What needs to be said

Thank you…

…to the police, first responders, and EMTs on-site, and the trauma staff at Montgomery Regional, NRV, Lewis-Gale, and Roanoke Memorial. Fast, courageous and skilled work saved lives.

…to the administration, for handling an unforeseeable tragedy with immense dignity, and the resumption and close of the semester and academic year with sympathy and integrity.

…to Nikki Giovanni, not just for bringing this university off the edge of despair, but for exercising restraint. Giovanni is decidedly leftist, and originally included two lines critical of the war in Iraq in her poem; she reconsidered those lines out of respect for President Bush’s presence at the university convocation. At a time in which many were rushing to turn tragedy into political points, she held back. And, by the way, the message got through if you were listening for it — which, I guess, is what makes her a poet.

…to the current students. I was as guilty of low expectations as anybody else — on Monday, I usually cringed and turned the volume down when CNN or Fox News announced another student was calling in from Blacksburg. But when I started listening, you guys were handling yourselves incredibly well — intelligent, well-spoken, and thoughtful overall, and keeping your cool under total siege. You made us all proud.

…to the local media, and to ESPN. The most respectful, and not coincidentally the most insightful, segments on CNN last Monday were those when they simply relayed coverage from Roanoke’s WDBJ7; ESPN only covered the sports angle, but did so with both sympathy and understanding of the importance of sports both to Tech specifically and major colleges in general in times of tragedy. You guys know us, you’ve been here before, and you’ll be back for things other than anniversaries and memorials. Thanks for caring, rather than just using us as props for a ratings grab.

…to the Virginia Tech Class of 2011 — the high school seniors making college decisions this month. This fall’s entering class of freshmen will be self-selecting for two character attributes: level-headedness and loyalty. Thanks, guys, for choosing to be Hokies in our darkest hour.

No thanks…

…to NBC News, for obvious reasons. And the advocacy journalism trend just adds to the weight of evidence against them. As with all the other U.S. network news divisions, when you’ve spent much of the past fifteen years producing more and more “newsmagazines” featuring stories selected by editorial interest and ratings rather than any quasi-objective standard of newsworthiness, you’ve got a long record of calculated editorial judgments and a shredded veil of journalistic objectivity. Little wonder that veil couldn’t cover your appalling misjudgment last Wednesday.

…and to most of the rest of the national media, first for demanding President Steger’s scalp before a single one of you even got to Blacksburg, then for badgering police chief Wendell Flinchum for conducting himself professionally rather than emotionally, then for creating a full-blown circus in the following days. When, as in one Roanoke Times picture I saw (taken from a distance), the former pianist from one of my choral groups couldn’t pray quietly on the opposite side of the Drillfield Tuesday without five photographers creeping to within three meters, you need to reconsider your humanity.

…to all the political pundits grinding axes before we could even bury our dead. My highest contempt is reserved for the writers using insults to the victims’ courage as shots in the culture wars; Micah handled that takedown with skill on Friday.