"We are the Hokies. We will prevail. We will prevail. We will prevail. We are Virginia Tech."

These are the words of Yolanda Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni, a poetry professor at Virginia Tech spoken at the convocation for the killed yesterday.

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"In this time of anguish, I hope you know that people all over this country are thinking about you and asking God to provide comfort for all who have been affected," said Mr. Bush. He invoked the 12th chapter of St. Paul's letter to the early Christian church at Rome: "Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

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Helle Dale discusses the evil that men do:

Words seem so very inadequate, but they are unfortunately often all we have to express the grief, outrage and sympathy that well up when tragedies like Monday's massacre at Virginia Tech strike. The heart just goes out to the students and their parents, who sustained the worst loss, the greatest pain that can hit a human being. The tragedy that struck the parents of the Virginia Tech students is the tragedy of the entire nation.
The insane shooting spree cut short the lives of more than 30 people, most of them young promising people, who were surely expecting nothing but an ordinary day of classes and undoubtedly looking forward to the end of the term. The boundless energy, potential, sense of fun and affection that characterize the time of life when young people get ready to face the world on their own, will in this case be no more than the memories that their families and friends recall over and over.
At a time when the United States is at war and deeply engaged militarily in Iraq, a comparison with the carnage that is a daily fact in the lives of Iraqi citizens presents itself. Only a few days ago, 60 people were killed when suicide bombers detonated explosive devices at a bus stop in Baghdad. Imagine our horror if the carnage at Virginia Tech were something that repeated itself in American cities day after day.
In such circumstances of tragic loss, it is natural to want to assign blame. We are creatures not just of emotion, but also of intellect that in the interest of finding meaning demands fairness and justice.
Unfortunately, in Virginia as in Baghdad, it often happens that the killer deprives his surviving victims, be they the wounded or the bereaved, of the satisfaction of seeing justice done. Mass murderers like the gunman at Virginia Tech tend to take their own lives rather than face the consequences of their actions. This obviously is also true of suicide bombers.
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What is clear though -- by definition -- is that a total lack of appreciation for human life is at work here, a lack of respect for the suffering of others. Whoever can kill on such a scale has to be entirely wrapped up in his personal ego, an ego void of the higher qualities of empathy, conscience and compassion.
Deprived of this still inadequate source of comfort that justice provides us, we are left to grasp at others to blame....
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As the nation grieves so many young lives being lost, it crucial that we recall who the real culprits are, those for whom fellow human lives mean absolutely nothing as they take their anger out on the world.
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It is not surprising to see many attempt to attach themselves to this ugliness for political purposes. Those who oppose the second amendment see it as vindication for their point of view. Some try to rationalize attacks on the President for the acts of others and attach significance to insignificant thinks like the number of bullets held by the magazine of the murder weapons. I think the political opportunist would do their thing regardless of whether the killer could have been brought to justice. In the end, he gave himself the death penalty and no one deserved it more.