In Memoriam

Non baseball-related but too momentous to overlook... Yesterday, April 16, 2007, almost eight years to the day after the Columbine High School shootings, a lone gunman killed 32 and wounded almost as many at Virginia Tech University before taking his own life. The amount of human life wasted is staggering. These were bright, smart, eager young people, and accomplished, devoted professors, taking the chance to better their own lives and to do the same for others, senselessly gunned down in a hail of gunfire. They are martyrs and some, like Professor Liviu Librescu who blocked the doorway to his classroom with his own body and sacrificed himself to let his students escape, are heroes. There are no words to comfort the families and friends who are grieving right now.

I do not know anyone at Virginia Tech. Heck, I've never even been to Virginia. But I am a college student, and a person, and a rational, sane, empathetic human being who cares deeply when something of this magnitude rattles the world - it was not only the worst school shooting in U.S. history, but the worst mass shooting in U.S. history by a single gunman. The depravity and madness that drove someone to do this are incalculable. This person -- and I don't like using that word -- is a monster. I am not religious in the slightest, but I do hope two things. A) That there is a spiritual being somewhere who will give comfort to the bereft, and b) that there is a hell, so the shooter can burn in it.

Baseball is a wonderful, thrilling sport that I'm passionate about, but I care for human life more. The baseball news today isn't worth blogging about (Cards swept by Pirates in short two-game series, Rockies shut out at home by Giants) and I'm fairly upset right now. I advise you to check out the lyrics to P.O.D.'s wrenching, excellent song "Youth of the Nation," now more timely than ever. Download it. Do something. Above all, go on. As long as there are this many people that care in the world, we are not dead yet.

Peace to everyone. Don't forget to tell your loved ones how much you care. Hold that special someone a little closer. Hug your spouse, your sibling, your girlfriend or boyfriend, even your dog or your cat. Love is stronger than hatred and I do believe that.