- How should the victims be remembered?
- What should other schools do from here?
- Will this change the focus of the 2008 presidential campaigns?

Posted by Cathryn Broome in Blacksburg, Virginia:

As a student at Virginia Tech who has experienced this atrocity and has to go through the pain of a funeral today, I must say this. Indeed, no family, no school, no brother, no sister, no child, NO ONE deserves this. Yes, this is sad. Yes, we should keep the memory of all the fallen in our hearts. We welcome you to keep us in your thoughts, to console us, to pray for us. We welcome you to help us in any way you see fit. We do not, however, welcome your insults to our police force, or our university president, for those those insults hit our hearts as well. Being a Hokie is not just an empty name. Being a Hokie means embracing this unversity through good times and bad. It is a shared bond that we can't even begin to explain to others, and no one will ever fully comprehend. It is love for one another, that withstands the worst pain we could ever experience. After 4 years at this unversity, I have been transformed. I am a Hokie, tried and true and will never live down the motto, "Once a Hokie, Always a Hokie, Virginia Tech for Life." So we ask you this, stop the negativity. Stop the political talk. Stop the questioning of what COULD have been done. If you weren't here on that day, you will NEVER understand the horror we faced. If you did not lose someone you loved on Monday, while you may sympathize, you will never really feel the heartbreak that we feel, so please do not tell us that you understand, because as far as we're concerned, you don't. So take the negative energy you have been focusing on our university and inevitably us, and turn it into positive thoughts. Celebrate the 32 lives we lost. Celebrate our unviversity. Praise our HokieNation for the incredible feeling of togetherness and community we have shown the world. Throw away your political debates for now, disregard your thoughts on what could have been done, and diminish your anger and fears that this could happen to you. This didn't happen to you, this happened to us, and we surely hope it never happens again. All we want is to feel your love, while we share ours for the university and our fallen Hokie family. As Nikki Giovanni said, WE ARE VIRGINIA TECH, WE WILL PREVAIL.