Like many, I watched the Virginia Tech Convocation today. This is what I heard: Representatives from some of the world's major religions spoke. Islam -- I was not comforted, just uncomfortable at the fatalism. Buddhism -- the words of the Dalai Lama were good. Judaism -- reciting Ecclesiastes... "there is a time for mourning and a time to be comforted"... this was good, until it came to the part "there is a time to make war"... no comfort there. Generic Christianity... this was ok. At this point a man in the second row behind the President broke down unconsolably. The President reached back to put a supporting hand on the man... that was good. The Dean of Students spoke, the head of the Mental Health counselling services spoke... There was an emptiness, shock, horror... a terrible bewilderment, bereavement loss, and despair...
Until the poet Nikki Giovanni spoke... this is what she said. At the end the auditorium rose to its feet to applaud her, to applaud Virginia Tech, and the room was filled with "Let's Go, Hokies"
We Are Virginia Tech
We are Virginia Tech
We are sad today
And we will be sad for quite a while
We are not moving on
We are embracing our mourning
We are Virginia Tech
We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly
We are brave enough to bend to cry ...
And sad enough to know we must laugh again
We are Virginia Tech
We do not understand this tragedy
We know we did nothing to deserve it
But neither does a child in Africa dying of aids
Neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by a rogue army
Neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory
Neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water
Neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of night in his crib in the home its father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destablized
No one deserves a tragedy
We are Virginia Tech
The Hokie nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds
We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid
We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be
We are alive to the imagination and the possibility
We will continue to invent the future
Through our blood and tears
Through all this sadness
We are the Hokies
We will prevail
We will prevail
We will prevail
We are Virginia Tech
-- Nikki Giovanni, University Distinguished Professor of English, VPI&SU
At the end I felt encouraged and inspired, and grateful that it was a Poet Emeritus that brought the crowd to its feet to lead the way forward.