Hokie pride is big in our house. My husband is a graduate of Virginia Tech. We often make pilgrimages on campus for games and alumni events. We both felt sick on Monday as events unfolded on campus. Horrifying detail after horrifying detail came out -- each one more brutal than the next. It reminded me of a day many years ago when there was a shooting at my school. My math teacher was gunned down by one of her students. The pain of that day never goes away. The sharpness may grow into a dull ache, but it's always there.

Our thoughts and prayers are with our Hokies.

During the convocation on campus to remember Virginia Tech's fallen, English Professor Nikki Giovanni read an inspiring poem. In it, she mentioned the kids in Africa who are suffering with AIDS and the "invisible children" who have been brutalized by rougue armies. It was a terrific piece of work that instead of focusing completely inward, reminded us all that there are others who suffering.

The VT shooting is tragic. But many forget-or don't know-that acts of violence like this take place often across Africa. Most go unreported. Violence is a part of their daily lives. Here in the west, we might cast a glance over a foreign story and not give it a second thought. (Did you know that a Christian teacher was recently beaten to death by her students in Nigeria?) How soon we forget the lesson of 9-11 that we are as susceptible to horror as anyone else. Next time you hear or see a story of violence in Africa, remember how you felt on Monday. The pain. The shock. The numbness. And say a prayer for the victims. Violence is violence, no matter the color of the victim's skin. 

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