Texas and Virginia: A Bloodied Window Into Changes in American Public Life (Section I VIOLENCE AND Emotion) (Essay‪)‬

"Texans ... hoped and prayed they never would share [their] emotion with another campus ... Now, though, there's one more institution to add to the list of places we never again can consider safe. ... No one can possibly expect the grief to subside soon; it will take a lifetime to put April 16, 2007, into perspective. ... Surely there is an extra prayer being sent from Texans who recall their grief from another dark day many years ago." (1) The killings at Virginia Tech in April, 2007, had a deep echo at the University of Texas, where the first modern university massacre in the United States had occurred in August 1966 (first and, until 2007, largest). Recollections of the earlier killings were inevitable, prompting particularly heartfelt expressions of sympathy from Austin for those involved in the Virginia tragedy. What was additionally intriguing, however, was the sense, largely on the part of victims' families, that the Texas affair had never been properly handled emotionally; that grief still existed that had not found adequate expression. This helped prompt the deep condolences to those linked to the 2007 victims, but it also evinced a current of frustration that was surprisingly close to the surface. Forty years of separation is not too long to inhibit active connection--though as we will see, it's also plenty of time for significant change in culture and policy.