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Yesterday this page sat silent in honor of those who lost their lives in the senseless events that took place on Monday at Virginia Tech. Rather than being part of the tsunami of public opinion expressing sympathy for the victims and railing against gun laws that don’t work, I made a decision to sit on my keyboard and say nothing. The void of silence did not stop the flow of reader e-mails though and I wanted to share a few with you:

• This one from an anonymous e-mailer, shocked me:

There is a thin line that separates each of us from being that guy at Virgina Tech. I’ve been angered enough in this life to utter the phrase, “I’m gonna kill you.” More often than not, I really didn’t mean it, but occasionally I did. In one instance, I even planned how I would do it, but then I got a new job and I didn’t have the same desire so I let go of the anger. It looks like this kid never did.

• This one from a woman who doesn’t know me very well angered me:

I’m not sure if you’re lazy or thought that you could get a better flow of traffic with your “candle in the wind” epitaph. This was the greatest massacre to ever occur in our country. Maybe it’s the gun thing and being a Republican you didn’t want to talk about it.

• And this one from a fifteen year-old high school student named Sarah reflected the majority of e-notes I received:

I was touched by your decision to not post yesterday. I visit your site a couple of times each week, and always enjoy your writing. I’ve been looking around the ‘net today and it seems like the whole world has something to say about this. I think you said more by saying nothing.

Thanks, I really appreciate the feedback, it helps me frame what I discuss everyday. It just goes to show that we all share (thankfully in mostly small ways) in Monday’s tragedy.

I think that poet Nikki Giovanni said it best yesterday at the convocation ceremony:
“No one deserves a tragedy…” Today we are all Hokies.