could have gone differently.
SO, my dear Hokies here's to us all. I'd like to meet up with all of you and drown it over a few pitchers at the Cellar. I'd like to stagger back to Northview along that backyard alley path illuminated by tens of thousands of fireflies and wake up with a bad headache and no memory. But not even Chip's bartending will erase this one.