what the hell is the problem?

Nikki Giovanni (an amazing poet and a personal favorite) is a distinguished professor at VT, and was noted for protecting a classroom of students from the shooter on April 16th. anyhow she spoke at the convocation, and although the speech is of course meant for the victims (both dead and alive) of VT, it is one that others could take as their own inspiration (sans the hokies/VT insert). the speech is moving, and Nikki Giovanni has a personal strength that pervades all of her work, and this one is no exception. she speaks of taking one's grief and strife and turning it into strength, which is of course easier said than done, but Giovanni makes it seem ever so possible. here's that speech:

We are Virginia Tech.

We are sad today, and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.

We are Virginia Tech.

We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly, we are brave enough to bend to cry, and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again.

We are Virginia Tech.

We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did nothing to deserve it, but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by the rogue army, neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory, neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water, neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands, being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.

We are Virginia Tech.

The Hokie Nation embraces our own and reaches out with open hearts and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong, and brave, and innocent, and unafraid. We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imaginations and the possibilities. We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and through all our sadness.

We are the Hokies.

We will prevail.

We will prevail.

We will prevail.

We are Virginia Tech.

http://www.vtmagazine.vt.edu/memorial07/convocation.html