Huskie for Hokies

For a brief moment, I want to get all sentimental and stuff...

Last year, the entire country was moved by the spirit of the students and community of Virginia Tech University in how they dealt with the aftermath of a horrible tragedy on their campus. Ten days ago, a similar tragedy fell upon my alma mater of Northern Illinois University, and although the amount of people killed were far fewer than those who were lost at Virginia Tech, it is something that the students and community of NIU will never get over.

That is why I find it so moving that so many people associated with Virginia Tech have gone out of their way to convey their support to NIU, now that the two schools sadly share a common challenge. They are a larger school than NIU, far more prominent nationally, and have certainly seen more success than the Huskies in the area of athletics. Nonetheless, Virginia Tech has acted in so many ways over these past few sad days to support NIU and I am sure that is really appreciated with anyone associated with the school, past and present. At least one survivor of the VT shooting has made a trip to DeKalb in order to help counsel NIU students. Last night, at the VT basketball game, the theme was "Hokies for Huskies" and the fans of Virginia Tech wore the NIU colors of red and black and held up signs in solidarity with a grieving school in the Midwest.

It is acts of compassion such as that which leave no doubt about what a great country this is and how decent the people of it are.

I admired their school before, and certainly a great deal since they captured the heart of the nation several months back, but now, I plan to be a Virginia Tech Hokies fan for life.