Va. Tech Grad's Open Salon Blog

Thirty Six Victims

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 08:04:26 -0400

If you have ever visited Virginia, hopefully you have ridden on the Blue Ridge Parkway. My family spent many summers along that road, speechless at the beauty of the Shenandoah Valley, leading into the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is a peace words cannot describe.

A few weeks ago a 27 year old disabled man and an 18 year old woman sat in his green Honda at Rock Points Overlook, mile marker 10, near Waynesboro on Afton Mountain. They had gone there to watch the sun set over the valley. It is a famous look out point on the Parkway. A man drove up behind them in a red sedan, pointed a shot gun at them and hit both of them in the back. He then shoved the man over the cliff.

As he turned to his female victim, he had a fight on his hand. She was headed right for him, grabbed and ripped his shirt, somehow giving herself time to run to the road where a passsing car stopped to pick her up. The gunman then shot once more at the fleeing car. She was not going down without a fight and in the process grabbed valuable fibers from his shirt. She even asked him why he was doing this. "Because I'm crazy," he answered.

The young man has since died. The young lady is expected to live. The alleged murderer has been caught. And if convicted, how could it be anything but murder in the first degree? Several items of evidence were recovered and from that evolved an interesting development.

Last August two people were gunned down at a popular campground close to Virginia Tech. They had arrived to set up for a religious retreat. Both were found dead and very little evidence was found. But from what was discovered, police are theorizing the same man arrested for the Afton Mountain attack also allegedly killed the two students in Blacksburg. The two locations are hundreds of miles apart but I trust the police to link the three murders with solid evidence.

There may be tragic victory in death after all. If it turns out this man did kill the two Tech campers last year, that will leave only one student's killer at large. It is the person with whom the young lady disappeared in Charlottesville who remains uncaught. The victim had gone with friends from Blacksburg to Charlottesville for a concert and her remains were found a few months ago.

The victim on the Blue Ridge Parkway lost a dear friend that day but she gained courage she probably never dreamed she had. In defense of him and her, she struck back at a man with a shotgun. She probably figured if she had to die, she'd go down fighting. Instead, she lived to provide valuable information.

I thought about all this and what it meant yesterday, the third anniversary of the Virginia Tech massacre. It served to remind me that 32 people were murdered that day. Later, one was inexplicably murdered a year ago in January by her boyfriend in a cafe on campus. But it is April 16 that will be etched in our minds forever. Just let us not forget any of the 36 victims of my university that have been murdered in less than 3 years.

My Boys of Summer

Tue, 6 Apr 2010 12:04:49 -0400

One of my favorite Spring rituals began yesterday. Baseball season officially opened for most teams with the Boston Red Sox coming from behind to beat those New York Yankees in front of a crowd of 37,440. It's only right that the season opened with these two teams playing each other in an ongoing rivalry that usually leaves my team out of contention for the American League East division.

It is my team that is named after a bird. A bird with orange tones, gray to brown wings, gray bill and dark eyes. It has a penchant for sweet nectar and caterpillars and is found high in trees. It is the Baltimore Oriole. Last year I saw one all summer.

The Orioles as a baseball team are somewhat like their namesake. They don't attract a lot of attention anymore. They can be heard more often than seen. On Fridays they wear their black jerseys and seem to look even more like real Baltimore Orioles.

There are a lot of Orioles fans in this part of Virginia, so I don't feel so alone. Not as I did years ago when I lived in California and went to see the then California Angels play my team. I was actually told to "shut up." I prefer to call it being shushed. At any rate, I'd never been shushed at a sports venue before and never have since. Those people in Orange County take their team much too seriously. It feels good to be back in Birdland.

In honor of their opening game later tonight in Tampa Bay, I'm wearing my black cargo shorts and my orange retro Oriole t-shirt with the number 5 and "Robinson" on the back. For those of you who remember, Brooks Robinson was the greatest 3rd baseman ever, bar none; better than Aurelio Rodriguez and Mike Schmidt combined. How appropriate part of Brooks' name would be that of a bird.

Later this summer, I will go see my Orioles play the Yankees on June 10, admittedly the best team in baseball right now. But for one brief, shining evening, the tables will be turned as I am enamored with Luke Scott, Brian Roberts, Nick Markakis and my other boys of summer in Birdland.

Baby, He Was Born to Run

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 13:03:56 -0400

When one thinks of sports, he usually pictures humans. Our most popular past times and heroes involve very human characters. But what if there was an animal that had more heart and was more of a hero than most other humans? There was.

On March 30, 1970, a colt was born at the Meadow Stables in Caroline County, VA. With three white feet, a blaze, and thoroughbred blood, he had potential. He was to become certainly the most exciting horse so far in my lifetime. Being a Virginia native, he received apt local attention when, at 2, he won horse of the year, beating out his stable mate, Riva Ridge, who had won the 1972 Kentucky Derby and the Belmont.

