Her words are better than mine

4.16.07
We are Virginia Tech
Nikki Giovanni, University Distinguished Professor, poet, activist

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 to stand tall tearlessly
We are brave enough then to cry and sad enough to know 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 a rougue army
neither does the baby elephant watching his community be 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 a 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 heart and hand 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 imagination and the possibility
We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears through all this sadness
We are the Hokies
We Will Prevail
We Will Prevail
We Will Prevail
We are Virginia Tech

(Thanks Amy!)