Have either of you fellas ever been to Lexington? I've been a reading a bit about Lexington lately because artist Cy Twombly was born there, in 1928 (has lived in Rome since 1957).
I've been to Virginia once, in the summer of 1980, visiting in the Alexandria area (saw Mount Vernon) and driving as far south as Charlottesville, visiting the University of Virginia campus (very lovely) and Monticello. I really wanted to go to the Williamsburg and Jamestown area, being such a history buff of the colonial era, but that was a bit out of the way at the time for my uncle (lives in Oxon Hill, Maryland).
I read the Newsweek article on the details of the tragic shooting at Virginia Tech, and it really captured the terror that those poor people must have experienced. So horrifying how a benign or neutral space like a classroom can be transformed into a nightmare zone within a split second. Our hearts go out to the victims and their families.
As an alumnus and employee of a university that was the site of one of the earliest campus massacres, I can say how important it is to try and go back to a normal routine as soon as possible. No one should forget about the tragedy (it is forever now an unfortunate component of the place's history), but the violence should not be allowed to define the place. Life should go on, hearts and minds should be cultivated, and in doing so, the slain will be honored and vindicated.
Peace to all.