This week my usual education commentary seems to fade into insignificance. Like many of us, I continue to be saddened by Monday’s tragic shootings at Virginia Tech. As the mother of a college senior, I am especially shaken by these events, recognizing that my son’s university could just as easily have been attacked.
Clearly, campus violence of any kind reminds us that no one is immune to the effects of wide-ranging evil. If anything, school-based shootings throughout history highlight our vulnerability. Deadly attacks in Austin, Texas in 1966, Littleton, Colorado, in 1999, and Paradise, Pennsylvania last October all underscore life’s fragility.
What should we do, then, to fight for good? After all, history has shown that no law has the power to stop evil from occurring. For starters, we must vow never to throw up our hands in surrender. As philosopher and politician Edmund Burke said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
Even in the face of certain danger, many good people in Virginia Tech’s Norris Hall did something. Professor Liviu Librescu used his body as a shield, blocking the killer’s access to his classroom while students escaped. Although he lost his life, his example will inspire countless Americans to fight the good fight. Zach Petkewicz and two other students barricaded their classroom door shut with a table, denying the gunman access to their classmates. Petkewicz described his victory over fear this way: “You have got to do something.” Surely, Edmund Burke would have agreed.
Where do we go from here? If shootings in Littleton and Paradise are any indication, our collective grief over the events in Blacksburg will serve to unite Americans powerfully in the short term. But eventually, people will return to their lives. However, we must not forget our civic and moral obligation to do “something.”
What that looks like in each life will be different. Yet one common theme ought to govern our actions. Consistent with the Scriptures and with President Bush’s injunction at Tuesday’s convocation in Blacksburg, we must not be overcome by evil, but must instead overcome evil with good. In the end, fighting for good may never enable us to make sense of past tragedy, but it will undoubtedly provide meaning and purpose to all of the days that remain.