Nikki Giovanni delivered the Convocation address at VT today. I just wanted to express great appreciation for the manner in which she framed the tradegy of Monday. Her words put life and tragedy on a global scale truly in perspective. An earthquake here. A bombing there. A shooting here. We must come together as one humanity. One humanity that loves and cares for another and understands we are so much more alike than we are different.

Her words...
"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 heart 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."