Virginia Tech

I feel helpless as I think about that community.  People talk about moving on – and maybe that makes sense on the level of standing up and going through the motions of daily routine because the alternative is what …. ?  But on the deeper levels, this kind of tragedy reverberates through the years and the generations in people and families.  And the ‘Who didn’t do what?’ witch-hunt gathers pace.  Of course we need to know.  But I can think of many times in Northern Ireland – another highly-stressed and gun-laden community – where I encountered people who were deeply angry, embittered – people whom I would have thought of as ‘scary’ – who plainly had at least a potential for violent outburst.  But which ones and when?  It’s the scale of the tragedy and the fact that it was not caused by disaster – natural or otherwise.  So people are denied any kind of closure or satisfaction.  They just have to carry it around with them.  Pray for them.