Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Virginia Tech

I have wanted since hearing about it on the radio news at breakfast to just write this note, but have not had the chance until now.

As a member of another higher education community, I want to say that my thoughts and prayers are with those affected by the terrible events at Virginia Tech.

I was struck by Justin Webb's thought on that radio news (BBC Radio 4 "Today" programme) that now people will associate Virginia or this particular institution with this event, and lose sight of all the other things that the state and institution are. Perhaps a rather trivial example, and I am sure others will have their own, better, examples, but in our house we think of the excellent Judy Moody books when we hear the word Virginia, and we will continue to do so. There is more to a place than any one event.

Later amendment: a regular update from Ruth Rikowski, that I receive by email, drew my attention to the April 16 Archive site, which collects people's stories, and stories of events held to mark the massacre.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your post Keith. I'm an academic health librarian in Washington DC, originally from Leicester, and some of my first year PBL students graduated from Virginia Tech. There was a lot of raw emotion on campus last week. Thank you for recognizing there is so much more to an academic institution than an isolated incident. Best regards from over the pond. Paul.