The tragedy at Virginia Tech

Just a few months ago, my family toured the campus at Virginia Tech. We walked acrosss the parade grounds, learned about the "Hokie stone" that clads the buildings, ate in the dining hall, all part of the visitation routine that has become a rite of passage for American families with a college-bound kid. Yesterday, as I watched the news reports from Virginia Tech and the number of dead increased by stunning leaps--two, twenty two, then thirty three--I thought of the VT acceptance letter sitting on our kitchen counter. My daughter had already decided she would attend a different school next fall, but many of her friends will be attending Tech. Our family now knew this school. Most of these victims are only the age of my own children, and this giant American trauma hits home with us. Indeed, one of my children may yet be fortunate enough to become a Hokie someday.

Today, though, I found myself stuck on the idea of those young victims, murdered just as they were launching their lives. I thought a parent's most horrible thought: What if our children don't grow old? What if this is all there is?

There is so much pressure on teens to get into college these days; high school is anything but the carefree life of Happy Days tv or Archie comics. It's competitive and demanding and consumes their lives even outside the classroom. Even charity work becomes little more than a crass opportunity to accumulate "service hours" necessary to fill a school requirement and impress college admissions officers. But none of us ever knows which morning will be our last. We who are middle age or older understand this. And it's too much to for us older folk to accept the truth that even our strong, healthy college-age children (not to mention the brave youths in the military) face the same mortality.

I'm sure there will be changes that come about from this massacre. Life will become a little less free on campuses. Metal detectors at the doors, maybe. Administrators will try to seal off the outside world a little more, just as high school campuses have. But I'm thinking another change is in order. Maybe we need to acknowledge the roulette wheel. We need to make sure our children have the time to savor their youth and vitality, even if it costs them a few points on their SAT. Even the young can't afford to put things off.