5.01.2007

Less than 2 weeks ago I was listening to Dan Patricks podcast as he was speaking about the VA. Tech tragedy. He was discussing that how after 9/11 and Katrina sports had been part of the healing process and that now, there just was not a way that sports could play a part in that. But he was wrong and this morning I watched a news segment with topic being how a baseball game, played on the road by the Va. Tech team was part of that process. How the opposing team, Boston College, had put VT on their caps and the words written on the wall of the field. I do not know any of those kids or their families, and yet I grieve for them. I have a daughter, 17 and stepdaughter, 22, and several other kids I have known over the years that I cannot imagine what it would be like if anything happened to any of them. What this young man did is inexcusable but I am compelled to need to know what caused him to lose control of his emotions when the rest of us contain them. I was bullied in school, shunned by the girls and ridiculed because I was awkward. I wished ill will on my tormentors, but not as revenge but just so that if they felt what they themselves were doing to me, they would stop. But I learned years later that they bullied me because they were or had experienced exactly what they were doing to me. I take pride in the knowledge that I did not follow their lead and bully those that were weaker than me as they had. As an adult, I can now see their weaknesses, and even the strongest of them had weaknesses that were exploited by someone. Physical strength is something that is given by genetics, but inner strength which is true strength, comes from within and it is more powerful than any on persons physical attributes. I know that the families of those kids and faculty will never know me, but I hope and believe that if enough of us mentally be strong for them, it will help them in the coming months and years.

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