Tragedy
April 17, 2007 by Lillie
The horror of what happened at Virginia Tech – the worst mass murder in modern US history – is almost incomprehensible. My heart and prayers go out to the families, friends, and loved ones of the victims and to the entire community.
I wasn’t surprised to hear news commentators say that students were eager to talk to them. Several years ago, a former employee who had been fired walked into a business owned by a friend of mine heavily armed. He shot and killed his girlfriend and a coworker, and he shot my friend in the face. She was rescued after he killed himself, but she required a number of surgeries and a long recovery.
My friend didn’t have insurance, and her friends wanted to help raise money for her medical expenses. We considered a number of different options, but the idea of my writing a book kept coming up and circumstances came together to make the idea feasible. Though I had many doubts and concerns about the project, I became convinced that God was leading me to write the book. I describe more about that experience in my post Writing about Tragedy.
One major concern I had was that the other people involved wouldn’t want to talk to me. The company was small and the employees were very close. Several had managed to escape the shooting but saw their coworkers gunned down. They were friends and relatives of both the killer and the victims. I didn’t want to exploit them or invade their privacy, so I trod lightly.
However, my worries were groundless. When I interviewed them, they started talking as soon as I turned on the tape recorder and only stopped when I asked them to give me a minute to change the tape. The talking served as a catharsis for them, and they appreciated the opportunity to share.
And their love, hope, faith, and courage inspired everyone who reads the book Look Beyond Tomorrow. I’m already hearing about remarkable heroism shown by many of the victims and other students and professors at Virginia Tech. I’m sure as more of the story comes out, we will be inspired by the courage and selflessness of many of the people involved.
We can – and will – ask how and why such horrific events can happen. But we should never lose sight of the incredible acts of bravery, nobility and self-sacrifice that at first sight are obscured by the shocking horror.
At times like this we feel so helpless. We want to ease the pain, but no one can take away the sorrow, shock, fear – the profound agony – that so many feel today and will feel for many tomorrows.
We can pray for their comfort and healing. We can listen to their stories and give them the catharsis that comes with sharing. And we can show our respect and empathy by participating in the One Day Blog Silence on April 30th.
[tags]Virginia Tech, One Day Blog Silence[/tags]
This has been one the hardest tragedies for me to follow. I have not paid much attention to the news since hearing about the shootings from my wife yesterday at noontime.
As horrible as these tragic events are, I am always profoundly amazed at how God gets the glory through all of the pain. Heroic stories always come out of each massacre; remember the young girl at Columbine High School who would not deny her faith in Jesus Christ? She died, yet she lives because Jesus lives in her.
hear me, I beg!
Some people are trying to make you believe that we should all observe one day of silence, no blogging and entire day because of what happened in Virginia. Even if the cause seems to sound noble I have to urge the the people of the cyberworld to walk away from this and not let yourselves be deceived by those people.
Silence is already present in our daily life. People don’t talk to each other, we are, most of us afraid of showing our feelings to the world around us. People don’t talk about mental disease, it’s just not something you can talk about neither do people talk about suicide!
I urge you to, not add an other day of silence in your life. Silence is easy, talking is hard. You want to pay your respect to the victims of Virginia? the victims of violence all around the world? I beg you, don’t go running to the easy option, one that will not, in no way at all, make this kind of violence drop.
On April 30th 2007 I beg of you, for once in your life, TALK about it!
Awesome post Lillie!
I agree with Matt too, God will ultimately get the glory in all of this, we just can’t see it or understand it.
Matt and Laura,
Thanks for your comments. It’s easy to focus on the bad – and this is a terrible situation – but our faith lets us know that “all things work together for good to those who love the Lord.”
Mister EdgAR,
My first impulse was to delete your comment because I don’t want to foster dissension and contention. However, I would be hypocritical if I approved only comments that I agree with. Yours was the first negative comment I’ve received, and deciding whether to approve it or not was a challenge. I am allowing your comment, but I did remove your link because I do not feel the content of your site is appropriate for me or my readers.
I suspect you are searching for blog posts that mention the day of silence and adding your comment without reading the entire post. If you had read my post, you would realize that I advocate talking about the tragedy. I wrote a book about a similar event – though on a much smaller scale. But I focused on how the victims overcame the trauma – not on the tragedy itself. Talking about the incident was cathartic to the people involved, and I agree that talking about the Virginia Tech massacre will be cathartic to the people involved in it as well.
But in all the days of talking, I intend to share one day of silence to show respect and empathy. Sometimes just being with a person in grief or other emotional trauma is far more effective than any words we could say.
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven … a time to be silent and a time to speak …” (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 7)
For me and many other bloggers, April 30th is “a time to be silent.”
Although it is a day of silence for the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings, I will also remember the victims of genocide, abortion, famine, war, religious persecution, terror … and all the tragedies of our world.
Hi Lillie,
Don’t be distressed about mr. Edgars’s opinion. He’s fighting for what he believes in. His methods are probably not the best, but then again, who are we to judge? You did right not deleting his post, although it’s a copy-paste of the same entry he posted everywhere. I must admit I’ve edited his link. Instead of leading to his confusing landing page, the link goes now straight to his blog.