1973 was his year. He made the covers of Time, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated the same week. I had never been a racing fan but I recall that spring well as I watched each race. Seeing his mere presence on screen was captivating, and I joined the entire nation in rooting for this huge chestnut red horse. He was regal and fast and when the gates flew open, he tore with such speed that his trainer feared he would die on the track.

His records at the Derby and Belmont still stand. His finest performance was last in the Triple Crown that year. He won the 1 1/2 mile race by 31 lengths in 2:24, the fastest ever by any horse on any track in the world.

As I watched him win his crown, I remember letting out a yell that startled my mother. "HE DID IT!" I exclaimed. The CBS announcer Chic Anderson was practically yelling in the microphone, that he was "... moving like a tremendous machine." To see a horse win by 31 lengths is a beautiful thing.

In all, he won 16 races out of the 21 he ran. He was retired to stud in Paris, KY, where he remained a much visited celebrity, michievous, proud, and a ham for the camera.

He was euthanized October 4, 1989 due to laminitis. The necropsy showed his heart was naturally larger than that of other horses his size. His heart was not enlarged, it was just bigger, and could pump more oxygen into his body. I sometimes think back to my young teen years, suddenly excited by a horse that ran like a locomotive. A new movie is being made about his life, due out in October, 2010. That's how large he and his heart were.

Since today is his birthday and you may not know the name, Happy Birthday, Secretariat.

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SOURCE: Richmond Times Dispatch , 3/30/10, Bill Millsaps, pp C-1&6.

This End Up

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:03:54 -0400

St. Patrick's Day just passed and President Obama noted that the most famous of us American Irish, Ted Kennedy, was missing for the first time in a long series of that Celtic date. I am currently reading True Compass, his autobiography. Like his brother Jack, he loved the sea, and during his last months, he spent many days sailing.

I was never a fan of Ted Kennedy but he righfully deserves most of the credit for a cause he believed in, fought for, and inspired many of us to support, including me. As I read the words of this man who knew he was dying, I see the passion he held for health care for all. An American right in his opinion with no bearing on one's social status or income. For that, I will always respect him. He pushed his dream to the forefront and it is because of his compassion that Congress will probably vote on this all important first step of legislation to help those who are uninsured or uninsurable.

I found it appropriate to be reading his book this week. Though unplanned, it is during the end of the journey that began last year to pass health care reform. It occurred to me that this may be the last column I write trying to convince you that the bill should pass. By next week, the vote will probably have been cast. It's not a perfect piece of legislation. But it is something in the right direction. Ted Kennedy would not see it as the end all to fix a broken, unfair system. He would see it as a beginning.

We need a new beginning of compassion and understanding. I saw a news clip this week of a protest rally over the legislation. A man with Parkinson's Disease sat with a sign in his lap as angry protesters against the bill surrounded him. Closer they moved, screaming at him, some actually bending over him. Then some of these angry people threw money on the ground in mockery. I was sickened by their inhumane behavior. Is this what opposition has become? That type of sick reaction to a peaceful man who needs medical care has to end. And those leading the opposition need to insist their minions stop the abuse.

We are better than that mob. Ted Kennedy, as much as I disagreed with him, was better. Let's begin more equal health care and let me end writing my opinions on the legislation that I have hammered home for months.

I'll Stay and Fight For You

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:03:52 -0500

We seem mighty close to having a health care bill the President can sign by next week. However, I take nothing for granted and will believe it when the ink is dry. It has been one muddy, uphill battle with those in opposition at times screaming in our faces. Yelling down their representatives at town hall meetings. They didn't want answers. Thier main pupose was to disrupt and that they did.

It was during the fall when I felt my bleakest, my least powerful, afraid any bill would go down to defeat. Yet something inside me made me keep going.

And then the end of the year occurred. Health premiums shot up by double digit percentages. Deductibles were out of reach. Drug formularies changed to cover fewer drugs and/or fewer doses. Anthem had the nerve to try to raise some of its premiums in California 39%. Suddenly the people screamed at them and they backed down until May, 2010.

We are so close, let's sign this bill and move on. Improve it. Make it better. But sign the damn bill, as Ed Schultz said on MSNBC.

I don't care about government chamber procedure or snappy phrases of importance. Just sign it.

I promised even though I have decent coverage now, I will not stop fighting until all American citizens have the same coverage. You can take it to the bank. I have not forgotten you. I promise to fight even harder now that we are so close. Don't give up. Fight with me. Let's try to get 9 more votes for a public option. If we can't, still demand signature on the bill we have.

We will get there from here. I am rekindled with fight I didn't think I had in me. Congressmen and Senators are bailing at an alarming rate. As if to say, "O.K., I'll vote for it but then I'm going home."

Don't worry. I'll stay and fight for you.