Virginia Tech and What We Learn

The obvious question is, "Why?" Why did this happen? Why did Cho Seung-Hui feel the need to kill 32 people yesterday? Why wasn't he stopped? Why didn't the administration do more? These are all questions we will be asking in the coming days. At least until we who weren't directly affected resume our normal lives and forget about what happened.

It was hard to watch via the internet yesterday as the death toll rose throughout the day. It was hard to try to put myself in the shoes of the students in the classroom, or the professors - what would I have done? No one expects that to happen. The administration thought the first shooting was purely a domestic affair and was over, so the decision to shut down a campus of 26,000 students wasn't made. It's hard to fault the administration - again nothing like this had ever happened before. But I can only guess that internally the administration is second guessing themselves severely.

I can't imagine the terror in the classroom. I can't imagine the loss that families are feeling today. I can't imagine the horror witnessed by some. I can't imagine what the students who skipped class yesterday are thinking. I can't imagine what the girl who went to the building only to find the doors chained must be thinking. Was she upset that she was running late to class that day?

The media is describing Cho Seung-Hui as a loner. It seems like they are always loners. We talk about it. We hear stories of how we must include the loners. And then, we go back to our old ways of excluding or at least not trying hard to include the loner. Why do we so quickly slip back into our old habits?

It's just sad. What do we learn? I don't know. And where was God? It's a question that has been asked for thousands of years - from at least the time of Job. I remember when the Wedgwood shooting happened many years ago, the pastor, Al Meredith, said that God was in the same place He was when Jesus was hanging on the cross - on His throne and in control.