jppe

I know it's not cycling related but it's just too important to ignore.

My heart goes out to the families of the students at Va Tech. With 3 in college, I can only imagine what some families must be dealing with right now. Just unthinkable.

Jet Travis

I work at the other big state university in Va. We're all just stunned.

Digital Gee

There are no words. God, my heart is breaking over this. I'm about to ride, perhaps that will help but this is senseless and there's no way to understand it.

roccobike

My first thoughts were of my son at ECU. What would I do if something like that happened at his school. All my prayers go out to the families of the fallen. This is a sad, sad day.

George

I just so hard to imagine this can be going on. What the hell is wrong with people. I just can't believe it could be so bad where you have to shoot up a whole school. Something has to be done. It just like we were talking about earlier where the people are running people off the road, shooting at cars on the highways, man this is really getting crazy. What to do, I don't know.

Louis

I'm stunned. This is a major tragedy, another horribly sad day in the US.

Thrifty1

Unbelievable!! What must have been going through the perpetrator's mind while carrying out this hideous action? The epitome of self centered......

Terrierman

I'm a redneck from the Midwest and about the biggest 2nd amendment guy you will ever find. Today has me searching my heart to see if I'm still there. I am very sorry for the incredible and pointless loss this has brought to so many over what will I'm sure will turn out to be not much in the end. A sad day for our Nation and for Virginia.

Bud Bent

+1

John E

Thanks for an honest and sensitive assessment. There must be a rational middle ground somewhere in the 2nd Amendment debate.

With one son in college (graduating senior at UCSD, poised to enter the PhD program in nuclear physics this fall) and one college-bound, I have alot of empathy for the parents of the victims.

Hwy 40 Blue

Many of us in the 50+ Forum are either the parents of college students, the parents of college-age kids, or could be. That's my perpsective. What it would be like to lose a child like this.

cc_rider

And some of us graduated from Tech. Class of '79. Lived in East AJ for a year.
This has been a hard day.

Yen

My heart goes out to everyone involved and those whose loved ones attend the school and former students alike. What a horrific event.

Beverly

This was such a senseless tragedy.

It's almost to the point that I hate to turn on the news. My heart goes out to the victims and their families.

will dehne

All Normal and Balanced people will feel sorrow and compassion for the victims and families.

Unfortunately there are Evil and Deranged people and animals out there. I am afraid that they will always be there. Some of these may even be in a position of power unless we recognize them and stop them.

Are we ready to empower authorities to stop them?

Digital Gee

oilman_15106

When this hit the news it was reported as the worst school death count in US history. When Columbine was in the news there was a word about a school massacre in 1905 or around there of 96 killed by a madman somewhere in Deluth or up North. I could find nothing on the net about it so I am wondering if it is true or not.

Carusoswi

My daughter is a singer. She had a choice of outreach venues this spring. Virginia and Colorado. On purely musical considerations, she chose Colorado, and she has been sending me emails from there.

In my last email to her, I noted how ironic it is that, upon hearing today's tragic news, I breathed such a sigh of relief that she is in Colorado and not Virginia.

Of course, it's just a father's unjustifiable worrying/relief. Probably, she wouldn't have been close to the site of today's tragic occurrences, and, it isn't fair to continually think of Colorado in terms of the tragedy that occurred at Columbine (her tour took her through that community).

The news today is as sad as it gets. My heart and my prayers go out to those who lost friends/children in that tragedy.

Caruso

LaManchaDQ

I am saddened deeply at not only the death of so many innocent lives. I am frustrated at the possibility that much of the carnage could have been stopped if campus authorities had acted quickly to lock down the campus and involve law enforcement.

MNBikeguy

Exactly my thought. As our sons and daughters are on the outset of discovering themselves and preparing for their future, I simply can't imagine the grief these parents are experiencing.

DnvrFox

I watched as the police cars streamed towards Columbine - I was on a bike ride near the vicinity. We viewed the impromptu memorial of flowers and other memorabilia along the fences and grass around Columbine.

This brings back terrible memories. A sad day.

It keeps occurring to me that this happens daily in Baghdad.

MTBLover

Indeed. This is a sad reality that is often lost when the news concentrates only on American troop losses (as sad and horrible as they are). We have lost sight of just how devastating this war has been and continues to be.

Digital Gee

Aside from the horror and sadness that an event like this brings, it also brings, unfortunately, the media who demonstrate, time and time again, how insensitive and clueless they can be. I can't stand it when a reporter shoves a microphone into a grief-stricken mother or father in shock, asking for their reaction. It's just sickening and such a complete and total invasion of their privacy.

A moment ago, I heard a reporter revealing the name of one of the victims at Virginia Tech, saying, "So and so was among the victims. I'm told he was well-liked."

Excuse me??? WTF is that kind of comment? Whether he was liked, or not liked, is completely irrelevent. And this is just one small example of Journalism 101 from someone who clearly did not graduate near the top of her class.

I try to stay on top of what's happening, but I just can't watch the news. Those so-called journalists really bug me. Okay, rant over.

Thrifty1

+1K

rafael

No one deserves this kind of loss, but as I heard if it, my first reaction was to think that this is what the people in Iraq live with every day.