Responding To VA Tech

I don't mean to be so slow on this topic, but I've thought a great deal about this.

How do you deal with these issues with your crew?

When 9/11 happened I was doing YM in inner-city Boston. We had scheduled a jr high dance for that evening (boy. was. I. excited.). I called Fr Tom, who was then the director of Youth Ministry for the Archdiocese-what do I do?

I ended up canceling the dance, though the kids still came, expecting a dance. It was a very weird evening and I wasn't sure what to do with them. We circled up and I asked them some questions-do they have family in NYC, what are they thinking, what was going on with them...

And they were squirly as all get out. Some wanted to talk, some wanted to just start the dance, some - well, were just spastic junior high kids that didn't know up from down.

Recently I read a post on a blog that I can't remember (tell me if you know) and the mother was asking her son about Virginia tech. She was a little baffled that he and his friends continued playing video games and relaxing. He responded (paraphrasing) that he couldn't be there, he couldn't do anything but pray, so he'd said a prayer and it was as much as he could offer.

Lest you think he was unfeeling, I wonder if some kids respond that way. It's not real until it happens to me, or you. Or my school, or to my friends. It's just simply not real.

At the same time, it sometimes seem that insanity like this is ... common. And that is sad.

I found this from the Source. I like a lot of their material. It is an interview from a youth pastor who had students at Columbine High School and went through that horror 8 years ago. He has some good insights and advice.

Virgina Tech

May the souls of the faithful departed
Through the mercy of God
Rest In Peace