Reality Bombards the Mountain Paradise

Blacksburg, VA (TLS). The small town of Blacksburg, Virginia, nestled in the near-idyllic setting of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, hardly seems the setting in which the most horrific mass shooting in our nation's history would occur. This place is as near paradise as one can get in the real world.

Yet reality came swooping down on paradise like a buzzard aiming for his next meal.

The mountains of the Appalachian chain stretch from Alabama to Maine, encompassing some of the most scenic mountain ranges in the country, from the Great Smokies, to the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the Adirondacks. Not only are these hills serene, but the people who inhabit them historically have been known as being some of the most humble and hospitable people on earth.

Crime statistics to this very day prove the point. Look at most any sector of the Appalachian Mountains, and you will find some of the lowest crimes statistics in the country. This is in spite of the fact that per capita, more people own guns in these hills than just about anywhere else in America.

These gentle but rugged mountain folk live by a code that has been inbred in them for generations, a code that arises out of the strong and vibrant evangelical Christianity for which these hills are known, particularly in the South. The people have been taught that cold blooded murder is a mortal sin. Thus, their guns are used primarily for hunting and for defense against those wayward souls who have forsaken their upbringing and discarded the code.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons the massacre at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg is so strikingly shocking. This is one of the last places one would expect such a thing to happen, in spite of the fact that this small town is home to a large university with 30,000 students.

Most students and alums here report that they have always felt safe at Virginia Tech. All it took to change that, however, was one lone gunman and the shots that rang out one cold Monday morning in April.

In an ideal world no one would ever use a gun to kill innocent people. Tragedies such as Columbine and the Twin Tower attack would be foreign concepts. But then again, in an ideal world no one would die of cancer, heart disease, or auto accidents. And certainly no one would ever even think of suicide.

But who ever seriously thought that this was an ideal world to begin with?

It is easy to be lulled to sleep in idyllic settings such as Blacksburg, Virginia, or Boone, North Carolina, or Lake Placid, New York. For one brief moment in time we forget that we live in a world of imperfection where there is disease and hunger, war and murder, violence and abuse...and death.

Yes, death. The one thing we all have to face eventually.

Despite the fleeting moments of bliss in the midst of our delusion that we live in paradise, the real world is still out there with all its pain and sorrow.

It is too easy at times such as this to seek scapegoats. 'The campus police didn't do their jobs.' 'The President of Virginia Tech ought to be fired.' 'Someone should have known that Cho Seung Hui was a time-bomb waiting to explode.'

Or the classic scapegoat, 'If we could pass strict gun control measures, this would not happen.'

If all else fails, it's always the gun's fault.

Yet, at the end of the day, when all of our attempts at blame hit brick walls, we are still left with one unexplainable fact--one single, solitary young man, a deeply disturbed young man, chose to do great harm. He did it out of his own free will. And out of that free will he chose not only to do himself in but to take 32 others with him.

The fact that Cho was a South Korean is entirely irrelevant. South Koreans have been immigrating to the United States for many years, and they have proven themselves to be some of the most endearing and productive naturalized citizens we have.

Cho did not commit these heinous crimes because he was South Korean but because he was very sick and very dangerous. He chose to do evil.

This evil that lurks within the heart of humanity cannot be legislated out of existence. When it rears its ugly head, it finds a way to perpetrate mayhem, no matter what laws men have passed to prevent it.

The hope for us all lies in the code that many of the mountain folk in the Appalachians discovered well over a hundred years ago. Human beings have the capability to choose to do great harm or to do great good. Through the religious faith that has sustained generations all over the world for thousands of years, we can choose to do great good.

And when we do so, the demons are kept at bay.

Neither Virginia Tech nor Blacksburg can ever be defined by the actions of one crazed gunman in 2007. Too many years have gone by that have set the standard for this area and this university. Those years have shown that people who live by the simple code that these mountain folk hold so dear can overcome evil with good.

And that is what defines this area and this institution.