I think he is young, passionate and he still needs to learn that the best results in such a fight don’t come from an “aggressive” crusade. He needs to learn a lot about kindness and tolerance, respect for other peoples’ values and so on. But give him time. One day he will learn that a Mother Therese, a Dalai Lama or a Nelson Mandela were driven by light and that so many people followed them inspired by their kindness. Maybe he will learn one day that the Son of Man died on a cross for love and faith: He led with kindness. The humankind was always thirsty for goodness and in times like this, even more. In times like this… silence is stronger, because, paradoxically, it speaks louder. It shows respect and solidarity.
So don’t be distressed, Lillie. Don’t hurt! Thank you for this wonderful entry. As usual, you are an inspiration.
Thank you, Mihaela! I admire his passion, and I’m not distressed. But I had read his comment on several other blogs before it appeared on mine, and I felt I had to respond.
I think what shocks us the most (at least for me) is the randomness of it all. It’s something we can’t ever say, “he’s gonna lose it tomorrow.”
You’re right, Brian. It could have happened anywhere to anyone.
You are the first blogger I’ve come across who is going to participate on the Blogger Day of Silence! I’m so encouraged to know there are others who feel the same as I do.
My father had known one of the victims who died on Monday. The victim, from what my father knew, was a christian. Only God knows why his life ended so abruptly and so violently.
Sometimes it seems that evil wins… but Jesus promised to stand by us even until the end of the world. I only hope that if I were ever put to the ultimate test that I too could stand with no fear and declare my life a sacrifice for Christ!
Blessings to you.
Thank you. And your last sentence really speaks to me – every night I pray for persecuted Christians around the world and pray for a faith strong enough to stand up to persecution.
I think a lot of bloggers will participate in the day of silence. I’m just sorry that some of those who don’t agree for whatever reason are so negative. Michaela at eWritings has a post that links to a number of blogs about the Virginia Tech event and the day of silence. Many, though by no means all, of the blogs on her list will participate.
Your article has touched me greatly and I felt I had to reply. The shooting at Virgina Tech aroused much fear of copy cat attack in the area where I live, especially at my school. There has already been one such shooting(closer to my school then comfortable) and with the type of problems the people here face daily,(and don’t know how to handle) I fear that it’s only a matter of time before the attack hits our school. I hope that my fears are left as they are, just fears and not horrific memories.
The pain your friend must have gone through is unimaginable to me, and she is now a figure of permenant inspiration for me. I hope you let her know this, and also let her know that I will pray for her full recoverment.
The fact that the gunman was in both cases, though someone a lot closer to the employees then the Virginia Tech students, was someone they knew, someone they saw practically every day, is the hardest fact for me to comprehand. I can’t imagine having someone I talk to, perhaps even care about, stand and shoot down others I cared for also. The survivors and those who died are all heroes in my mind. My heart goes also to everyone affected by this event. Let it be a lesson to all, to watch the things you say. You never know whether or not what you have to say could push over the edge where they’ve been teetering. Many people have been hurt by these events, and other like events. History does always need to be repeated. Remember this, and take the day of blog silence. Remember this, and care for those that others do not. You never know what you can prevent from happening by simply extending a helping hand to someone who is otherwise shunned. Remember this, and be a symbol of love, peace, and hope.
Thank you for your beautiful comment, Jyn.
People have mentioned the magnitude of this event and the randomness of the attacks. But you make an excellent point that the scariest thing is that the killer was someone from the Virginia Tech community. My friend was shot by a former employee, and her staff saw a friend or relative shoot other friends and relatives. And none of us know if there is someone in our community that could do this.
Many years ago, when I owned a retail store, I was robbed and molested by a man who came into the store during business hours. He looked like a normal customer, and I had no reason to be suspicious. Although it wasn’t an individual I had ever seen before, he was part of my community in that he was one of the customers that came into my store daily.
For a long time, I was terrified if a man walked toward me with his hands in his pockets. That’s the way the robber entered my store, then he took his right hand out of the pocket … and with it he pulled out a gun.
Certainly what happened to me was minor compared to what others have gone through, but I was shocked to realize that I couldn’t tell a robber from a customer.
What happened to you might have been minor compared to the other attacks mentioned, but I find it still extremely frightening. The fact that you are unable to pick out robbers from customers is very shocking and very traumatic. I don’t know if I would have survived such an event and still have the courage to face others for a long time. I also understand that you can’t go around for the rest of your life being afraid of every man that you see (however tempting the thought may seem) Life will not move on until you do. I lend my sympathy and encouragement though this message to you.
Thank you, Jyn.
It did take me awhile to get over this. I gave up the retail store because I couldn’t face being there in the shop by myself.
But as usual, something good came out of that trauma. After a few weeks of hibernating, I decided to start the interior landscape business I’d talked about starting for a long time. I was able to work from home and see clients by appointment in their offices, where there were other people around. I did very well in that business for sixteen years.
And then a stroke caused me to sell that business so I could start writing, and I’ve been a happy writer for more than ten years. Just another example of something good coming from something bad.
Your optisism is very inspirational! Becoming a writer after your stroke was probably one of the greatest things you could have done. I myself have taken to writing, though I’m sure I’m not yet as accomplished as you. Thank you for your strength and courage!
Thank you for the kind words.
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