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Marking Tragedy Common Today

April 15, 2008

By Rex Bowman

BLACKSBURG, Va. — Virginia Tech will mark the first anniversary of the April 16 massacre of 32 students and teachers tomorrow. Whether the ceremonies will help heal the community or open a deep wound, everyone, it seems, agrees the date must be marked.

For decades, American institutions beset by calamity have commemorated tragic events the following year, using moments of silence, candlelight vigils and somber speeches to recall heartbreak and misfortune. It wasn't always so.

Just as soldiers from the nation's earlier wars came home from battle and rarely spoke of combat, institutions once were less concerned with publicly expressing deep emotion through commemorative ceremonies, said James Pennebaker, a psychology professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

"I think, back before our more psychologically oriented time, people would move past things and they didn't think about it," Pennebaker said. "The culture has changed a tremendous amount."

Anniversary events, he added, "are what the culture expects now."

"We know that people are more expressive of their feelings today," said Kevin Reilly, an assistant professor of psychology at Ferrum College. "We are putting more emphasis on marking these events. My dad was born in 1932 and he won't talk about anything. Their attitude kind of is, 'No whining.'"

 

Today, with occasional tragedy a part of life in the United States, people take it for granted that some sort of ceremony will mark the occasion a year later, and possibly for years after that.

The year after the 1999 Columbine High School shootings that left 15 dead and about two dozen wounded, for instance, the Colorado town marked the event by reading the names of the dead as a bell was rung.

The year after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, a procession was held through New York City, and the "Gettysburg Address" was read aloud.

Pennebaker cited the response at the school where he teaches, the University of Texas, as an example of the older approach to tragedy.

In 1966, a UT architectural engineering student climbed into the campus tower and opened fire, killing 13 people and wounding about 30. Until 1996, the 30th anniversary of the shooting rampage, the university did nothing to mark the event.

Meanwhile, the handling of an event at another Texas school, Texas A&M, represents the newer approach.

In 1999, during the annual building of a giant bonfire, 12 A&M students were killed and 27 injured when the structure collapsed. On the anniversary of the event the next year, 25,000 people took part in a memorial ceremony.

 

The cultural shift that created the public expectation of anniversary events apparently was under way by 1970. In November of that year, a plane crash killed nearly the entire Marshall University football team, coaches, staff members, the flight crew and members of the community. In all, 75 people died.

Every year since then, the school has marked the occasion. The ceremonies take place at a campus fountain, where the water is shut off until the following spring.

"It's something near and dear to our hearts," Marshall spokesman Bill Bissett said of the somber ceremony. "We remember in a way that's respectful."

At Tech tomorrow, the commemoration will begin on the Drillfield at 10:30 a.m., when university President Charles W. Steger will speak and the names of gunman Seung-Hui Cho's 32 victims will be read aloud. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine will give concluding remarks.

At dusk, a candlelight vigil will be held on the Drillfield, where a memorial to the 32 was built. Classes have been canceled for the day.

"We created a day of remembrance that will be as simple, solemn and respectful as we can make it," said Jay Poole, the director of Tech's Office of Recovery and Support.

Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski said university officials have given no thought to how or whether the April 16 massacre will be marked in the future.

Pennebaker said there are benefits and drawbacks to commemorating a tragedy every year.

"It's helpful to stand back periodically and acknowledge it happened," he said. "On the other hand, people don't want to have their noses rubbed in it, either."

Contact Rex Bowman at (540) 344-3612 or rbowman@timesdispatch.com.